IREX, Save the Children, and the World Bank have partnered to oversee the development of the BOTA Foundation, an unprecedented development venture that is overseeing the repatriation of $116 million through programs targeting the poorest children in Kazakhstan.
IREX and Save the Children are developing the BOTA Foundation to be a sustainable Kazakhstani institution and implementing its programs, while bolstering local capacity and expertise. The BOTA Foundation’s unique and innovative social investment programs are intended to increase demand and utilization of health and education services through over $50 million in conditional cash transfers and tuition assistance, while the foundation increases the capacity of the social-service sector through a multi-million dollar grants program.
• Improve the health, education, and social welfare of children and youth in the poorest regions of Kazakhstan
• Foster comprehensive technical and human development in Kazakhstan to ensure the sustainability of the BOTA Foundation and its programs
Organizational Development: IREX and Save the Children provide organizational development guidance and capacity building technical assistance to the BOTA Foundation to ensure Kazakhstan’s seamless inheritance of the foundation in 2014.
Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT): CCTs offer financial incentives to encourage and enable households struggling below the poverty line to access services that will improve their children’s development and welfare. In addition to meeting eligibility requirements under the Poverty Means Test (PMT), beneficiaries must meet specific characteristics for the BOTA program, including being a mother who is pregnant and/or lactating, a child age 4-6 who needs early childhood development (ECD) services, a child age 4-16 years who is disabled, or an out-of-school youth aged 16-19.
Social Service Grants and Technical Assistance: Large and small grants are awarded to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to improve the availability and quality of social services. There are multiple grant categories—such as community planning grants, social service grants, and systems improvements grants. Grant support targets ECD, improving access to education and education outcomes, promoting youth opportunities and prevention of risky behaviors, and promoting access to services for children with disabilities. Simultaneously, technical assistance is offered to the social-service community through private meetings and public forums to bring to the forefront issues that must be resolved to substantially improve child welfare in Kazakhstan.
Tuition Assistance Grants: The Foundation provides need-based grants to young people in Kazakhstan for study at universities and colleges in Kazakhstan, similar to the US Federal Pell Grant Program. The grants target promising young people who have both financial need and the potential to succeed in college or university, using a proxy means test to verify need. Instead of simply viewing income, the test examines expenses and other factors to more accurately assess economic status. Grant recipients contribute 20 hours of service to their communities each year and have volunteered in a variety of settings, including orphanages and foster-care centers, schools and nonprofit organizations. Grant recipients develop life skills through supplemental workshops organized twice a year, focusing on topics such as critical thinking, problem solving and career planning.
• More than 85,000 Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) beneficiaries as of Dec. 2012
• Issued more than 480 grants to local NGOs reaching over 33,500 beneficiaries
• Approximately 841 Tuition Assistance grants awarded to date. Nearly 2/3 of the grant recipients are the first generation of their families to attend college