II Republican Majilis of Public Councils held in Astana

On February 8, 2019, the II Republican Majilis of Public Councils, conducted by the Ministry of Public Development of Kazakhstan together with the Civil Alliance of Kazakhstan, started its work in Astana.

The aim of the Majilis is to exchange good practices and formulate recommendations for improving the activities of public councils, as well as to define mechanisms and directions for further cooperation between public councils and state bodies.

During the work of the Majilis, the participants considered the main provisions of the draft law on public councils, issues of forming a system of evaluation of their activities, as well as prospects for their further development.

The Republican Majilis continued with panel discussions and training seminars-trainings on carrying out public expertise, monitoring, as well as involving citizens in discussion and decision-making through participation in public hearings.

The event was attended by representatives of public councils, expert community, NGOs, heads of state bodies and international organizations, more than 300 delegates.

As a result of the event, a resolution was adopted with concrete decisions and recommendations of the participants to improve the further activities of public councils.

We remind that public councils, as a form of dialogue between the state and civil society, were created in 2016 within the framework of the implementation of the National Plan "100 concrete steps."

These non-state institutes, represent advisory and consultative, supervisory bodies which are urged to increase transparency of adoption of the state decisions.

Kazakhstan has 229 public councils at the national and local levels (16 at the national level and 213 at the regional level). 3,907 people participate in the work of the public councils.

The public councils considered more than 12,000 draft normative legal acts concerning the rights, freedoms and obligations of citizens. 1,069 public hearings on the quality of public services and others were organized, and the reports of 213 governors of various levels, 16 heads of central and more than 1,300 local state bodies were heard.