27/08/2026
Collaboration is already there. The challenge is turning it into sustained collective action.
Yesterday, our team had the pleasure of presenting the findings of the baseline study for the Amplify project, implemented by Search for Common Ground, to Search and the European Commission.
The study explored how civil society organisations, communities and self-governance bodies collaborate around local development challenges in Kyrgyzstan. It covered 12 municipalities across Batken, Osh and Issyk-Kul, combining a survey of 372 respondents with focus group discussions and key informant interviews.
One of the most interesting findings was that the foundations for collaboration are already quite strong. Stakeholders recognise the value of working together, relationships are generally positive, and willingness to collaborate often exceeds existing levels of trust.
But the study also revealed an important gap: actors may be willing to work together, yet they do not always have a shared understanding of local priorities or established mechanisms for joint planning and decision-making.
This creates an important opportunity for the Amplify project: to move collaboration beyond individual projects and informal relationships towards shared priorities, inclusive dialogue, evidence-informed decisions and more sustainable ways of working together.
It was great to share and discuss these findings with colleagues yesterday. We hope the evidence generated through the baseline will provide a useful foundation for programming and help the project respond to the very different realities of communities across Kyrgyzstan.
