Kazakhstan’s Agency for International Development, or KazAID, is the official development assistance agency of Kazakhstan. Established in December 2020, KazAID aims to promote sustainable development through technical assistance, capacity building, and other forms of aid to developing countries with a focus on the region of Central Asia.

KazAID began to work in full mode in June 2021, with sectoral priorities being education, health and sanitation, environmental protection and climate change, sustainable use of natural resources, digitalization, agriculture, gender equality, support for entrepreneurship, good governance. In an interview with Kazinform, KazAID Chairman Arken Arystanov spoke about the agency’s mission, objectives and challenges it faces in the coming years.

You have recently been appointed to the position of Chairman of the Board of KazAID. Could you tell us about your vision of the tasks facing the agency and its mission?

We are at the initial stage of our development, and in this context, it is extremely important to use project management and a systematic approach to problem-solving.

First of all, we are going to review our development strategy. We see our mission not only in providing technical assistance, but also in coordinating the efforts of all stakeholders to address key regional issues such as access to clean water, sanitation, cross-border trade, responsible consumption and production. Our goal is to become a recognized leader among international development agencies in the region and become a participant in the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development by 2024.

We are building a compact team of professionals with relevant backgrounds, some of whom have already had experience working abroad. They are young, ambitious, and eager to contribute to the public good.

Despite our limited resources, we have a clear agenda and the full support of the President and the government, which I am confident will help us achieve our goals.

What strategic directions does the agency have for the next three years?

Given our current development plan, we are developing several key programs. In particular, I would like to mention the Dostyk program aimed at attracting young leaders from Central Asian countries. Over the next two years, this program will focus on young people from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan who want to gain knowledge and experience in digitalization, 21st century medicine, journalism and diplomacy in today's geopolitical environment.

We aim to gather talented young people to participate in international forums held in Kazakhstan and provide them with the opportunity to attend master classes with renowned experts and professionals in their fields. KazAID covers all the expenses of the program participants and plans to organize five to six such events a year.

As you know, the availability of quality medical care in remote villages of our region is an acute problem. In this regard, we propose a project with the conditional name Avicenna, which provides grants for medical students who will work in remote villages of their countries, primarily in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, after the completion of the program.

In today's world, telemedicine is becoming more and more popular, especially for those settlements remote from the center. The same situation is in a number of countries of Central Asia where there is a shortage of professional doctors. In this regard, we propose a project Telemedicine, in which KazAID will coordinate the interaction of Kazakhstan’s medical institutions and doctors with their colleagues from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and also, if necessary, provide technical means of communication.

Overall, our strategic roadmap for the next three years includes the development and implementation of programs aimed at supporting youth and improving access to education, medical care and modern technologies in Central Asia. We also plan to strengthen regional cooperation and help solve urgent problems facing the countries of the region.

What other areas besides technical assistance do you plan to develop?

Of course, our activities are not limited to technical assistance. We also strive to become a center of expertise in various sectors. For example, among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, I would like to highlight the problem of access to clean water and sanitation in Central Asia. In this area, the agency can play two roles: on the one hand, we can provide concrete assistance in the form of equipment for certain localities, and on the other hand, we can conduct analytical research and contribute to solving regional water management problems by organizing conferences of specialists, finding investors among development institutions and international financial institutions.

Theoretically, Central Asian countries should not experience significant water shortages because they have sufficient water resources. In comparison, the Middle East and North Africa have much smaller water reserves. However, water resources in the region are unevenly distributed, and the upstream and downstream countries face different problems. Upper-basin countries possess the main water resources, while lower-basin countries need more water for irrigation. In addition, climate change threatens to significantly reduce water supplies, exacerbating the need to rethink water use.

According to experts, Central Asia is characterized by an insufficiently responsible attitude to the use of water resources, since the countries of the region consume more water per capita and per dollar of GDP than any other region of the world. For example, the water consumption of a city in Central Asia is comparable to that of the city of Chicago, which has a much larger population.

Therefore, the countries of the region need to join forces and work on joint solutions to problems such as water management and transport logistics. Through inter-state cooperation and mutual learning, countries can use their achievements as examples for others and jointly develop strategies for sustainable development in the region.

Trade-offs and cooperation are key to successful problem-solving in the Central Asian region. This is the only way to ensure equitable and efficient distribution of water resources and to reach agreements on other strategically important issues that affect the well-being and sustainable development of all countries in the region.

Central Asia has a huge potential for attracting investments, and our task is to find investors for implementation of regional projects that contribute to economic development of the whole region. Based on experience of past conflicts related to water and land resources, we realize importance of finding compromises and applying modern technologies for more rational and efficient water use.

In addition, the agency is involved in accounting and monitoring official development assistance (ODA) provided by Kazakhstan. In this direction we cooperate with the OECD DAC statistics department, which is the main source of information on assistance provided by the countries.

We also plan to organize seminars, round tables and other events on this topic, working with the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), the World Bank and other donors.

In general, our activities are aimed at expanding the agency's impact areas, active cooperation with international organizations and donor countries, as well as at solving urgent problems in Central Asia.

How is the geography of recipient countries determined?

The geography of the recipient countries is determined taking into account several factors: the social and economic connectivity of partner countries with Kazakhstan, the potential for the development of mutually beneficial cooperation and the strategic interests of Kazakhstan.

At the moment, Central Asian countries are a priority for us, as the importance of developing regional cooperation has increased manifold, especially in the light of recent geopolitical events. However, this does not exclude the possibility of cooperation with other countries, as Kazakhstan's ODA develops.

How does KazAID cooperate with other organizations and stakeholders, both within Kazakhstan and abroad?

KazAID is an organization that attaches great importance to cooperation with other organizations and stakeholders, both within Kazakhstan and internationally.

In the two years of its existence, the agency has concluded memorandums of understanding with leading donor agencies such as MASHAV (Israel), USAID (US), AECID (Spain), TIKA (Türkiye), KOICA (South Korea), JICA (Japan), and local organizations - Academy of Public Administration under the President of Kazakhstan, International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia and the International Trade Center. This allows KazAID to effectively coordinate its efforts with other organizations and ensure the most effective use of resources in achieving common goals and objectives.

How does KazAID measure the performance of its projects and ensure accountability to stakeholders?

The agency adheres to strict procedures for monitoring and evaluating performance against objectives. We use a project-based approach in the implementation of our activities, which allows us to track task performance and measure progress in project implementation. Specific metrics and performance indicators are established for each project and are regularly checked and analyzed. This is primarily the satisfaction of our participants, the evaluation of the usefulness of certain workshops. Exchange of experience and knowledge, the opportunity to put into practice the acquired knowledge. If any problems are identified, measures are taken to eliminate them.

On a quarterly basis we submit a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the activities carried out. In addition, we publish an annual report, which will be published on our website.

In your opinion, what are some of the biggest challenges facing the development of Kazakhstan's ODA system, and how is KazAID addressing these challenges?

In general, KazAID acts as an aid coordinator to ensure efficient use of resources and achieve optimal results for the development of Kazakhstan and the region as a whole. Of course, there are problems, but all of them are solvable, and by working together we can achieve our goals in the noble mission of providing development assistance to the countries of our region.

One of the most pressing challenges is the low level of public awareness of the objectives and mechanisms of ODA. Therefore, the agency is trying to raise people's awareness through trainings, seminars and media campaigns.

In addition, existing ODA flows are mainly directed to mandatory and voluntary contributions to international organizations under the auspices of the UN for development. However, the volume of these contributions is too small and distributed among more than 90 organizations, which raises questions about their effectiveness. As the ODA operator, KazAID should analyze all available information and make ODA flows more efficient.

To solve these problems, it will have to review existing strategies and partnerships with international organizations. This will allow focusing on key areas of development, where assistance will be most tangible and produce the best results.

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