Opinion

10/02/2021

Open Position

Irina Smirnova, Deputy of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, shares her thoughts on the problems of school education, the rights of teachers, the transparency and accountability of the state budget, and how the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan began to formulate its position in civil society
15/02/2019

Economist Kuanysh Onalbayev, “Many people have no clue that they could know about the budget.”

The Program Open Budget Fellowship will held for the third time in 2019 with the support of the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan. We have spoken to the alumnus of the first intake of the program, and now its full-fledged trainer Kuanysh Onalbayev. In an interview, he told about how the training works, what researchers encounter and how transparent budgets in Kazakhstan are.
18/01/2019

Callum Voge, Project Syndicate: “To us, it is important not only to deliver the content but also broadcast opinions from Central Asia.”

The non-governmental organization Project Syndicate is the largest media network of columnists in the world, which collaborates with leading experts in various areas: from politics to medicine. Among their authors there are Nobel laureates and renowned politicians. Currently the project is expanding and it is planned to attract authors and media partners from Central Asia to the network. We had an opportunity to speak to Global Relations Manager Callum Voge and pose the questions of concern.  
10/12/2018

Nargiz Shukenova, producer of the Clique Film Festival: “In my opinion, a demand for Central Asia has formed in various areas of culture.”

This year the team of the first independent amateur film festival Clique holds a documentary competition of Central Asia. This project evolved from the program of the main festival Clique.Doc, which consisted of documentary films. In an interview, producer of two projects Nargiz Shukenova told about the reason why conceptualization of Central Asia is in the centre of documentarians’ attention
25/09/2018

How Initiatives of Almaty Citizens Evolve into Ongoing City Projects

In 2016-2017, the “New Civil Initiatives” Program of the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan supported 14 city projects conceived by researchers, creative citizens and specialists. The projects were aimed at creating an amiable city environment, whether it is research on availability of parking facilities of the outskirts of Almaty or a theatre platform in the “Tastak” neighbourhood.