Buxton, Charles. "NGO networks in Central Asia and global civil society: potentials and limitations". Central Asian Survey, vol. 28, no.1 (2009): 43-58.

Buxton, Charles. "NGO networks in Central Asia and global civil society: potentials and limitations". Central Asian Survey, vol. 28, no.1 (2009): 43-58.

• This paper examines the ways in which NGOs function and how they engage with larger, global civil society movements in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and the Kyrgyz Republic (43).
• Running NGOs in Central Asia is complex and there is not a clear picture of how they are structured in relations to global civil society. They have established themselves as a sub-sector of civil society, and have started to maintain connections with local authorities and governments. Western aid or support is viewed as overwhelmingly negative, and with international connections becoming difficult to maintain, locally organized national or regional NGOs are supplant international NGOs (44).
• Many of the people who set up the first NGOs during the 1990s were former political dissidents during the Soviet period, and much of the organizational structure is weak and based around strong central figures. Most NGOs are located in capital cities and employ more than the average number of women, both of these are results from the large amounts of Western aid these dissidents  received during the 1990s to set up the NGOs (44).
• The relationship between governments and NGOs in Central Asia has broadly gone through four stages:  
• A short period from 1991 featuring the dethroning of local communist parties, adoption of new pluralistic constitutions, and high hopes for civil society;
• From the mid-1990s: the gradual establishment of NGOs despite deep economic and social crisis, with strong support from Western donors.
• From the end of the 1990s: the beginning of tighter civil-society–government relations while the Western/World Bank agenda remained dominant in development issues;
• From the March 2005 ‘Tulip Revolution’ in Kyrgyzstan and the breakdown of the US–Uzbek relationship in the same year. In this period national governments regained the initiative and NGOs were forced to review their relations with all parties, especially in Uzbekistan where the creation of GONGOs was absolute (45).
• The original NGOs of the 1990s are now unpopular in most Central Asian countries, as there are perception of them as being elitist and supporting the neoliberal policies which furthered the impoverishment of rural populations in Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. Theses urban NGOs have been largely supplanted by community-based organizations on the local or regional levels, which are more representative of rural populations and general issues (46).
• Most NGOs in Central Asia found that international conferences, networking events, and partner organizations were the most helpful ways to promote their agendas. Whereas, they used less electronic resources than NGOs elsewhere, likely due to technological limitations in their home countries (46).
• Those NGOs attempting to partner with organizations internationally still faced poor coordination and an unequal power relationship. Attempts to further connections have been weakened by Central Asia's international isolation and the authoritarian and closed nature of the contemporary societies (47).
• A Kazakhstani NGO called Baspana is one of the case studies. This NGO helped with housing issues and started as a collective protesting to prevent housing privatization and evictions. Since then it has developed into a more robust organization supply housing needs into a micro-credit group. Throughout these changes it has depended on the skills of core staff and political connections within the country, engaging little with similar NGOs elsewhere in Asia (48).
• The Community Empowerment Network in the Kyrgyz Republic (CEN Kyrgyzstan) was an NGO created in 2003 as part of a World Bank initiative. It was a collection of community organizations from villages which received larger grants funds from development organizations and spread them where needed at the village level. The local associations eventually steered towards patronage networks, however, as the NGO was driven by donor interests and lost control of localities (49).
• The National Association for Independent Media of Tajikistan (NANSMIT) is an NGO in Tajikistan set up in 1998 by journalists from different elements of Tajikistani media. It requires members pay a small annual fee and in return connects them with more information and lobbies in favor of press freedom. They have been fairly successful and are supported by a number of foreign NGOs and aid organizations. They are viewed favorably and have improve the media professionalism of Tajikistan through their work (50).
• NGOs in Central Asia frequently draw on resources and/or inspiration and ideals from the world of global civil society, but for the most part campaigns and efforts are purely national or sub-national. Frequently campaigns at these national levels will receive international support, with foreign NGOs providing pressure for national objectives (52).
• The most common agencies that NGOs request assistance or pressure from were organs of the UN or specific programs within the UN apparatus. The support from these agencies also helps disseminate information, which in turn raises awareness which the NGOs themselves could never command (53).
• The mobilization of civil society groups and NGOs in support and protest of the move by the Kyrgyz Republic to join the group of Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) in 2006 is discussed in detail as a case study from page 53 to page 55.
• The case study is weakened by the exclusion of NGOs which supported the government's initiatives, which as (Cheskin and March 2015) shows, pro-regime civil society groups are an important part of the equation.
• NGOs and civil society groups in Central Asia are heavily concentrated on network within related fields, with successful organizations being able to lobby, increase professionalism, or provide information and resources. Networking was one of the most important NGO activities at all levels (55).
• Central Asian NGOs and civil society groups are concentrated at the national level, with expansions into regional or global networks limited. This poses potential issues for the future of Central Asian civil society as organizations operating at the national level are increasingly subject to repression (55).
• Many NGOs have tried to expand regionally, but the competition and rivalry between the republics and the unfriendly regulatory environments of each and every location inhibit high-level planning and functions. Logistics and information is already difficult in one country, and it is only exacerbated at the regional level. Regional NGOs are also less trusted (56).
• The original civil society groups and urban NGOs of the 1990s, which were heavily reliant on foreign aid and whose leaders were greatly influenced by Western thought, are being weeded out as they lose funds and leadership. This cycle has led to NGOs with a more Central Asian character, signaling an ‘indigenization’ of civil society as it becomes propelled by local figures, local funds, and local ideologies (55).