Kyrgyzstan Evaluations
 | Final Evaluation – Prevention of Violent Extremism in Central Asian Countries Through Strengthening Social Cohesion Among Labour Migrants, Returnees – June 2022The Prevention of Violent Extremism in Central Asian Countries Through Strengthening Social Cohesion Among Labour Migrants, Returnees, and their Families Project was implemented by Search for Common Group (Search) and its partners in three countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan) from February 2020 to June 2022. It had two main components. Within the first component, the project aimed at enhancing the social cohesion and resilience of labour migrants to violent extremism (VE) by capacitating key state and non-state actors. The second component of the project focused on rehabilitation and reintegration mechanisms for returnees from conflict zones by capacitating key actors in case analysis, management, and monitoring at the individual and community levels. Rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees from the conflict zones is a recent phenomenon in Central Asia. The project created a unique opportunity for Central Asian countries to exchange their knowledge and best practices in this field. The final evaluation has identified the project interventions as relevant to the context of government and civil society efforts in providing rehabilitation and reintegration support to returnees and working on the issues of labour migrants. |
| Final Evaluation – Enabling Central Asians to Protect Religious Freedom as a Preventative Approach to Addressing Violent Extremism – March 2022The project Enabling Central Asians to Protect Religious Freedom as a Preventative Approach to Addressing Violent Extremism was implemented in four Central Asia countries: Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. The project was funded by DRL. This report presents the evaluation findings of the project Protect to Prevent: Enabling Central Asians to Protect Religious Freedom as a Preventative Approach to Addressing Violent Extremism implemented by the Search for Common Ground (Search) Central Asia, in partnership with IDEA Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan), Center for Human Rights Protection Kylym Shamy (Kyrgyzstan), Marifatnoki (Tajikistan) and Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law (Kazakhstan). The project has applied a dual level approach to effectively respond to violent extremism in a whole-of-society manner; targeting both state and inter-state level, and community level in 6 target locations, two in each country: Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The action’s overall aim was to prevent radicalization that leads to violence by strengthening society’s capacity (state and non-state actors) to reduce discrimination on religious grounds in Central Asia. The evaluation was performed by an independent evaluator between February-April 2022 using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods and on principles of action research. The analysis consisted of a review of project related documents and external policy and research papers related to religious radicalization in four target countries. |
| Final Evaluation – TaasirLink: Citizen Narrative Campaign in Kyrgyzstan – March 2021In response to the growing problem of radicalization and recruitment through social media, Search for Common Ground (Search) Kyrgyzstan implemented a project called “TaasirLink: Citizen Narrative Campaign” aimed at increasing resilience among youth at risk of radicalization (aged 14-36) and recruitment through implementing counter-messaging campaigns built on positive deviance approach of behavioral and attitude change involving network influencers identified via social network analysis. The project supported by the Global Engagement Center (GEC) under State Department. The project involved positive role models – celebrities, opinion leaders, content creators, and local influencers in the community to counter the narratives of violent extremism among youth. Search has run online and offline public awareness campaigns that resonated with targeted communities at risk of radicalization and recruitment, and positively affected them. |
| Final Evaluation – #JashStan: Supporting the Next Wave of Youth Peace Leaders in KyrgyzstanThis is a final evaluation of the JashStan: Youth as Agents of Peace and Stability in Kyrgyzstan project that Search Kyrgyzstan implemented with the financial support of the UNPBF. Search implemented Phase II of JashStan from 2018-2020 and aimed to empower youth and involve them in decision-making processes, create an enabling environment for the at-risk youth, solve the issues and grievances youth experienced, and deter youth from possible radicalization. The vast majority of JashStan participants who took part in the survey, reported that before their participation in the project they were personally affected by physical fights, and 49% were personally affected by bullying, racketeering and extortion. Additionally, the project provided opportunities for at-risk youth to increase knowledge on how to mobilize, voice their grievances, and implement local initiatives. Separate sessions for parents/caregivers proved successful in terms of turnout and interest. The sessions were integrated into the second phase of JashStan based on the lessons learned from the first phase. |
| Final Evaluation Report – TaasirLink: Citizens Narrative Campaign – March 2020This is the final external evaluation report of the project “TaasirLink: Citizens Narrative Campaign”” in Kyrgyzstan. The project was implemented January to December 2020. TaasirLink aimed to increase resilience among youth at risk of radicalization and recruitment by implementing online and offline counter-messaging campaigns built on the positive deviance approach of behavioral and attitude change involving influencers identified through a social network analysis. The final evaluation found that the campaigns successfully reached and resonated with the targeted communities and positively affected them. The majority of participants also reported that they put in practice the acquired knowledge, which indicates a high effectiveness of the information campaign. |
| Final Evaluation – #JashStan: Youth as Agents of Peace and Stability in Kyrgyzstan – January 2019This is the final external evaluation report of the Project “Jashtan – Youth as Agents of Peace and Stability in Kyrgyzstan. The project was funded by UN Peacebuilding Find (UNPBF) and was implemented during April 2017 until January 2019. Kyrgyzstan is experiencing the challenges of radicalization of its society over the last few years and youth, especially from hard to reach areas and marginalized communities, have been the involving themselves radical groups. Realizing this challenge and youth’s vulnerability, the project supports young women and men from marginalized backgrounds in becoming local promoters of the UN UNSCR 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security. It recognizes that young people have the power to positively transform violent conflicts if there are correct mechanisms in place that can enable youth to participate meaningfully in peace-building processes and devise resolutions. The project aimed to reduce community-based conflicts and radicalization by engaging young people from highly conflict-prone communities, and putting them in leadership positions to become catalysts for peace in Kyrgyzstan. The evaluation found that 85% of the surveyed participants reported of increased knowledge and skills in peacebuilding and conflict resolution. 40% participants said that the project enabled them to participate in other similar youth-led projects. Furthermore, they recounted increased engagement in local decision-making processes. Similarly, 45% of surveyed participants reported that they observed decline in conflicts and/or violent acts in target areas and a decline in frequency of the conflict with the involvement of youth. |
 | Final Evaluation: Social Media for Deradicalization in Kyrgyzstan: A model for Central AsiaThe report presents the findings of the final external evaluation of the pilot project ‘Social Media for De-radicalization in Kyrgyzstan: A Model for Central Asia’ implemented by Search for Common Ground (Search) in Kyrgyzstan. The project was completed in October 2017. The project was financed by the US Department of State – Bureau of Counterterrorism. The project aimed at providing online social media platforms for youth to express their grievances in constructive ways and promoting diversity and pluralism as an alternative to violent extremism. It developed messaging campaign products and ran a social media campaign involving media experts (professional campaign); awarded grants to young people for designing counter-messaging initiatives/events and spreading them through social media outlets (participatory campaign). Within the professional campaign, three videos were produced in three languages (Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Russian), 22 pictures (motivators) with the text of hadiths from the Koran were created by the media production company, and 5 infographics were developed by the youth coordinator. The professional media campaign was run on social media to test relevance and acceptance among social media users in Kyrgyzstan. The participatory campaign was conducted by young people among their peers in eight districts that are highly vulnerable to recruitment. The evaluation found that the project was highly relevant to the current conflict context of Kyrgyzstan and increased awareness and understanding of the impact of violent extremism among young people in Kyrgyzstan. |