Short Abstract:

This proposed roundtable focuses on financial instruments and fiscal policies adopted at central and subnational levels of government that seek to improve the quality of public services and outcomes in Central Asia.

Long Abstract:

In the past several years, all Central Asian countries experienced major shifts. While the entire region’s political and socio-economic systems are still emerging, there are great variations in policy and in how governments approach the delivery of their services. In the context of recent social and political shifts in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, including the collapse of a governing regime in Afghanistan, presidential power transfers in Kazakhstan (gradual, but not without its controversies), Kyrgyzstan (yet another one), and Turkmenistan (sudden, but expected), Central Asian countries are nevertheless undertaking significant reforms to improve the quality of governance. This proposed roundtable focuses on financial instruments and fiscal policies adopted at central and subnational levels of government that seek to improve the quality of public services and outcomes.

The region is increasingly attracting more international and development communities’ funds and representation, which often come with compliance and accountability roadmaps and conditions. Moreover, governments are setting ambitious goals and committing to objectives that are globally relevant-- gender equality and inclusiveness, bottom-up stakeholder participation and citizens’ budgets, competitive resource use and local governance quality, and financial accountability and sustainability.

Researchers and practitioners alike are searching for ways to select and conduct evidence-based policy making solutions in the region. Specifically, experienced research centers such as the Korea Development Institute have years of experience and evidence on how to adopt and implement effective fiscal policy reforms at central and subnational levels. This experience has been recently ‘exported’ to places like Mongolia and Iraqi Kurdistan. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have both adopted reforms that give more flexibility to resource allocation and access to financial products at the subnational levels. The former has largely done this in a laissez faire, decentralized manner, while the latter has invested significantly in capacity building at the mahalla level of governance in a top-down, coordinated manner. This panel of researchers and government policy makers discusses various ways in which research networks can inform the scholarship and practice of improving governance quality in Central Asia.