OREANDA-NEWS. On 15 June 2009 the World Bank Country Office in Kazakhstan announced results of the grant competition under the Civil Society Social Development Fund (formerly known as World Bank Small Grants Program, further on - CSF) for the total amount of USD 45,000 for nonprofit, nongovernmental, nonacademic organizations of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The World Bank received 76 applications from urban and rural non-profit organizations working all over Kazakhstan to address the development issues. Selection of the winning projects was performed in accordance with the World Bank policies and was concluded by the Grant Committee meeting where 9 projects were approved. Size of an individual grant varied from USD 2,400 to USD 5,800.

NGO's from Ust-Kamenogorsk, Atbasar, Astana, Karaganda, Kyzylorda, Taldykorgan, Shymkent and Kostanai are among winners. Selected projects are aimed at enhancing social activity among rural population, promoting interests of vulnerable groups of population, including disabled, children, youth; and facilitating their participation in public hearings devoted to introducing changes and amendments in the respective legislation, engagement of population in resolution of environmental issues, building capacity of civil society organizations in leveraging funds for potential projects, enhancing role of women in rural self-governance, building capacity of youth, rural and young NGOs in tackling social issues.

The Civil Society Social Development Fund, which operated as the WB Small Grants program till 2007, was created in 1983 to promote dialogue and information dissemination on the topic of international development via open discussions beyond the World Bank operations. While working in Kazakhstan from 1998 to 2008 eleven grant competitions were conducted under which the CSF has supported 74 projects for the total amount of USD  333,000.