At the Moment
Илим — окуу булагы, өнөр — турмуш чырагы.

While aid and development organizations do get some credit for tourism, which today contributes to 5–7% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP, by setting up Community-Based Tourism (Helvetas) and the Cultural Village program (KOICA), tourism remains one of the areas that is under monitoring as a successful local economic development model in the country but outcomes of such promise remain under studied. Approaches to evaluate and assess donor-funded aid intervention programs are based on a simple rubric. Following the classic criteria of assessment (relevance/coherence, efficiency, effectiveness, equity, impact, and sustainability/risk), in this study I evaluate the effectiveness of eco-tourism development interventions in the Chon-Kemin Valley. 

This research is based on empirical fieldwork examining the impacts of aid organizations, development cooperation, and environmental NGOs on social–ecological transformation in the Chon-Kemin Valley of the Tien Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan. The findings indicate that drought related to climate change is becoming an increasingly important issue in mountain regions. Farmers and herders face growing uncertainty, with early signs of water shortages and flooding linked to glacier melt. The study also shows that environmental discourses promoted by NGOs often do not fully align with community concerns. At the same time, this gap presents an opportunity for external actors and NGOs to develop more effective livelihood-oriented programs and interventions, a process that remains ongoing. For more information, see the short video of my field-work (video). 

During my Ph.D. research, I gained experience in conducting systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses on environmental aid in Kyrgyzstan. For my first publication, I conducted a scoping review with a regional focus on Kyrgyzstan. In addition to applying the scoping review methodology, I charted eight variables across 80 included publications. The study revealed that much of the aid in the country was directed toward the health sector. Regarding approaches, studies using impact assessment frameworks were informative and highlighted positive changes. While qualitative assessments, SWOT analyses, and Actor–Process–Outcome (APO) frameworks were commonly employed, field-specific evaluation frameworks remain limited in aid research and development policy effectiveness. Charting these variables also provided valuable insights into the active roles of donor institutions, environmental policies, sustainability initiatives, and green projects (the poster)