Uzbekistan’s Transformation: Strategies and Perspectives

48 OSCE/ODIHR, Preliminary Assessment (see note 35), 40 f. 
49 Ukaz Prezidenta Respubliki Uzbekistan: Ob utverzhdenii kon-
cepcii sovershenstvovaniya normotvorcheskoy dejatel’nosti [Decree 
of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan: Confirmation 
of a concept for improving norm-setting], doc. no. UP-5505, 
8 August 2018, https://lex.uz/ru/docs/3858812 (accessed 2 July 
2020). 
50 OSCE/ODIHR, Preliminary Assessment (see note 35), 45 f. 
activity and visibility than structure and coherence. 
Established in February 2017 by presidential order as 
an NGO,
51
the DSC is supposed to prepare practical 
measures for realising the development goals, work-
ing together with experts and civil society groups and 
in close coordination with the National Commission 
that is formally responsible for implementing the 
strategy. A coordinating council composed largely of 
representatives of the presidential apparatus and the 
ministerial bureaucracy is responsible for supporting 
the DSC in its work and facilitating its cooperation 
with the state organs. The Centre is funded through 
state sources and external contributions from domes-
tic and international state and non-state organisa-
tions. 
The Development Strategy Centre describes itself as 
a think-tank with watchdog functions,
52
and operates 
as an intermediary between government and society. 
It communicates the requirements of state policy to 
society and reflects the latter’s reactions back to the 
political sphere in the form of recommendations. At 
the same time the DSC exhibits characteristics com-
parable to those of Western development agencies: 
It operates as umbrella organisation and point of con-
tact for a broad spectrum of foreign actors seeking 
fields of activity and cooperation partners in Uzbeki-
stan. Correspondingly diverse are the activities that 
the DSC has conducted since 2017 in the service of the 
reform agenda. Two areas are particularly prominent: 
organising events to mobilise media and youth – in 
other words public relations – and preparing project 
proposals in collaboration with domestic and foreign