Kazakhstan has been strengthening state–society consultation over the past decade through a broad range of institutional and digital mechanisms. Efforts to enhance participatory governance include the establishment of public councils, the public chamber, the national consultative-advisory body Ulttyq Qurultay, open dialogue platforms, and more recent tools such as e-Otinish, which allows citizens to submit appeals and proposals directly to state bodies. Recent legislative reforms have further reinforced the country’s shift toward more inclusive and transparent engagement with citizens and civil society.
Photo credit: Gulnur Makulbayeva’s personal archive
The state apparatus is also undergoing structural transformation under the Concept for Public Administration until 2030 (2021) and the Concept for Civil Service Development for 2024–2029 (2024). Both policy frameworks emphasize a transition from a command-and-control administrative model to citizen-centric governance. This orientation is increasingly evident at the local level, where community meetings in rural areas serve as representative forums for articulating socially significant concerns and engaging in collaborative decision-making alongside elected mayors.
Taken together, these developments align with the government’s Listening State agenda. The recently adopted Concept on Internal Policy likewise reflects core principles such as pluralism of opinion, openness, and active listening. Given the growing importance accorded to state–society consultation, it is timely to assess the progress Kazakhstan has achieved in this sphere over the past decade.
Figure 1. Voice and accountability, Kazakhstan
Source: World Bank, 2025 Note: An index value of –2.5 reflects low performance, whereas 2.5 reflects high performance.
One way to gauge this progress is through international governance indicators. The World Bank’s Voice and Accountability indicator measures the extent to which citizens can participate in selecting their government, as well as the degree of freedom of expression, association, and the media. Kazakhstan has shown a modest upward trend on this metric, improving from –1.2 in 2018 to –1.0 in 2023. These incremental gains correspond with recently institutionalized practices such as regular reporting by akims (mayors) to local communities, strengthened public participation through public councils and the public chamber and the expansion of digital consultation tools including e-otinısh and national e-petition platforms.
A similar trend is observed in the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset, which tracks the extent to which civil society organizations are consulted by policymakers on matters relevant to their constituencies. The V-Dem Civil Society Consultation Index improved from –0.69 in 2015 to –0.22 in 2024, indicating a gradual expansion of opportunities for civil society organizations to provide input into policy processes. Taken together, these datasets suggest slow but measurable progress in institutionalizing more open, participatory, and responsive governance practices in Kazakhstan.
Figure 2. Number of citizen comments on legal acts, 2014–2025.
Source: https://legalacts.egov.kz/
Since 2014, Kazakhstan has been advancing citizen consultation through its Open Government Portal, which integrates open data, open legislation, open budgets, open dialogue, and tools for assessing the effectiveness of state bodies. The Open Legislation Platform enables citizens to comment on, vote for, and track draft normative legal acts and the activities of government agencies. Between 2014 and 2025, the platform processed more than 149,000 draft acts and received approximately 327,000 citizen comments. The most actively discussed legislative areas relate to healthcare (70,057 comments), followed by economic activity (57,047) and education (29,602). These figures reflect a gradual but meaningful shift toward more systematic incorporation of citizen feedback into Kazakhstan’s lawmaking processes.
Overall, these developments point to a broader positive trend in Kazakhstan’s engagement with civil society, citizens, and other non-state actors, laying a stronger foundation for the country’s ongoing political transformation. By fostering a plurality of voices and broadening stakeholder participation, Kazakhstan is better positioned to address persistent challenges such as corruption, effective management of public resources, and complex social issues. These efforts align with the national objective of building a just and transparent public administration – one defined by a Strong President, an Influential Parliament, and an Accountable Government – which necessitates a state-society consultation and meaningful citizen engagement.
At the same time, important challenges remain. Transparency in the selection and appointment procedures for consultative mechanisms and state-supported advisory bodies, such as the public chamber, remains limited. Introducing merit-based criteria for these platforms, similar to those used in the civil service, could strengthen their legitimacy and credibility. At the subnational level, the effectiveness of consultation practices is influenced by citizens’ willingness to participate and, importantly, their trust in these processes. Although diverse consultation channels exist, citizens often hesitate to engage due to socio-economic constraints and low confidence that their contributions will influence outcomes.
Furthermore, digital platforms such as Open Legislation and Open Budget present additional barriers: many users face difficulties related to legal literacy and digital skills. Making draft laws and budget information more accessible through clearer language, summaries, and user-friendly formats would help broaden participation and deepen the quality of public engagement.
The author is Gulnur Makulbayeva, an Associate Professor of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of Kazakhstan.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Astana Times.
