Policy paper

UK–Kazakhstan development partnership summary, March 2024

Published 27 March 2024

Introduction

The International Development White Paper sets out a re-energised agenda for the UK working with partners to accelerate progress on eliminating extreme poverty, tackling climate change and biodiversity loss, and accelerating progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. In a contested world, where ODA alone will not be enough, achieving the vision as set out in the SDGs requires a radical rethink in our approach to international development. The White Paper sets out how our partnerships are central to this approach. These are founded on mutual respect, with an emphasis on country ownership, accountability, transparency and common values. This Country Development Partnership Summary details how the approach detailed in the White Paper will be put into practice with Kazakhstan.

Country context

Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world. It is landlocked and shares the world’s longest continuous international land border with Russia to the north (7,644 km). Its other neighbours are China to the east, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to the south and Azerbaijan to the west on the other side of the Caspian Sea.  Its population is 19.6 million, 30% under 15^{[footnote 1]}. Its economy is a quarter larger than the rest of Central Asia combined^{[footnote 2]}. It has grown rapidly in the last 30 years fuelled by enormous resource wealth, particularly international investments in its oil industry. Oil exports, which largely head to Europe via the CPC pipeline through Russia, usually account for more than 50% of export revenues. It remains heavily reliant on Soviet era coal power stations and despite abundant renewable sources around 70% of electricity generation is from domestically produced coal^{[footnote 3]}. Renewables have grown to about 2.5GW (4.5% of total generation)^{[footnote 4]} in the last 7 to 8 years. Investment in infrastructure generally is a pressing concern. In the last year, the government has taken a number of steps to recover illicit funds from overseas as well as make a number of arrests in relation to corruption. In 2022 it was ranked 101 out of 180 countries for corruption^{[footnote 5]}. 

The Majilis (parliamentary) elections on 19 March were the culmination of a year of political reform, set out by President Tokayev immediately after the protests and violence of January 2022. The political reforms, including reintroducing ‘first past the post’ self-nominated candidates for one third of Majilis seats produced the most open and lively election campaign since 2004. However, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) report, while noting progress, reported that further reform would be necessary to provide a sufficient basis for democratic elections in line with international standards, and recorded ‘significant procedural irregularities’ in around half the precincts they observed.

Why and how: the UK’s development offer with Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, the UK aims to: support a more resilient, stable, prosperous future for the country and the wider region, a more open, inclusive society and a greener economy. HMG’s work in Kazakhstan directly contributes to 2 priority areas in the IDS as well as the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our priority areas of focus on development include:

Reform

Supporting evidence-based policy both in the development of policy but also in a more robust assessment of its impact to help support the Government in its declared goal of delivering a fairer Kazakhstan. We work to address Gender Based Violence (GBV) as well as greater access to GBV services.

Climate

We support Kazakhstan’s efforts to support its biodiversity.

Key programmes

Bilaterally, we have moved away from stand-alone, country-focused interventions to regional ODA programmes. Our top programmes covering Kazakhstan include:

• Climate, Energy and Water Security for Central Asia region (CEW-CA)
  • duration: 2024 to 2030
  • expected outcome: improve Central Asia’s resilience and sovereignty by delivering low carbon and climate resilient growth across the region, through strengthened regional cooperation
• Central Asia Effective Governance for Economic Development (EGED):
  • duration: 2020 to 2025
  • expected outcome: Improved effectiveness, accountability and transparency of economic policy delivery on selected reform priorities the region
• UK-Central Asia Green Inclusive Growth Fund:
  • duration: 2024 to 2029
  • expected outcome: Improved SME capacity and increased flow of green investment finance in Central Asia

Who we work with

We liaise closely with the US, EU, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) (among others) to ensure our programmes complement existing work. We are supporting a fledgling World Bank led initiative for greater donor coordination. We work with the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms in the Government of Kazakhstan as well as a number of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

Links

Kazakhstan DevTracker Country Page

British Embassy Astana

1. World Population Dashboard -Kazakhstan ↩

2. WEO IMF April 2023. 2022 nominal GDP figures. ↩

3. IEA analysis for 2018. ↩

4. QazaqGreen ↩

5. Corruption Perceptions Index. ↩