U.S. INFORMATION AGENCY 1998 NIS COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS PROGRAM (Reference number E/ASU-98-07)   PROPOSAL FOR A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN: UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO and associated universities AND KAZAKHSTAN STATE ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT and associated universities Project Title: Public Finance Consortium Submitted by: Dr. Gregory Gleason, Associate Professor of Public Administration and Political Science Director, UNM Russian Studies Program University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 (505) 277-7391 or (505) 277-5104; fax (505) 277-2529 gleasong@unm.edu and Dr. Faruza Seitova Vice Rector for International Programs Kazakhstan State Academy of Management 55 Dzhanosova St., Almaty, Kazakhstan (7-3272) 20-28-45; fax 21-69-71 kazgau@kazgau.alma-ata.su 1) U.S. Institutions--University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, New Mexico) in association with New Mexico Mining and Technical Institute, Santa Fe Community College, and EPOTEK (a Los Alamos based NGO) NIS Institutions--Kazakhstan State Academy of Management (Almaty, Kazakhstan) in association with Eurasian University, Semi State University, North Kazakhstan State University, and Almaty State University 2) Country: Kazakhstan 3) Project Directors: Gregory Gleason, University of New Mexico Faruza Seitova, Kazakhstan State Academy of Management, Almaty, Kazakhstan 4) Academic Fields: Local Government, Economics, Public Administration, Public Policy 5) July 1, 1998—June 30, 2001 6) Funding Request = $193,960 Total Cost =$ 240,510 Total Cost Sharing = $ 46,550 7) Number of U.S. participants to be exchanged: 15 Number of Kazakhstan participants to be exchanged: 3    The primary purpose of the Public Finance Consortium is to increase knowledge and understanding within the Kazakhstan academic community of the critical importance of sound public revenue mechanisms for democratic self-governance.  Tab C Executive Summary 1. Project title. PUBLIC FINANCE CONSORTIUM (PFC)  2. Description of proposed academic fields/themes. LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ECONOMICS, PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, PUBLIC POLICY(ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND POLICY)  3. Project goals and statement of need. The primary goal of the Public Finance Consortium is to increase knowledge and understanding within the Kazakhstan academic community of sound public revenue mechanisms for democratic self-governance. To achieve this goal, the PFC will contribute to the development of intellectual capacity and know-how that supports appropriate policy innovation in the closely related spheres of government, public economics, public policy, and public administration in Kazakhstan. This goal is responsive to the need to establish formal mechanisms of good government in Kazakhstan that are culturally appropriate yet in accordance with international standards. Democracy requires "political accountability" (the responsiveness of officials to public demands) but it also requires "public accountability" (the willingness of the public to bear the costs of self-government). Public accountability can only be achieved in Kazakhstan, as well as other post-communist countries, if fiscally sound, transparent, and equitable mechanisms exist for financing the provision and distribution of public goods. The PFC responds specifically to this need.  The secondary goal of the PFC is to increase knowledge and understanding within the American academic community of the contemporary problems of post-communist transition in the rapidly globalizing international community. The PFC will contribute to a more objective, empirically informed understanding within the American academic community of contemporary problems of development in post-communist countries. The PFC will contribute to the creation and dissemination of research results that describe and analyze, in an objective and empirically informed manner, the dynamics of the post-communist transition with a particular emphasis on policy-relevant findings. This goal is responsive to the need to promote new U.S.-Kazakhstan scholarly collaboration that proceeds from theoretically driven but objectively based empirical analysis rather than from previously established and convenient but outmoded analytical frameworks. The PFC will thereby also contribute to a recognition within the U.S. academic community of the intellectual as well as material benefits to the United States of international intellectual cooperation.  4. Brief project summary and outline of specific proposed activities. The PFC shall link scholars in the administrative and policy sciences to facilitate the sharing of ideas, approaches, methodologies, data, and research findings. The PFC shall foster collaborative research, curriculum development and education in the policy sciences, linking institutions of higher learning, and placing particular emphasis on the financial regulation of public sector effectiveness in the era of globalization Fields of activity shall include: Local Government, Economics, Public Administration, Public Policy (Environmental Regulation And Policy). Specific areas targeted for curriculum development are: Public Finance (Expenditure, Taxation and Debt Management); Public Sector Modernization (Government Design and Functioning); Public Service Delivery; Public Utility and Natural Resource Regulation (Air, Water, Power, and Communication); Private Sector Facilitation (Privatization, Corporate Governance, Arbitration); and Promoting International Cooperation (Customs, Trade Promotion, Investment Attraction). PFC will employ innovative approaches such as distance education of public policy. The PFC provides for short (at minimum, one month) and extended (six month) exchanges of U.S. and Kazakhstan academic and administrative faculty and staff. During the three year period, as many as eight U.S. scholars will participate in the short-term exchange. No fewer than two U.S. scholars will participate in long-term exchange. As many as six Kazakhstan scholars will participate in the short-term exchange. As many as four Kazakhstan scholars will participate in the long-term exchange. The exchanges of all Kazakhstan participating scholars will be scheduled to coincide with conferences and congresses of U.S. based professional scholarly associations. Kazakhstan exchange scholars will be required to present papers at these conferences in association with their American research counterparts. The PFC includes an innovative approach to intellectual technology transfer, the "Requalification Institute on Public Finance." During the grant period, three series of Requalification seminars will provide advanced training and prepackaged curriculum materials in public sector theory to 135 Kazakhstan university and college level professors and instructors. These materials will be the basis for new lecture and course materials that will reach a graduate and undergraduate student audience of over 2,500 students.  5. Briefly state anticipated results, mutual benefits, and long-term impact. Through providing partial financial support to defray the costs of transportation, this program will promote exchanges of faculty and administrators for the purpose of teaching, lecturing, faculty and curriculum development, collaborative research, administrative development and modernization, and outreach. This will lead to the development or revision of courses, curricula, and programs of study at the participating foreign institutions, including their legal clinics, economic development centers, and faculty/staff professional requalification clinics. This will provide practical applications for academic knowledge. In large measure, these activities can be expected to contribute, through the improvement of curricula and through the improvement of applied research capacities, to the creation of democratic institutions, the strengthening of the rule of law, and the facilitation of an environment hospitable to foreign direct investment. Through building on natural interdependencies in targeted trade and investment sectors (metals, minerals and petroleum) the PFC will support mutual understanding between the U.S. and Kazakhstan by supporting reciprocal and mutually beneficial linkages. The PFC links Kazakhstan with cognate regions of the American Southwest. These areas have natural and reciprocal research and training complementarities. Kazakhstan enjoys a substantial natural resource base but has relatively small consumer markets. Consequently, international experience suggests that Kazakhstan will continue for many years to rely heavily on mineral and energy sectors. New Mexico historically relied heavily for public revenues on mineral severance taxes. The PFC, through the involvement of U.S. academic institutions, including a small four-year school and a community college, in international development, will contribute to the internationalization of the curriculum. In its long-term aspects, this program promises to expand long-sustainable U.S. government/private sector cooperation by deepening interactions among U.S. and foreign partners, foundations, foreign government and non-governmental organizations and private for-profit firms.  Proposal Narrative   1. Statement of background, need, objectives, and anticipated benefits to participating institutions.  Background When Kazakhstan emerged in 1991 from the disintegration of the USSR into the rapidly globalizing international community, it was a large, sparsely populated, natural resource-rich country with an industrial plant and physical infrastructure out of step with the emerging demands of the new global economy. Kazakhstan’s politically moderate, multi-national population, was divided roughly in half between indigenous ethnic Kazaks and other peoples—Russians, Germans, Ukrainians, Chinese, Uigurs, Koreans and dozens of other national and ethnic groups. As the USSR disintegrated, the leadership of the Kazakhstan government quickly identified the creation and development of a democratic, law-ordered civil society based upon market economic relations to be independent Kazakhstan’s guiding objective. Kazakhstan is a country of superlatives. It sweeps from the high mountain border regions near China across the mineral rich regions of Eastern Kazakhstan, then further west across broad expanses of plains to oil rich regions of Western Kazakhstan near the shore of the Caspian Sea. To the north Kazakhstan is bordered by the taigas of southern Siberia, to the south by the Aral Sea and the deserts of Central Asia. Kazakhstan is rich in oil, gas, and other mineral resources including gold, iron ore, coal, copper, chrome and zinc. Large oil deposits are located in the western regions of Kazakhstan and in the Caspian littoral. Massive Soviet-era mining and mineral processing complexes are located at various points around the country. Kazakhstan is home to the Baikonur Soviet cosmodrome, still used as the launching pad for the Russian space shuttle, as well as the main Soviet nuclear weapons testing range, mothballed since 1992, near the city of Semipalatinsk. Kazakhstan’s population of roughly 17 million makes it a relatively small country by international standards, but its great territory—Kazakhstan is about four times the size of the American state of Texas—ranks it as the world’s 9th largest country. Kazakhstan is situated at the core of the Eurasian land mass. It is a landlocked country that has long, dry land borders with its immediate neighbors, borders which are difficult to monitor and regulate. As a legacy of decades of Soviet-style centralized economic planning, Kazakhstan inherited a physical infrastructure designed to service the Soviet economy by providing primary commodities, particularly energy and minerals, to industrial markets in the north, particularly in the Ural and central Siberian industrial regions of Russia. Kazakhstan has adequate rail and road transportation systems, but these physical infrastructures were designed to connect Kazakhstan’s primary commodity industries with northern manufacturing markets. Kazakhstan has an under-developed system of air transportation which was also designed with a northward bias. Established international air traffic corridors circumvent Kazakhstan. For instance, although Kazakhstan’s principal city, Almaty, lies about half way between Berlin and Tokyo, due to existing air traffic arrangements, passengers and air freight arriving from the far east will find that their itinerary typically includes a stopover in a European city. Given these realities of natural resource endowment, sparse population, previous economic specialization under Soviet style socialism, and the legacy of centralized planning that endures in the physical infrastructure of transportation and communication, Kazakhstan’s trade relations with the world beyond its immediate neighbors hinge upon successful public sector modernization. Need and Program Objectives In 1996 the Kazakhstan government commenced a substantial redesign of the country’s public sector. Responding to the need to create a more effective yet less capacious public sector, Kazakhstan followed the advice of major multilateral assistance organizations by undertaking politically unpopular austerity measures including reducing the size of government administration. The academic community in Kazakhstan is not well prepared to confront the challenges of public sector redesign. Subject to many years of direct communist party ideology control, the universities in Kazakhstan have not developed an intellectual infrastructure from which to draw upon to develop new analytical approaches for post-communist research and analysis. In the past, scholarly traditions in communist countries actively discouraged the development of theory and empirical research in the practical affairs of government. As a consequence, most theorizing regarding government, law, public policy, and public economics is exceptionally abstract and given to the repetition of homilies and slogans rather than theoretically driven empirical analysis. Kazakhstan is now in the process of developing the educational infrastructure for an effective yet modestly sized public sector that facilitates the further development of a modern, globally integrated society. While Kazakhstan will benefit from curricular and institutional modernization in a broad range of academic disciplines, a number of branches of the policy sciences stand out as offering the promise of making a significant contribution to improving the effectiveness of public institutions in the near term. To achieve the highest degree of effect per unit of investment, the designers of PFC carefully reviewed public documents regarding USIA and USAID’s previous and current educational and technical assistance programs in Kazakhstan, interviewed Dr. Roger Anderson, the principal investigator of a previous USIA institutional partnership in Kazakhstan, and carried out an on-site assessment of institutions of higher education that included visiting six Kazakhstan universities on two separate trips to the region in summer 1997 and early 1998. The PFC assessment described the following six critical needs of educational modernization in Kazakhstan and identified appropriate solutions. Problem: Compartmentalization of Knowledge—Kazakhstan universities recognize strict disciplinary divisions. Early in their academic preparation, students are tracked into separate "faculties" (i.e., academic departments) that function in isolation, discouraging the integration of knowledge. For instance, undergraduate legal training is offered in law faculties. From the first year of college attendance, students are tracked into the law faculty and do not receive policy and economic training. Interaction between law and economics faculties is effectively discouraged. Solution: New curricular innovation emphasizing interdependence of distinct policy science disciplines.   Problem: Ambiguous Definition of Public Sector—Kazakhstan previously had a single economic field in which the government functioned as the soleeconomic manager. Price liberalization and the adoption of a regulatory structure of a market economy in the previous six years introduced a dynamic andrapidly expanding private sector. However, there is no conceptual framework in place for non-governmental private corporations with public mandates. The concept of "public goods" is not yet defined except as "government property." Indeed, there is not even a vocabulary for the discussion of public goods. As an illustration of this problem, the term "public administration" can only be rendered in both the Russian and in the Kazakh languages as either "government administration" or "social administration." The concept of "public" other than as identical with "government" does not exist. Solution: New curricular materials and teacher training in public choice theory.   Problem: Excessive Hierarchy in Administration—Kazakhstan educational institutions tend to be organized on the concept of edinonachalie (individual management) rather than upon the Oxford model of a community of scholars. This is reflected both in the organization of the university and in the organization of scholarship. Solution: Distribution of materials relating to the organization and financing of scholarly research as separate from pedagogical activities.   Problem: Inappropriate Technology for Training in 21st Century Public Administration—Most preparation in administrative sciences is based on the expectation of public sector employment for graduates. However, the public sector in Kazakhstan, as in many other globalizing, rapidly developing countries, is being brought into balance with the private sector through a relative reduction in size. New public sector opportunities will be created in international and national non-governmental organizations and in newly emergent para-statal organizations. Solution: Curriculum materials which emphasize principles of public sector and public service organizations rather than narrow training for government service.   Problem: Crisis in Public Finance as a Result of Low Tax Compliance—Kazakhstan and other post-communist countries are facing a fiscal crisis in the next decade as revenue from privatization begins to diminish unless new practices to increase tax compliance are adopted. Democracy requires "political accountability" (the responsiveness of officials to public demands) but it also requires "public accountability" (the willingness of the public to bear the costs of self-government). Solution: New curricular materials and teacher training in international practice in tax compliance, comparing the experience of a variety of countries in the establishment of greater public accountability. Problem: Lack of Transparency in Financing Public Institutions—Experience shows that when public institutions are financed in episodic ways, regulated primarily by individual rent-seeking gatekeepers rather than user-fees or abstract and standard operating procedures, equity is usually defeated. Solution: Curricular materials and teacher training in international practice to increase the transparency of the use of public resources. The overall program objective of the PUBLIC FINANCE CONSORTIUM is: The primary purpose of the Public Finance Consortium is to increase knowledge and understanding within the Kazakhstan academic community of the critical importance of sound public revenue mechanisms for democratic self-governance. 2. Description of participating institutions and relevant academic departments/schools and the rationale behind the choice of these partner institutions relative to the program goals.  The lead institution for this program is the University of New Mexico. The PFC will be located within the School of Public Administration and administered by the Russian Studies Program of the University of New Mexico. The School of Public Administration is administratively subordinated to the Robert O. Anderson Schools of Management, UNM’s business school. The inter-disciplinary UNM Russian Studies Program is administratively subordinated to the College of Arts and Sciences. The UNM Russian Studies Program is devoted to teaching, research and service with respect to the history, culture, and contemporary affairs of the Russian-speaking world. The Russian Studies Program serves UNM’s students, faculty and, in broader compass, the citizens of the state of New Mexico. The Russian Studies Program links a variety of departments and activities on the UNM campus and in the community. These departments include language, history, economics, political science, law, business and public administration, as well as engineering, the natural sciences and formal sciences. In addition, for the previous four years the University of New Mexico served as home to the U.S. Industry Coalition, a DoE-sponsored project of industrial partnerships with production facilities throughout the former Soviet states. Negotiations are currently underway to carry on the work of the USIC through the development of university partnerships with key universities in the NIS region. These partnership will emphasize the model of "university research parks" that link science with the private sector. New Mexico is a state with considerable parallel interests with Kazakhstan. New Mexico is a geographically large state with a sparse population. New Mexico is rich in minerals and energy resources. The public infrastructure in New Mexico—including public revenue channels, public expenditures, and the legal and regulatory environment—was historically heavily influenced by New Mexico’s semi-arid climate, natural resource base, and large proportion of public sector employment (New Mexico is home to America’s two largest national research laboratories, Los Alamos and Sandia Laboratories). New Mexico has a well-developed cadre of specialists in the areas of government, economics, public finance and public administration that are particularly germane to Kazakhstan’s emerging needs in the globalizing international economic and policy environment. The Russian Studies Program concentrates university and greater New Mexico community resources on key questions of policy modernization. This focus is of great importance to Kazakhstan in the difficult years ahead as proceeds from privatization wane and a greater proportion of state revenues are derived from severance taxes, mineral concessions, and direct foreign investment in export-led primary commodity sectors. To maintain this policy-focus, the PFC will partner the University of New Mexico with other public and private institutions of higher education with specific expertise in the policy arena. This includes, notably, New Mexico Technical Institute, a New Mexico public institution with particular expertise in mining and extractive technologies and Santa Fe Community College, a two-year community college which, located in the state capital of New Mexico, has close connections with the applied world of state government and policy making. The consortium also includes a university affiliated private voluntary organization, EPOTEK. EPOTEK is associated with the UNM School of Public Administration and is staffed by UNM personnel and personnel from New Mexico’s two major national research laboratories, Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos Laboratory. EPOTEK works in areas of public policy focusing on environmental regulation with particular emphasis on consequences of nuclear materials. New Mexico has a multiethnic and diverse population. The University of New Mexico energetically pursues measures to ensure that the diversity of the state’s population is accurately reflected in the activities and personnel structure of the state’s academic institutions. The PFC will follow UNM guidelines in the promotion of diversity within the program activities. PFC activities will include members of the Native American population, and will representatively reflect gender and ethnic criteria as these are reflected in the composition of university staff and faculty. The Kazakhstan primary partner institution for this program is the Kazakhstan State Academy of Management, KazGAU. KazGAU has a well-established reputation as the leading public institution in Kazakhstan in economics and management training. KazGAU also maintains innovative programs in the areas of environmental management and regulation. KazGAU has indicated a willingness to include Almaty State University, AGU, in the programming for this project. UNM has a continuing relationship with AGU. A UNM graduate, Andrew Segars, is currently directing the Kazakhstan-American Studies Center at AGU. Kazakhstan is geographically a very large country. For this reason it is important to encourage a geographically broad based partnership among Kazakhstan universities. KazGAU has taken the initiative to establish formal relationships with other Kazakhstan universities in the area of collaborative research and training in the policy sciences. A long-term, formal arrangement has been established with Evraziskii University in Aqmola for collaboration in the policy sciences. As the leading university in Kazakhstan’s new national capital, Evraziskii University is a natural partner for KazGAU for the purposes of this program. In addition, KazGAU has partnered with Semiplatinsk University and North Kazakhstan University (Petropavlovsk) for the purposes of the PFC. 3. Description of the proposed partnership program activities (teaching, lecturing, faculty development, curriculum development, collaborative research, and outreach) over the three years.  The partnership program during the three year grant period includes collaborative research and curriculum development in the following three categories: 1) exchange of lecturers, researchers, and administrators; 2) development of curriculum materials, research materials and publication program; 3) professional requalification training institute. 3-1 Administrator/Lecturer/Researcher Exchange. During the three years (1998-2001) of the grant period, it is anticipated that as many as four and no fewer than two U.S. scholars will participate in the exchange for a total period of no fewer than 12 person months. It is anticipated that no fewer than two and as many as four Kazakhstan scholars will participate in the exchange for no fewer than 5 person months. Exact exchange arrangements hinge upon negotiations with university officials, availability of scholars, compatibility of research and training agendas. It would be improper and misleading to represent in this document a fixed faculty and administrator exchange schedule in specific detail for a period of three years in advance. However, as the letters of support for this application from the university officials of the participating universities attest, all of the consortium partners enthusiastically endorse the support of the U.S. government for these exchange activities and will endeavor to provide faculty and administrator release-time providing that the consortium partners are adequately compensated for replacement personnel. The exchange will involve lecturers from U.S. consortium universities presenting professional development and advanced training lectures in Kazakhstan. The primary goal of the American exchange participants is to assist in the transfer of knowledge and standards of scholarship with a particular emphasis on public choice theory. A secondary goal will be to develop scholarly collaboration based on interaction with host country scholars and empirical research. The exchange will also involve sponsoring researchers, teaching faculty and administrative staff from Kazakhstan consortium universities . The primary goal of the Kazakhstan-to-America exchange will be to enable Kazakhstan exchangees to apprise themselves of theoretical advances in the area of public choice theory and contemporary standards of research and scholarship in the U.S. Each Kazakhstan exchangee will be partnered with an appropriate American scholar for pedagogical purposes and to encourage joint authorship. Time and language capacities permitting, Kazakhstan exchangees may also be invited to present undergraduate or perhaps community lectures in the U.S. The focus of the exchange activities, however, will not be on undergraduate lecturing as such, but rather on the cooperative development of new curriculum materials and lines of mutually advantageous research in the field of public sector reform and modernization. Principles of the Management of the Exchange Program Two principal criteria are established for the selection of participants: 1) PFC exchanges must command a knowledge of public sector affairs and have analytical training commensurate with their research objectives; 2) Kazakhstan exchangees must be true research and teaching staff or administrative staff. Exchangees will be selected by the U.S. side in consultation with the Kazakhstan Program Manager on the basis of submission of a competitive application process. Final authority regarding all questions of the selection of participants resides with the PFC Steering Committee. In addition to selection criteria, PFC has established for participation in the exchanges. These criteria will be set forth in an PFC Agreement of Assignment, which all exchangees must sign prior to participation. The PFC AoA will require: 1) laws and administrative provisions of the host country be obeyed; 2) the exchangee must complete and submit before the end of the exchange a publishable research or curriculum document for distribution within the consortium. PFC will reserve the right to withhold any final payments pending receipt of the written research-collaboration product. Kazakhstan exchangees will also be required to sign an agreement that they intend to return to their home institutions for employment for a period of no less than one year following exchange participation. A package of general background material similar to that offered to Fulbright Program participants will be made available to all exchangees. Both American and Kazakhstan exchangees will be fully briefed regarding personal safety and the importance of observing the laws and cultural standards of the host country. The exchange of all Kazakhstan participating scholars will be scheduled to coincide with conferences and congresses of U.S. based professional scholarly associations. The primary professional organization for this purpose will be the International Studies Association (ISA). Dr. Gleason, the PFC Program Manager, is a member of the executive committee of the ISA Section on International Relations of Post-Communist States. By arrangement with ISA, the Kazakhstan exchanges will be offered the opportunity to participate in panels on public finance organized in ISA national conferences in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Kazakhstan exchange scholars will present papers at these conferences in association with their American research counterparts. 3-2 Research Materials Program During the three years (1998-2001) of the grant period, the participants in the project will be called upon to produce research results and curriculum materials in the general area of public sector modernization. These materials will be distributed within Kazakhstan in hard copy form and will also be made available world wide on the internet. All four Kazakhstan partner institutions already have internet capabilities financed in part by USG funds. The PFC program will make use of these facilities. In addition, the PFC will take advantage of low cost printing facilities in Kazakhstan to produce and distribute hard copy versions of research results and curriculum materials that are produced as a result of the exchange. Materials will be reviewed by the Program Managers for suitability prior to publication. Suitable materials from extra-curriculum authors, if submitted on a pro-bono basis, may also be reproduced and distributed within the consortium. Final decisions regarding publication are the responsibility of the PFC Steering Committee. 3-3 Professional Requalification Training Institute Three times, once during each of the three academic summers of the grant period, an intensive professional requalification and retraining seminar will be held at four sites in Kazakhstan. The four-day long intensive retraining seminar will make it possible for lecturers and researchers at selected Kazakhstan universities to interact with U.S. researchers in the area of public sector modernization. The faculty and staff articipants in these seminars will be selected by the U.S. side in consultation with the Kazakhstan Program Manager on the basis of a competitive application process Advanced theories of public sector functioning will be presented to be used as a basis for the development of context-sensitive, appropriate curriculum materials for Kazakhstan. These requalification seminars will take place at KazGAU, Eurasian University, Semey State University (Semey), and at North Kazakhstan State University (Petropavlovsk). The Program Manager, Gregory Gleason, will organize and chair these seminars. Principles of Overall PFC Program Management Successful scholarly partnerships are ones that unite members of the academic community devoted to the advancement of science and understanding and that are based upon stable expectations of trust, fair play, mutual advantage. The program principals in the PFC are united in the effort to improve the level of scholarly competence regarding theories of public sector modernization with a particular emphasis on countries undergoing the rapid reorganization of the public sector. The program principals are all professionals with extensive backgrounds in research, publication, and pedagogy. But it is important to note that the PFC also has elements of a technical assistance and public information program. To maintain a close connection with the goals and purposes of American foreign policy, the PFC Program Manager will remain in close and regular contact with the U.S. government mission, particularly USIA and USAID, to ensure that the PFC program is responsive to current priorities as these may be affected by adaptations or modifications in U.S. government policy. This close contact will be maintained through regular electronic communication and through field visits to the mission and participating Kazakhstan university partners by the Program Manager on at least a biannual basis. The Program Manager will spend no less than four months of each year (summer and intercession) in the field for each year of the grant period. The PFC is guided by the principle of transparent financial management. A complete set of budget documents will available to all program participants and interested parties. Program decisions with to the scope and nature of program activities are established by the provisions of the budget documents accompanying this application. Categories of expenditure establish the parameters of program activities. Decisions with respect to the selection of participants are the responsibility of the PFC Steering Committee. The PFC Steering Committee is comprised of Professors Gregory Gleason (UNM Public Administration), Kishore Gawande (UNM Economics), and Natasha Kolchevska, (UNM Russian Language Department). 4. Names and qualifications of designated project directors.  U.S. Program Manager is Gregory Gleason. Dr. Gleason is Director of the Russian Studies Program and Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of New Mexico. He has extensive experience in research and practical programming in the field of international development with special reference to communist and post-communist countries. He has published extensively on public policy, including a major book on federal relations in the USSR (1990) and a book on regional affairs in Central Asia (1997). His recent books on administrative theory (1997) and international relations (1997) were translated into Russian by the Institute of Philosophy and Law (Ekateirnburg) and were published by the Russian Academy of Sciences. A book on principles of public finance will be published by the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1999. Gleason has participated in development projects sponsored by USIA, USAID, and the Asian Development Bank. He served for a year as Director of the USAID "rule of law" project in Central Asia (1994), and for six months as the Field Coordinator of the USAID Consortium on Technical Cooperation in Central Asia (1996), and for six months as Deputy Director of the program on Regional Economic Cooperation (1997-1998) of the Asian Development Bank. Gleason teaches in the field of public administration, with a thematic emphasis on fiscal management and a geographical emphasis on Russian-speaking countries. Kazakhstan Program Manager is Faruza Seitova. Dr. Seitova is the Vice Rektor for International Relations at the Kazakhstan State Academy of Management. An economist by training and specialization, Dr. Seitova is a specialist in the economics of trade and transportation. She has participated in international programs sponsored by USIA, USAID, EU/TACIS, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank. 5. Program evaluation plan. The PFC regards evaluation as both a monitoring and planning tool. Evaluation is used to assess progress toward established goals (backward looking) and is also used in tactical planning (forward looking). The PFC uses results-based techniques for process evaluation. Using this three-step approach we, first, identify program goals in relation to USIA strategic objectives. Second, we identify performance measures that may be used to continuously monitor progress toward objectives. Third, we establish end-of-project status indicators to continuously orient on-going process toward strategic objectives. The PFC is specifically focused on USIA Operational Goals that are derived from USIA’s Strategic Objectives. USIA serves to promote the national interest and national security of the United States through understanding, informing and influencing foreign publics and broadening dialogue between American citizens and institutions and their counterparts abroad. USIA accomplishes this through its six strategic objectives: National Security, Democracy, Economic Prosperity, Law Enforcement, Foundation of Trust, and Free Flow of Information. These objectives are pursued through operational programs. We measure our performance in terms of the contribution to these Operational Objectives in terms of the "results-based logical framework, or "logframe." USIA Results-Based Logframe USIA Program Objectives Performance Measures and Indicators End of Project Status Creating a more receptive climate for achieving U.S. policy through diplomacy. Developing information and disseminating it to key foreign individuals and groups to advance national interests and strategic goals. Forging productive relationships through international exchanges, partnerships and linkages. Communicating with mass audiences. Gauging changes in foreign public and media opinion. By providing a close, cooperative contact with researchers, PFC will contribute to the USIS country Performance Plan. PFC develops an information base that provides a regular flow of data for review of the achievement of strategic USIA objectives. PFC established durable and sustainable, personal and institutional relationships based upon trust, professionalism and mutual interest. PFC communicates principles and practices of public sector modernization that will foster stable, democratic, market-oriented societies. PFC provides a conduit for information regarding opinions in a significant sector of public attitude information. Regular flow of information to the USIS field mission. Accurate communication to universities in Kazakhstan of U.S. policy interests. Enduring self-supporting relationship among U.S. and Kazakhstan partner institutions. Improved Kazakhstan understanding of principles of economics, government, public law and policy. Reliable linkages to a significant public. 6. Description of prior interactions between all institutions. The University of New Mexico established relationships with Kazakhstan universities in 1989 when Professor Byron Lindsey of the UNM Foreign Languages Department spent a semester at KazGU on a Fullbright exchange. Over the past six years since independence, a number of informal exchanges have taken place with Kazakhstan universities. Gregory Gleason has lectured at KazGU (1992, 1997), taught a one-month short course in globalization at Almaty State Univesity (AGU) (1996) and lectured at the Soros Summer Institute at KIMEP (1997). Ms. Tara Sather, MPA candidate of the UNM School of Public Administration and Gregory Gleason lectured at AGU in 1995. Mr. Joseph Malm, a graduate student in the UNM Economics Department taught short courses at AGU (fall 1996, spring 1997 and fall 1997 semester). Gregory Gleason was Deputy Team Leader for a Regional Economic Cooperation Project of the Asian Development Bank (1997) that was based at KazGAU. 7. Plan for continued, non-U.S. government support after the end of the grant and follow-on activities. Perhaps the most challenging goal of any institutional partnership is to establish a relationship that endures beyond the life of the public funding. There are many examples of otherwise good partnerships that begin with intentions of establishing enduring relationships only to find that the great expense involved in international programs with distant countries makes sustainability problematic. Few American universities have the resources to finance these activities from own-source funds. For these reasons, an enduring partnership requires that measures to enhance sustainability be included as an integral part of program activities. The solution to this problem is to concentrate efforts during the grant period in ways that widen the institutional base of the partnership, engaging other public, semi-public, and PVO and private organizations in the partnership. Those activities most likely to endure are those that achieve the goals of scholarship but also include other actors associated with the academic community such as sister-city committees, private firms, and local government organizations. There are three reasons that the PFC partnership will continue after USG funding has come to an end. First, the project was initiated by scholars who, without external government funding, undertook joint projects out of dedication to the advancement of knowledge. This dedication is self-sustaining and does not depend upon external assistance. This collaboration will continue. Second, this project involves actors that have long-term mutual interests. A PFC affiliate, EPOTEK, the Albuquerque based NGO associated with this program, draws upon personnel from the two New Mexico U.S. Department of Energy national research laboratories (Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory). Both of these laboratories have long experience with the USSR and with post-communist countries. Environmental conditions near Semipalatinsk, located near the main Soviet nuclear weapons testing range, reflect consequences of the nuclear age. EPOTEK personnel are particularly interested in the technical, legal and administrative regulation of the environmental effects of nuclear materials. Through the linkage with EPOTEK and other public interest organizations, the project will involve the private voluntary efforts of individuals with an enduring interest in maintaining the partnership after the end of USG funding. Third, this project will develop skills and knowledge that will be of continuing value to Kazakhstan and other countries in the CIS. It is accurate to say that the "post-communist transition" is now over in the leading CIS countries (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan). No major functioning institution of the communist period now exists. No return to these institutions in the previous form is likely. However, the establishment of institutions that can serve to promote equity and transparency in public sector functioning has not been accomplished. The PFC partnership is specifically designed to create a capacity for public sector modernization, particularly through the "requalification seminars," that will be of importance to Kazakhstan in the long-term. It is practical to assume that at a later point multilateral institutions such as the regional development banks, or even local fiscal authorities, will be capale and interested in sponsoring the continued existence of this capacity. Fourth, this project seeks to expand upon a proven technique for accelerating technology transfer, the "university research park" concept. In an effort to hasten agricultural development in the U.S., American universities pioneered the idea of "agricultural extension services" in the 1950s. The success of agricultural extension in promoting technology transfer through a public-private partnership was repeated in a modified form in the 1970s with the establishment of engineering research parks at major American universities. University research parks form a bridge linking fundamental and applied research with practice, industry, and the private market. They accelerate technology transfer. University research parks played a major role in the economic transformation of America in the 1980 and 1990s into the world’s leader in key areas of high technology. The Public Finance Consortium will provide general technical assistance to the consortium members to help invigorate the "technoparks" already established at each of the universities. Kazakhstan universities have in the past been exclusively supported by the government budget. In the last four years they have shifted to a user-fee basis. But no university in Kazakhstan currently has an endowment or investment fund. Consequently, operating expenses must be paid on an annual basis from current revenue. The establishment of university "technoparks" that allow the universities to acquire equity in enterprises they successfully incubate may hold the promise of a first step toward stable self-financing of public higher education in Kazakhstan.

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