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Overview of NGOs in Uzbekistan
According to the Ministry of Justice of Uzbekistan the total number of registered non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) in the country as of 2020 exceeded 10,000.
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The Ministry boasted that NGOs
are increasingly gaining strong positions in the development of Uzbek society and are becoming a
full-fledged partner of the state as the result of adopted legislative measures. Indeed, since the
adoption of the decree of the President, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, in May 2018 a number of positive
measures have been taken to ‘radically increase the role of civil society institutions in the process of
democratic renewal of the country’.
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Starting from January 2020 state fees for registration of NGOs, their symbols and representative
offices and branches were considerably reduced or lifted with additional privileges for organisations
for disabled people, veterans, women and children. The application lead time for NGO registration
was reduced from two to one month. Moreover, the Ministry of Justice is developing a web portal,
e-ngo.uz, to reduce paperwork and allow registration, reporting (about upcoming NGO events
including any trainings/seminars/conferences inside or outside the country, and providing annual
reports on the activities of NGOs) and other services for NGOs to take place online.
Being registered as an NGO leads to specific tax benefits particularly if it is an organisation for either
disabled people, veterans, women or vulnerable children. The government decided to lift these
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Dilmurad Yusupov is doctoral researcher at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex. He can be followed on
Twitter @d_yusupov.
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Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Refusal to register NGO: causes and the consequences, January 2020,
https://www.minjust.uz/en/press-center/news/98816/
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Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, On measures to radically increase the role of civil society institutions in the
process of democratic renewal of the country, LexUZ, dated May 2018, http://lex.uz/docs/3721651
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benefits in the new Tax Code 2020 but under the pressure of civil society activists and the local
media the benefits were returned.
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Importantly, NGO status allows organisations to receive local
and foreign grants, and work with international organisations.
The graph shows that there has been a steady increase in the number of NGO registrations in
Uzbekistan for the last ten years which almost doubled from 5,103 NGOs in 2009 to 9,338 in 2019.
However, can these quantitative changes speak of a quality change and a real breakthrough in the
development of civil society in Uzbekistan? Firstly, it is necessary to understand how the figures are
calculated and what type of NGOs make up the ostensible positive dynamics. Importantly, the
overall number includes all city, district and regional representative offices and branches of NGOs,
political parties and trade unions which leads to a multiplier effect. Importantly, a distinction must
be drawn between systemic and self-initiated NGOs.
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Systemic NGOs are government-organised
non-government organisations (GONGOs) established by government decrees, directly funded by
the state budget and have an extensive network of regional branches.
For instance, before the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan and the Republican Council for the
Coordination of Activities of Citizens’ Self-Government Bodies (the Mahalla Fund) were merged into
the Ministry for Support of Mahalla and Family in February 2020 both NGOs counted hundreds of
local branches as separate NGOs.
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As these two systemic NGOs ceased to exist, a possible
reduction in the total number of NGOs is expected. Currently, systemic NGOs including their
branches account for about 65 per cent of all registered NGOs in Uzbekistan – more than 6000
units.
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Dilmurad Yusupov, Uzbekistan’s Tax Code 2020: no benefits for charities, March 2020, https://dilmurad.me/uzbekistans-tax-code-2020-
no-benefits-for-charities/
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Dilmurad Yusupov and Oybek Isakov, Why is it Difficult to Open an NGO in Uzbekistan?, CABAR.asia, January 2020,
https://cabar.asia/en/why-is-it-difficult-to-open-an-ngo-in-uzbekistan/
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UZDaily, Mahalla and Family Support Ministry established in Uzbekistan, February 2020, https://www.uzdaily.com/en/post/54895
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Analytical report ‘The state of the “third sector” in Uzbekistan: realities and development prospects’, Independent Institute for
Monitoring the Formation of Civil Society (NIMFOGO), 2018.
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