This chapter evaluates Kazakhstan’s centre-of-government (CoG) institutions, functions and mechanisms with a focus on strategic planning and policy coordination with line ministries. The chapter examines ongoing reforms to streamline the Government Apparatus, decentralize functions, improve strategic planning, and enhance policy co-ordination in light with the experiences of OECD member and partner country practices. The chapter concludes with recommendations to enhance CoG effectiveness, ensuring that strategic planning and policy implementation effectively support the country’s long-term development goals.
OECD Public Governance Scan of Kazakhstan
Toward a More Agile, Responsive and Effective Public Administration
Abstract
2.1.1. Kazakhstan has set a clear long-term vision to achieve social and economic progress
As outlined in Chapter 1, Kazakhstan’s successive strategic plans have made the country embrace an accelerated socio-economic development path. Since 2000, Kazakhstan has enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth, supported by an ambitious reform agenda that has targeted increased contribution of the private sector to economic development, diversification of employment, output and exports, and integration in regional and international value chains. However, its growth rate remains largely driven by the commodities sector, while the trend rate of growth has been declining (OECD, 2023[1]). The President’s State of the Nation Address in September 2023 “Economic course of a Just Kazakhstan" recognised the need for Kazakhstan to continue reform efforts towards liberalising and diversifying the economy, emphasising particularly the need for sustained efforts on its strategic planning system, accompanied by effective implementation at all governance levels (Government of Kazakhstan, 2023[2]).
Public administration and governance reform have been an integral and successful part of the country’s reform agenda. The Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy recognised the need of both political and administrative decentralisation as a means to support the country’s broader agenda, in particular focusing on restoring citizen trust in the judicial system and improving the business environment, with, among others, reducing the state’s participation in the economy (Government of Kazakhstan, 2015[3]). Public governance reform is implemented to grant the state greater means to deliver on its development vision, emphasising the need for improved public service delivery for both citizens and firms, greater autonomy of local governments, and improved strategic planning (Baimenov and Liverakos, 2022[4]). This is also exemplified in the President’s successive addresses, which target the creation of a “listening, effective, professional, pragmatic and accountable” state, with specific emphasis on a radical transformation of the planning system and the decentralisation of powers and the concept of a Listening State (see Chapter 1).
2.1.2. Kazakhstan has a well-established set of institutions, processes and documents to deliver on policy reforms in support of its national vision
Kazakhstan features a unique framework for planning activities, distinguishing between “state planning” and “strategic planning”. In OECD member and partner countries, a single strategic planning framework aims to support countries defining a long-term vision, identifying and setting priorities, and designing and implementing plans to deliver on long-term objectives. While many players are involved in such processes, only one planning system is defined by the law, decrees or other legal means. In Kazakhstan, there is a shared understanding of the duality of the system: the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on approval of the State Planning System in the Republic of Kazakhstan differentiates between the “State Planning system” and the “Strategic Planning system” (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]). The strategic planning element is included in the decree in the form of high-level strategies such as the National Development Plan and the National Security Strategy and is entrusted only to the President, who complements these strategies through its annual State of the Nation addresses. State planning is entrusted to the government which implements and operationalises the country’s long-term vision through actionable documents based on the National Development Plan, the National Security Strategy, and development plans of state bodies at different administrative levels, and of national companies. State planning is thus a system of interrelated components, plans, principles and methodologies to define actions and achieve results.
The OECD definition of strategic planning covers both the state and strategic plannings, and for the sake of coherence with OECD work on strategic planning, this report will hereafter refer to “strategic planning” in reference to OECD member and partner countries. In occurrences where the prerogatives of the President are discussed, the distinction will be made. While in the long term, Kazakhstan could consider merging both systems into one, unique system, this report will focus on analysing the existing one and exploring how to enhance the dual system currently in place.
The President of Kazakhstan sets the long-term vision for the country and the overall direction of strategic planning. Besides long-term development strategies, the President steers and adjusts the overall activity of the public sector through annual State of the Nation addresses (Government of Kazakhstan, 2022[6]) usually delivered in September and prepared by the Executive Office of the President based on proposals submitted by the government. After the Address has been presented by the President, the Executive Office, in cooperation with the MNE, translates its provisions into implementation plans for each ministry, to which the corresponding deputy prime ministers are accountable throughout the year.
Kazakhstan’s strategic planning system provides ministries, agencies and akims with long-term development objectives, and structures the activity of the entire public sector and the state planning system. The country’s overarching planning documents are the Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy and the Strategy for Achieving Carbon Neutrality of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2060 (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]), accompanied by sectoral national priorities. National development plans are derived from the former to operationalise the priorities for reform through ten-year strategic plans. In turn, each ministry and government agency develops its own strategic plan for its policy field covering all its functions and activities over a period of five years, revised every third year, and implemented through the annual operational plans. Similarly, SOEs develop strategic plans for a period of ten years. Each public entity is responsible for the monitoring and reporting on the completion of their plans, which constitute key criteria of their evaluation (Adilet, 2017[7]); (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]).
Kazakhstan has a stable and centralised public governance system in which policy co-ordination and strategic and state planning roles are shared between the Executive Office, the Government Apparatus, and line ministries (see Box 2.1). The Executive Office is the central organ shaping and monitoring strategic directions of the country, formulating public policies and reforms, and supporting the implementation of the decrees and decisions of the President. The government, composed of the Cabinet of Ministers and chaired by the Prime Minister, is primarily responsible for inter-departmental coordination and decision-making through government meetings, as well as the formulation, co-ordination and oversight of policy implementation. Line ministries are mainly tasked with the implementation of policies in their respective sectors and have subordinate agencies to support them.
The Executive Office of the President
The Executive Office is the President’s administration, supporting the President in their key functions through information, analytical, legal, organisational and other activities, and assuming the central role in shaping the trajectory of governance reforms, mainly set by presidential initiatives such as the Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy. In the policy-making cycle, the Executive Office submits policy proposals to the President, and oversees policy co-ordination, entrusting implementation to line ministries and regional governments.
The Government Apparatus
The Government Apparatus serves as a state body responsible for co-ordinating the activities of state institutions, performing control functions, and carrying out other duties outlined by legislation and its regulations. Its mission is to provide informational, analytical, procedural, and institutional support to the Prime Minister and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. This includes supporting the activities of the Prime Minister and the government through information-analytical, procedural, institutional, and documentation services; implementing unified state policies for the protection of state secrets and information security; coordinating the creation of a unified system of information and telecommunication support for public authorities, including databases; overseeing the preparation and execution of governmental acts; monitoring the implementation of orders and decisions from the President, the government, and the Prime Minister; and examining the financial, economic, legal, and other aspects of governmental decisions, providing advisory conclusions to aid in decision-making by the Prime Minister, deputies, and the Apparatus’ leadership.
The Ministry of National Economy (MNE)
The MNE serves as the central executive body responsible for managing and co-ordinating intersectoral policies that drive national development and public administration reform. Its mandate includes forming state policy across key areas such as tax, budget, and customs policy, public-private partnerships, state investment projects, regional development, local self-government and the enhancement of the public administration system. The MNE also oversees natural monopolies and socially significant markets, ensuring compliance with relevant laws and balancing the interests of consumers and service providers. It plays a critical role in developing corporate governance standards, managing state assets, and refining civil service remuneration and assessment systems to enhance institutional efficiency. Additionally, the Ministry monitors and evaluates state policies through conceptual frameworks like the Concept for the Development of Public Administration until 2030, conducting annual reviews to align implementation with national development goals.
The Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry (MDDIAI)
The MDDIAI is responsible for managing and co-ordinating the aerospace and electronic industries, as well as overseeing innovation, scientific and technical development, geodesy, cartography, and spatial data. It also ensures information security in areas such as informatisation, e-government, personal data protection, digital assets, project management, and communications, while developing state policies related to public services and data management. The Ministry's primary tasks include forming and implementing state policies in regulated areas, promoting a competitive aerospace industry, ensuring the development of communication infrastructure, managing the space industry, creating a legislative framework for space activities, co-ordinating efforts in the field of mail and communications, overseeing electronic government and data management, and fostering innovation. It also plays a role in international co-operation, regulatory control, and digital public services in the public administration within its areas of competence.
The Agency for Civil Service Affairs (CSA)
The CSA is a state body directly accountable to the President, with a mandate focused on the civil service and ensuring the quality of public service delivery. It plays a central role in developing and implementing state policies related to civil service management, assessing the quality of public services, and overseeing compliance with relevant legislation. The Agency is tasked with promoting the de-bureaucratisation of the state apparatus and co-ordinating the activities of state bodies to ensure adherence to civil service laws and regulations.
The Agency for Strategic Planning and Reform (ASPIRE)
ASPIRE, created in September 2020, is a state body directly accountable to the President, plays a central role in the strategic planning system and has taken over a vast portfolio of advisory, coordination and planning functions, particularly on the National Development Plan. ASPIRE is also entrusted with the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of strategic planning reforms. Finally, the agency also has the mandate to carry out and oversee state statistical activities, through the Bureau of National Statistics, one of its departments. ASPIRE can make direct proposals to the President on any of the matters covered by its mandate.
Source: (Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2024[8]); (Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2024[9]); (Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2024[10]); (Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Civil Service Affairs, 2024[11]; President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2020[12]; President of Kazakhstan, 2010[13]).
While major developments have taken place regarding digitalisation, service delivery and the civil service, overall reform implementation remains largely dependent on political will. The President has identified shortcomings and possible improvements to the system, particularly in his 2022 address, and has initiated a number of constitutional revisions aiming at reducing the Executive Office’s central role in shaping the trajectory of governance reforms. Over the years, observers have noted overlaps and inefficiencies in reform programmes due to a lack of systematic goal-setting, as well as implementation gaps and regular interruptions of reform programmes, which are often replaced by new ones before the end of their term (Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2024[14]; Baimenov and Liverakos, 2022[4]). In addition, weak autonomy and results-based accountability of line ministries, the ultimate implementing bodies, have regularly resulted in inconsistencies in policy implementation (OECD, 2014[15]; OECD, n.d.[16]). As a result, short-term considerations tend to prevail over long-term objectives, and the effective ability to drive reform ultimately relies on political will at the highest level of the state. The recent changes introduced to the State and Strategic planning systems aim to address some of these issues and to streamline and increase the efficiency of the policy making and planning system, while the increased autonomy granted to line Ministries represents steps towards reducing the reliance of reform implementation on political will.
2.1.3. The OECD had underlined a number of key reforms to increase the effectiveness of the central administration
In 2014 and 2017, the OECD assessed the efficiency and effectiveness of the functions of the Centre of Government (CoG) and ministerial institutions in Kazakhstan. The 2014 Public Governance Review Kazakhstan: Review of the Central Administration emphasised the primacy of strengthening governance, including achieving a transparent, responsive and accountable public sector for Kazakhstan to achieve its long-term development goals. The 2017 Public Governance Review Towards a More Effective, Strategic and Accountable State in Kazakhstan updated and expanded the 2014 assessment and recommendations with a focus on the mechanisms and structures for strategy and policy-making, and the functions of the executive and its relations with its subsidiary bodies. Both reports recommended the adoption of a comprehensive action plan addressing multiple critical areas of public governance, including measures to (i) increase the autonomy and results-based accountability of ministries, (ii) improve ministerial capacities, enhance strategic planning and its implementation, and (iii) foster greater citizen involvement and transparency (OECD, 2014[15]; OECD, n.d.[16]).
This chapter builds on the 2014 and 2017 reviews to assess evolutions and progress on five core dimensions of public administration. This chapter will assess the progress made on previous analyses and recommendations, taking into account new priorities and suggest a way forward on five dimensions that are essential to enhance the Government’s ability to set, co-ordinate, implement and monitor the performance of its strategies and ensure the implementation of its long-term agenda:
Improving strategic planning: The CoG in Kazakhstan was found to maintain political control over policy decisions, strategic planning and oversight of the implementation of the government agenda, deterring the sense of initiative and responsibility within ministries. The Reviews recommended to involve ministries more actively in the strategic planning process and develop a more flexible approach that encourages initiative and responsibility. Further streamlining the administrative framework would be critical to enable ministerial empowerment.
Clarifying roles and strengthening co-ordination: While Kazakhstan shares most CoG functions found in OECD countries, further consolidation was considered necessary as well as better defining the ownership and roles on several issues, including public administration reform and HRM. Strengthening inter-ministerial and central coordination at all levels, encouraging working-level contacts among ministries and central agencies, and solidifying mechanisms for horizontal collaboration, were recommended in both Reviews.
Enhancing autonomy and accountability of ministries: The redefinition of roles between CoG and ministries could contribute to enhance ministerial autonomy, responsibility and involvement of ministries in the policy making process, deemed an essential aspect of reform by both Reviews. In addition, developing a risk-based, results-oriented central monitoring system would also strengthen accountability. This would empower ministries to focus more on the effectiveness of their programmes rather than just ensuring legal compliance with strategic initiatives.
Strengthening ministerial capacities: The Reviews identified significant gaps in ministerial capacities, particularly in policy analysis, research, and risk management. Ministries were found to lack comprehensive capabilities in these areas, hindering their ability to develop and implement effective policies, and calling for further building ministerial capacities.
Streamlining performance and accountability systems: Kazakhstan had put in place a system to assess the implementation of strategic plans. However, the targets and indicators were found to be numerous and mainly output- and process-driven, potentially diluting focus on key priorities. Reducing the number of core objectives evaluated and focusing on outcome-based measures were recommended in the Reviews. Introducing a government-wide performance reporting system would also enhance transparency and accountability.
2.2.1. The evolution of policy decision making and co-ordination processes in Kazakhstan show increasing similarities with what is done in OECD member countries
Centres of government in OECD member countries perform key functions on decision-making and policy coordination while policy formulation is done by line Ministries
In OECD Member countries, centres of government (CoG) (Box 2.2) play a pivotal role in driving decision-making processes and supporting the preparations of cabinet meetings (Council of Ministers). 74% of CoGs identified the preparations of cabinet meetings as the main function they perform in 2017, a share that has even increased to 92% of CoG considering it as a priority activity in 2023 (Figure 2.1). CoGs manage the development of the agenda for the cabinet meeting and in 73% of cases, they review the policy proposals and options, in particular on the alignment with the government priorities and programme. This role helps the CoG inform and prepare the decisions made by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet (OECD, 2024[17]). For instance, in Canada, the Privy Council has defined a Memorandum to the Cabinet that departments and agencies must prepare and submit along with their policy proposal for review by the Privy Council and by the relevant cabinet policy committees.
The CoG is “the body or group of bodies that provide direct support and advice to Heads of Government and the Council of Ministers, or Cabinet”. As a key institution of the executive branch, it is mandated to ensure elected politicians make decisions informed by coherent evidence and expert analysis and facilitates co-ordination across government siloes. However, the CoG concept does not denote any specific organisational structure: the composition of the CoG can vary depending on the constitutional order, the political system, contextual and historical factors and the Head of Government’s preferences. Depending on countries, it can take the form of a Prime Minister’s Office, State Chancellery, Government Office or other institutional arrangements, including line Ministries based on their functions (Ministries of Economy, Planning or Finance).
Functional definitions of the CoG can include institutions or agencies that perform core cross-cutting governmental functions, such as planning, co-ordination, prioritisation and policy leadership role as well as preparations of Cabinet meetings, whole-of-government regulatory policy and legal compliance, and public administration reforms. In general, the role of the centre of government has expanded from purely procedural and agenda-setting functions to playing a more strategic leadership role of supporting the Head of Government and Cabinet.
Source: Adapted from (OECD, 2024[17]).
Policy co-ordination from the centre is the second key function identified by CoGs and helps ensure that government policies are prepared, aligned and implemented in an efficient and consistent way across the government, in line with government priorities (Figure 2.1). It can also help provide robust inputs and evidence base from government and non-government stakeholders in the development and implementation phases of policies. The importance of policy coordination has further increased over recent years with the emergence of increasingly complex and multisectoral policy issues that span across multiple policy areas and sectors, such as climate change, digitalisation and the development of AI.
Source: (OECD, 2017[18]).
Both the decision-making and policy coordination functions support the identification, alignment and implementation of government priorities across the public administration and entities. Setting priorities has been consistently selected by virtually all CoGs in OECD Member countries (96%) as an essential function (OECD, 2024[17]). Prioritisation is a challenging responsibility for CoGs as it involves a focus on few selected priorities and trade-offs across several dimensions, namely between long-term and short measures, sectoral and whole-of-government policies, and conflicting priorities in a context of limited government resources and capacities. The centre of government will typically translate the presidential and government commitments into a work programme with priorities to steer government action and guide policy development and implementation by line Ministries (OECD, 2017[18]). As such, while CoGs will steer, coordinate the implementation and ensure alignment of policies, only 15% of CoGs develop policy options and proposals on their own (OECD, 2024[17]). In particular, the CoG will review and provide feedback on policies developed by line Ministries, develop standards and frameworks to inform policy development, try to flag and minimise contradictions, and ensure high quality of policy proposals.
The Executive Office, the Government Apparatus and the Ministry of National Economy play essential functions on decision making and coordination in Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, the centre-of-government consists of a robust set of institutions that performs the essential functions typically played by CoGs in OECD member countries. In particular, the CoG in Kazakhstan sets, steers, monitors and ensures the delivery of key national and government priorities. Similar functions are played by the CoG in OECD Member countries such as the Baltic States, Canada and the UK. While these functions in OECD member countries are often centralised into one institution, usually the Prime Minister (or Cabinet) Office or the State Chancellery, they are split across different institutions in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan’s polycentric CoG is mainly composed of the Executive Office, the Government Apparatus, which has recently replaced the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of National Economy (MNE), as well as the Ministry of Finance and the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reform (ASPIRE). These institutions play different roles across the CoG functions. In particular, the Executive Office provides the long-term strategic vision, priorities and actions. The Government Apparatus prepares cabinet meetings, allocates responsibilities for the implementation including on crosscutting areas, and ensures overall alignment and delivery on government priorities, and the MNE plays a central coordination and monitoring role across the government on strategies and policies. In the framework of the state planning system, the role of ASPIRE is focused on developing national strategic plans, checking line Ministries’ plans alignment with national priorities and monitoring the progress made on the plans, and adjusting accordingly medium and long-term reform plans, as summarised in Table 2.1 below.
Note: Key selected CoG functions reflect top functions performed by CoGs in OECD member countries based on Figure 2.1.
Source: Based on questionnaires filled by Kazakhstan as part of the project.
The institutional model of the CoG is very often a product of national context and history, with some countries having one unique institution and other adopting polycentric models. The polycentric model requires countries to have a clear delineation of responsibilities and operating models to ensure consistency and coherence in performing key functions and in ultimately designing and delivering the country’s priorities and policies. While the OECD had noted that further efforts could be done in clarifying and consolidating functions and responsibilities in previous Reviews, Kazakhstan has engaged in a number of important reforms to enhance the effectiveness of its functions, particularly with the creation of the MNE and the transformation of the Prime Minister’s Office into a Government Apparatus.
2.2.2. Kazakhstan has clear governance arrangements, procedures and system for decision-making and coordination
Decision-making and supporting the political level
At the government level, the decision-making function in Kazakhstan is supported by the Government Apparatus, and the main governmental decision-making body is the Council of Ministers. Like a vast majority of OECD member countries, Kazakhstan has established a weekly government meeting operating as a Council of Ministers chaired by the Prime Minister. The meeting allows the government to examine and discuss key policy issues and the Prime Minister to provide direction, instructions and priorities. A summary is published on the Prime Minister’s website, including video extracts, and is openly available (Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, 2024[19]).
At the country level, while progress has been made towards decentralising powers, Kazakhstan remains a centralised state with the President, supported by the Executive Office, setting key directions for the country and to the public administration and making major strategic decisions. Supporting the political level and making the link with the administration is a key function played by the CoG in OECD member countries as well, and this role is even more important in Kazakhstan given the paramount and central position of the President. Since 2022, the President has initiated reforms to decrease the powers associated to this role and to transfer more functions and powers to the government and other levels of government (President of Kazakhstan, 2022[20]). The CoG plays an essential role in supporting the head of state, particularly the Executive Office, which is explicitly mandated to assist the President in exercising his powers through analytical, information, legal, organisational and protocol support (President of Kazakhstan, 2010[13]). Other institutions of the CoG also support decision-making processes at the highest political level through decision-making at Cabinet meetings prepared and followed by the Government Apparatus, through direct ad hoc meetings between the President, the Prime Minister and Ministers, by providing analytical information and reports to the President and to the Executive Office, for instance by the MNE and ASPIRE on strategic planning, and by supporting and ensuring the execution of the Presidential decisions and decrees. This is for instance most visible in the framework of the preparation and the implementation of the Annual State of the Nation address, where the Executive Office and the Government Apparatus have formal and regular coordination meetings. Implementation of reforms following the Address is regularly discussed and monitored during meetings between the Government Apparatus and Ministries and reported back to the Executive Office as well as to the MNE in the framework of the annual formal implementation monitoring framework (Government of Kazakhstan, 2022[6]).
Policy co-ordination: roles and mechanisms
Through its location at the centre and its proximity with the head of state, the CoG is uniquely positioned to co-ordinate goals and policies across the government and public institutions. In Kazakhstan, the co-ordination role has been clearly assigned to the Ministry of National Economy in a large number of policy areas and involves well-defined procedures. This practice has been widely recognised by line Ministries and has helped ensure a smooth coordination across the government in different fields. The coordination function also comes with monitoring activities that have also been allocated to the MNE and help ensure overall consistency.
The increasing interconnectedness and complexity of policy issues call for integrated policy responses across sectors and robust interministerial collaboration. Beyond the government meetings that provide a high-level and formal decision-making forum, Kazakhstan has established a number of National Councils and committees that mainly play an advisory role in specific sectors. As of March 2024, there are 4 consultative and advisory bodies headed by the President, including as the Energy Council, the Council for Mining and Metallurgy, the Council for the Transition to a Green Economy, and the Commission on the implementation of digitalization, and 34 councils headed by the Prime Minister or the Deputy Prime Ministers, including the Council of Domestic Entrepreneurs, the Commission on Demonopolization of the Economy, the Council for Improving the Investment Climate, and the Sustainable Development Goals Co-ordination Council (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[21]). These Councils are typically supported by a sectoral Ministry that plays the role of the Secretariat.
However, these interministerial councils represent a divergence with OECD member countries, to the extent that they make a more limited contribution to collective decision-making and co-ordination. Indeed, while there are frequent interactions and reporting as well as firmly established communication procedures in Kazakhstan, this rarely involves wide, formal inter-ministerial consultation and involvement in designing, implementing and monitoring policies, finding common solutions to complex challenges and preparing decision making. The integration of these Councils in decision-making processes is unclear, particularly on how they are able to influence decision and policy making and how their recommendations are further examined in government meetings and by the CoG, the more so given that their decisions are considered recommendations and are non-binding for the government. For instance, the main recommendations of these Councils could be examined by the Government Apparatus and presented and agreed in government meeting. Despite the existence of the Councils, there are limited opportunities for Ministers and other government levels to provide inputs, prepare, share and coordinate on crucial policy issues of strategic importance.
Source: (OECD, 2024[17]).
OECD member countries have established a number of different mechanisms at the political and technical level to support whole-of-government coordination, especially interdepartmental workforces and working groups (88% of countries) and expert groups (73%) (Figure 2.2). Depending on institutional context, these mechanisms can be focused on strategic priorities, policy issues, sectoral dimensions and specific plans or document and support their effective delivery beyond administrative silos. These committees are usually engrained in decision making processes, interacting with the CoG and preparing policy suggestions and recommendations to be submitted to the Council of Ministers. For instance, Canada and Finland use such councils to steer, monitor and deliver on priorities and key policies (Box 2.3).
Canada
Cabinet committees in Canada play a crucial role in the review and preparations of materials for Cabinet meetings. They carry out most of the day-to-day work of Cabinet and review proposals in their field before submission to Cabinet. There are currently 10 such committees, some of which are permanent and others related to government priorities or current events (Cabinet Committee on Government Agenda, Results and Communications, Treasury Board, Cabinet Committee on Operations, Cabinet Committee on the Economy and the Environment, Cabinet Committee on Reconciliation, Cabinet Committee on Health and Social Affairs, Cabinet Committee on International Affairs and Public Security, Cabinet Committee on Federal Response to Coronavirus (COVID-19), Cabinet Sub-Committee on Litigation Management, Incident Response Group).
They have their own membership and areas of responsibility, which are determined by the Prime Minister (with the exception of the Treasury Board, whose terms of reference and membership are established by law). One of the tasks of the Committees is to consider policy proposals submitted to them, and then to circulate their recommendations to the Cabinet, which ratifies the recommendations.
The Cabinet Committee on the Government Programme, Results and Communications has particular responsibility for dealing with major issues of national unity and the government's strategic agenda. It also monitors progress against the government's priorities, coordinates the implementation of the government's overall action plan and considers strategic communications.
Finland
Finland has established several co‑ordination mechanisms to support strategy and decision-making supported by the CoG, particularly the Government Strategic Department. They bring together different line ministries and are usually shared by one or two lead ministries, depending on the topic. Finland has created:
Four permanent Ministerial Committees on Finance, Economic Policy, European Union (EU) Affairs and Foreign and Security Policy that play a key role in co‑ordinating government policies.
Thematic working groups focusing on a few government priorities (e.g., the Ministerial Working Group on Developing the Digital Transformation, the Data Economy and Public Administration) that help steer, monitor and implement those priorities.
Functional working groups on research and foresight.
2.2.3. Kazakhstan has been reforming its governance structure and institutional setting to “decentralise” policy making functions and make the system more efficient
Reforms are being undertaken to reduce centralisation of functions and transfer policy development activities to line Ministries, in line with past OECD recommendations
The OECD Review of the Central Administration of Kazakhstan underlined that the CoG retained strong central control over decisions and was involved in the management and implementation of the country’s strategy and governmental agenda (OECD, 2014[24]). The Review highlighted the need for Kazakhstan’s CoG to further move on its strategic role and to increase the decentralisation of the management and enhance the empowerment of ministries in policy making and delivery. Following a reorganisation of the centre of government in 2014, the Review also noted ongoing consolidation efforts to rationalise and improve the effectiveness and quality of some functions with the establishment of the Ministry of National Economy and of the Ministry of Finance but that further consolidation could be necessary in the areas of public service delivery or HRM (OECD, 2014[24]).
Through a series of reforms, Kazakhstan has been reforming the structure, functions and activities of its centre of government with the objectives to increase its effectiveness and decentralise functions from the CoG to central agencies and bodies. The 2022 State of the Nation address, “New Kazakhstan: The Path of Renewal and Modernisation” and the subsequent concept “A strong President—a influential Parliament—an accountable Government” are grounding current reform efforts aimed at deconcentrating powers from the centre, increasing the policy-making functions of line ministries, the effectiveness of the public administration, and the development of a “listening” state. These changes were further confirmed in the 2023 State of the Nation address delivered by the President (President of Kazakhstan, 2023[25]), and have been reflected in the public administration modernisation efforts led by the MNE (Government of Kazakhstan, 2022[26]).
As part of the decentralisation process from the centre in Kazakhstan, close to 500 functions played by the central government have been transferred to central agencies, akimats and other bodies on a wide range of policy areas, particularly regarding policy development activities by the Law "On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Reform of the Republic of Kazakhstan" (Government of Kazakhstan, 2022[27]) to enhance the efficiency, accountability and de-bureaucratisation of the administration. Line ministries, other central agencies and institutions are now in charge of forming and implementing state policies in their relative field; while a number of procedures and approvals by the centre of government are also reassigned to central executive bodies in charge of the sector (state planning, budget execution, media, protection of children’s rights, entrepreneurship, etc) (Government of Kazakhstan, 2022[27]). In turn, central state bodies have partly transferred implementation powers to local executive bodies.
The Prime Minister Office has been transformed into a “compact Government Office” (President of Kazakhstan, 2022[20]), which, in addition to the transfer of functions could help remove the policy development function held by the former Prime Minister Office and provide more responsibilities and autonomy to line Ministries in policy development and implementation, while maintaining a certain level of the alignment with government and national priorities. In Estonia for example, the State Chancellery is not tasked with developing policies. These decentralisation efforts are bringing Kazakhstan closer to OECD Member country practices by increasingly supporting the empowerment of ministries and public agencies on policy development. In OECD member countries, policy formulation is usually a task devoted to line Ministries in their respective fields, with 85% of line Ministries leading or co-leading the development of policy options, while the development of policies in crosscutting areas might be assigned to the CoG or to a specific line Ministry depending on the topic. However, these current evolutions need to be accompanied with increased resources, capacities and legal powers for central agencies to perform these new tasks.
Decentralising policy development functions to line Ministries should also be accompanied with providing line ministries with policy development frameworks, guidelines or standards. In 88% of OECD Member countries, the centre of government is setting frameworks, standards, guidance and building capacity of line Ministries and public agencies in policy development. These practices and guidance instruments have not been fully developed in Kazakhstan and can help support the capacity of line Ministries, public agencies and other players to better design and execute newly decentralised policies and functions. Australia’s centre of government has developed such guidelines and standards to support policy development (Box 2.4).
Australia’s Office of Impact Analysis, located within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, sets standards and provides guidance and resources to the public administration on policy frameworks, proposal processes and policy impact analyses. The new policy impact analysis guidance helps policymakers reflect on how policies can affect people, businesses and community in order to better shape policy proposals and understand the full range of costs and benefits. The Australian Government has released a framework with standards on this and the Office of Impact Analysis created forms, templates, guidance on processes, self-assessments and training videos to support implementation of the framework.
Sources: (Australian Government, 2023[28]) and (OECD, 2024[17]).
Line Ministries might need additional capacity and guidance to perform policy making functions, for instance with the creation of analytical units
Increased autonomy usually goes together with increased accountability from line Ministers on the relevance and quality of the design and implementation of policies as underlined by the OECD 2014 and 2017 reports that recommended to strengthen both autonomy and accountability of line Ministries in Kazakhstan (OECD, 2014[24]), and recognised by the President’s 2023 State of the Nation Address (President of Kazakhstan, 2023[25]). In particular, previous OECD Reviews noted the lack of autonomy and capacity of line Ministries for evidence-based policy making and policy development and encouraged enhanced empowerment of line Ministries on policies in their sectoral areas (OECD, 2014[24]).
Accountability from line Ministries can be twofold toward citizens through better communication and engagement of citizens, and toward the CoG, which remains in charge of ensuring the delivery of strategic priorities and policies set by the President. Performance management, including on priority policies set by the Executive Government Apparatus, is crucial to ensure accountability and consistency, and can be supported by regular data and policy review meetings between line Ministries and the Government Apparatus, including on crucial delegated functions. The United States has empowered the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the White House to carry out these performance management functions on priority policies ang goals set with public agencies and departments (Box 2.5).
In the United States, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the custodian of this process and provides it with steering, co-ordination and quality control functions across all phases of the policy cycle, while policies and measures are developed and implemented by public agencies and departments. Based on the Federal Government Performance Plan, the OMB engages with the different public agencies involved in delivering the plan, controls the quality standards and the implementation of policies and goals, and organises quarterly progress reviews with the agencies and with the director of the OMB, among other key activities. This system codified in the 2010 Government Performance Results and Modernization Act ensures a common accountability and performance management system to deliver on priority goals and policies.
Source: Adapted from (United States Congress, 2010[29]) and (OECD, 2024[17]).
For recent reforms to be successful, additional capabilities will be needed in line Ministries to prepare, draft and implement policies. Both analytical competencies, skills in the use of evidence and data, and expertise in sectoral areas will need to be further developed in line Ministries, through internal and external acquisition of competencies involving hirings and training programmes. This also requires that inputs and contributions of line Ministries to whole-of-government policies are taken into account and examined, for instance in Councils and up to the government meeting level. In this regard, several OECD Member countries have worked on developing analytical capacities and units in line Ministries to support better policy and regulatory making. The Czech Republic is for instance currently developing analytical units in the Government Office and in line Ministries to increase the use of evidence and the quality of policies and regulations, mirroring the example of the Slovak Republic (OECD, 2023[30]).
The Prime Minister Office has been transformed into a government office focusing on inter-ministerial coordination and decision-making
One of the key changes has been the creation of the Government Apparatus. The Decree “On measures to further improve the public administration system of the Republic of Kazakhstan” was passed on 2 January 2023 to transform the Office of the Prime Minister into the Government Apparatus (Government of Kazakhstan, 2023[31]). This decree has refocused the role of the latter on decision-making and policy coordination functions to enable it to play more effectively this role, along few other functions including the preparation of government legal acts and presidential instructions.
In particular, the conduct of economic policies has been transferred from the Executive Office to the government. Every year, once the State of the Nation address has been translated into concrete implementation roadmaps for each ministry by the Executive Office and the MNE, the Government Apparatus is responsible for disseminating these to the line ministries, and coordinate between them and the Executive Office on the overall direction of the roadmaps. Once approved by the Prime Minister and the President, the Government Apparatus oversees general implementation progress by line Ministries throughout the year (Government of Kazakhstan, 2023[31]; Government of Kazakhstan, 2022[6]). In addition, the MNE implements part of the roadmap, while evaluating the implementation of the economic policy roadmap of other line ministries. This has helped the government increase its autonomy to manage the economic agenda and policies.
The steering and coordination of crosscutting topics has also been strengthened as a responsibility of the Government Apparatus. This might call for increasing capacities in the Government Apparatus to do so, including expertise and coordination mechanisms. This is also an important competency increasingly held by CoGs in OECD member countries, particularly on priorities such as digitalisation and greening the economy (OECD, 2024[17]). Steering the responses to climate change from the centre is an increasing trend observed in OECD Member countries that can support Kazakhstan, and particularly the Government Apparatus, in steering and advancing its green transition agenda (Kaur et al., 2023[32]).
Climate change is a crosscutting and multidimensional challenge consistently identified as a top priority by half of CoGs in OECD member countries. The fight against climate change indeed requires multidimensional responses that span across multiple sectors, including but not limited to environment, transport, energy and industry.
CoGs are taking increasing responsibilities in steering, coordinating and ensuring the implementation of the global commitments on climate change and of national green agendas. In particular, the centre can help set priorities on climate change within the country’s long-term objectives, develop and monitor national green strategies and review the alignment of sectoral strategies and targets with national climate change and environmental objectives as it is in the case in 63% of OECD member countries.
CoGs have adopted a number of new institutional settings, coordination mechanisms and instruments to further steer the climate agenda, while Ministries of Environment alone sometimes lack the convening power and capacity to drive the entire agenda. The Government Office in Estonia is tasked with steering and coordinating the green transition. Countries such as Canada, France, and the UK have both a strong Ministry of Environment and a unit in the centre that drives the green agenda. Interministerial committees have also been established to design, monitor and implement national strategies and objectives on climate change and the environment, like the Committee of Green Transition Policy in Estonia that is chaired by the Prime Minister and operates at the Ministerial level. Other co-ordination mechanisms used in OECD Member countries include task forces that focus on specific climate-related issues and networks of focal points in line Ministries.
Monitoring and evaluation of the impact of climate policies is also instrumental. Digital platforms are used by many CoGs to monitor the implementation of priorities, including climate change. Germany and Sweden have created independent expert councils to carry out annual evaluations that are analysed and used by governments to revise national policies.
Source: (Kaur et al., 2023[32]).
As underlined by its structure, the Government Apparatus has retained a number of analytical capacities and departments, including on economic matters, industrial and infrastructure development and other topics (Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, 2024[19]). These functions can help advise the Prime Minister and review the plans and documents prepared by line Ministries to ensure their effectiveness and consistency with the whole-of-government priorities and the President’s strategic directions, particularly in the preparations of the government meeting. This review and challenge function is also typically played by CoGs in OECD Member countries, for instance by the Privy Council in Canada. In particular, the Privy Council reviews the consistency of the policy document submitted to the Cabinet meeting with the government programme and can challenge and return the document in case of gaps or inconsistencies (OECD, 2017[18]).
While it is too early to assess the impact of the reform its ambition would get the split of functions in Kazakhstan closer to a number of OECD member countries
The Government Apparatus’ focus on fewer functions is closer to the model of government offices in OECD Member countries, where they focus on the functions of preparations of the Cabinet meetings, policy coordination and administrative functions. OECD member countries have also created dedicated units on specific crosscutting topics when steering from the centre was needed. For instance, the Government Office of Czechia supports the preparations of the meetings of the cabinet of ministers. It also helps regulatory preparations, assessment and review, and has a dedicated department on the digital transition (OECD, 2023[30]). The Government Office of Estonia also plays wide functions in support to the Prime Minister and the government, particularly on preparing the cabinet sessions, strategic planning, government programme coordination, monitoring and supervision, legal review, national security and public communications among other functions (Government of Estonia, 2024[33]) (Box 2.7).
The Government Office of Estonia (State Chancellery by law) performs a number of key functions related to planning, Cabinet meetings and decision-making, review and compliance, communications as well as other tasks. According to the law, “the State Chancellery performs the following tasks:
1. Supporting the planning of the work of the Government of the Republic and organising and coordinating the strategic planning of the country, including co-ordinating the preparation and implementation of the action program of the Government of the Republic, the improvement of the country's competitiveness and strategic development plans for sustainable development;
2. Preparation of sessions of the Government of the Republic and meetings of the Cabinet;
3. Ensuring compliance of draft legislation of the Government of the Republic with the Constitution and other laws;
4. Coordinating the formation and implementation of Estonia's positions on European Union affairs;
5. Development of decision-making processes of the Government of the Republic;
6. Informing the public about the goals and activities of the Government of the Republic and the Prime Minister;
7. Organization of communication between the Government of the Republic and the Prime Minister, the Riigikogu [Parliament] and other constitutional institutions;
8. advising the Prime Minister on issues of national security and national defence, organizing the work of the Security Committee of the Government of the Republic and coordinating the management of national security and national defence;
9. advising and supporting the prime minister in managing the work of the Research and Development Council and servicing the work of the Research and Development Council;
10. advising the Prime Minister on other matters and organizing the work and administration of the Government of the Republic, the bodies advising the Government of the Republic and the Prime Minister;
11. organizing the recruitment, selection, development and evaluation of officials;
12. other tasks assigned to the State Chancellery by laws and other legislation and by the Government of the Republic.”
Source: (Government of Estonia, 2012[34]).
Kazakhstan needs to ensure that the new system and roles and responsibilities are clearly understood and implemented, and that the appropriate capacities and instruments are developed to ensure the right balance between autonomy and accountability of Ministries, such as analytical units, data review meetings and policy guidance. While the CoG, particularly the Government Apparatus and the Executive Office, will continue to provide directions and policy priorities, policy formulation and implementation should be fully exercised by line Ministries in their respective areas. This call for strengthening the performance and monitoring system, to further build capacities in line Ministries, and to strengthen the coordination between the CoG and line Ministries (Box 2.8).
In Estonia, roles and responsibilities on policy and strategy development are clearly defined and shared between the Prime Minister Office and line Ministries to ensure consistency, accountability and efficiency along the policy cycle. The Prime Minister’s Office has steering, co-ordination and review functions, while line Ministries are tasked with policy development and implementation.
The Strategic Unit in the Prime Minister Office supports and co-ordinates the drafting of strategic development plans and government action plans and monitors their implementation. At the policy origination phase, the Strategic Unit typically organises a concept meeting with the line Ministry that will author the policy document. The line Ministry then develops the policy that is later submitted to the CoG and to the Cabinet meeting. Once approved, the line Ministry implements the policy. Along the implementation phase data review meetings are held between the CoG and the line Ministry to assess and discuss the implementation and possible policy adaptations.
Source: (Republic of Estonia, 2024[35]).
2.3.1. Kazakhstan has been recently revising its state and strategic planning frameworks to better align and deliver on its long-term development priorities
Strategic planning is an essential function of central governments in OECD Member countries to ensure the delivery of national visions and long-term development objectives
Given its whole-of-government approach, proximity to the head of state and convening power, the CoG is well positioned to perform the strategic planning function. Strategic planning is a key responsibility for more than half of CoGs in OECD member countries. Their positioning ensures consistency of priorities, documents and procedures to deliver on strategic objectives as well as alignment between national and sectoral plans and policies. CoGs primarily play a series of key activities on strategic planning: they help formulate the long-term vision, support the identification of whole-of-government priorities, set standards and requirements on strategic documents for line Ministries, ensure the review and alignment of sectoral plans with national priorities and coordinate and monitor strategic planning documents and activities (Figure 2.3).
Note: n=26; Respondents to a survey to CoGs in OECD member and non-member countries were asked “For each of the below activities regarding setting the vision, priorities, and strategic planning, please indicate who has the primary responsibility.”
Source: (OECD, 2024[17]).
To support strategic planning activities, CoGs use a series of mechanisms, instruments and tools that help ensure efficiency and consistency and provide support to line Ministries. Some of the most frequent ones include interministerial coordination mechanisms such as committees and working groups to steer activities and address issues, review meetings and procedures for strategic documents with authoring bodies, digital monitoring platform on the implementation of priorities to follow progress and ensure delivery of priorities, guidelines, templates and training to line Ministries to ensure harmonisation of documents and plans, and foresight tools and activities to anticipate on long-term trends and challenges.
Kazakhstan has a long tradition of strategic and state planning around long-term documents, that have supported the socio-economic development of the country
Establishing legal provisions for the strategic planning system can help build a robust, clear and coherent strategic planning system that provides clear and commonly shared institutional responsibility, principles and procedures. This framework also helps define a hierarchy of strategic planning documents that can help ensure alignment and consistency of priorities around the long-term strategic objectives of the country. While not all OECD Member countries have enshrined their strategic planning framework in legislation, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as non-Member countries like Croatia and Egypt have used comprehensive strategic planning acts while Portugal has passed decrees pertaining to the strategic planning mandate of PlanAPP, like Jordan with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (OECD, 2024[36]), (OECD, 2023[22]).
Kazakhstan has created a dual and complementary system that distinguishes between “State planning” and “Strategic planning”, while in practice the interplay of both frameworks provides for a robust strategic planning framework as understood by the OECD definition. The system is regulated by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, adopted in 2017 and further revised in 2021 and 2024, which establishes documents, participants, principles and elements of process and data management. The Decree also establishes documents, participants, principles and elements of process and data management for the development, implementation and monitoring of the State Planning System (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]).
The Strategic planning framework is overseen by the President and forms the backbone of the country’s development vision. It comprises the two highest-level strategic documents, the Kazakhstan 2050 development plan and the Strategy for Achieving Carbon Neutrality until 2060 and are complemented annually by the State of the Nation address of the President, providing new priorities to face an evolving context and actionable policy goals to the administration. Besides the President and the Executive Office, ASPIRE is the central institution having received the mandate to support Strategic planning in a system that is driven by the President and the Executive Office in setting, steering and delivering strategic priorities, with important reporting and oversight (OECD, 2014[24]).
The implementation of all Strategic planning documents is delegated to the government and forms the basic structure of the State planning system. The MNE is the main supervising entity of the state planning system, while implementation is entrusted to individual line Ministries and other public agencies. The state planning system Kazakhstan’s state planning system also contains regulations (orders) on the rules and methodology for the development and monitoring of state planning documents (hereafter “the Rules” and “the Methodology”), first developed in 2021 and updated in 2024 (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]; Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, 2024[37]).The methodology defines the processes for development, review and approval of strategic planning documents for each type of public authority, and leverages online tools, particularly the IPA platform. In practice, high level strategic plans (such as the National Development Plan and the National Security Strategy) are approved by the President while state programmes and strategic plans of government agencies and territories are submitted for review by the Ministry of National Economy and approved, respectively, by orders of the first heads of state bodies and decisions of maslikhats (local parliament) of the relevant territories. Development plans of national management holdings, national holdings and national companies shall be approved by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The latest revision of the state planning decree aims to transform the system to increase its effectiveness, streamline it and improve alignment of efforts.
As a continuation of the 2022 constitutional and social changes (see Chapter 1), the President has called for “a radical revision” of the state planning system during his 2023 State of the Nation Address for the public administration to streamline and enhance the strategic planning efforts and support the overall reform momentum (President of Kazakhstan, 2023[25]). The new state planning framework has been formalised through a revision of the decree on state planning in May 2024 which has simplified the overall framework and brought some novelties while streamlining and reinforcing the monitoring of implementation (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]).
The Decree contains a number of building blocks that are common to many planning laws across countries:
Definition: the decree provides a classic definition of the state planning system including references to pursued long-term goals and to the strategic planning system.
Principles: the decree defines main principles for the state planning system around human centricity, efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, coherence, realism, management responsibility, continuity and flexibility.
Key elements and enablers: the decree introduces the overall processes, data management principles, tools and methodologies to be used by entities involved in strategic planning, with a leading role provided to the authorised body for state planning. Detailed elements on the methodologies and monitoring are developed in separate decrees.
State planning documents: a precise typology and description of the objectives, structure and development of the key planning documents is outlined in the document, underlining different procedures and approvals for the documents. It also underlines the importance of indicators.
The May 2024 revision contains significant changes compared to the previous 2021 version, as aimed to be more compact and grant more flexibility and efficiency to the public administration. The decree now mainly serving as the general framework for state planning, while most procedural aspects were removed and delegated to the level of orders. Many of the changes were also introduced to reduce the number of planning acts and streamline procedures. For instance, the decree has reduced the number of levels in the hierarchy of strategic planning documents from six to two (see below), with the National Development Plan and the National Security having become the main direction-setting plans. Nonetheless, the decree states a reinforced need for each of the latter to be aligned with the higher-level ones. The new decree has also in particular removed one important level of strategic documents, by excluding the state programmes and the concept of development of the industry/sphere and national projects from the traditional planning system hierarchy, now mentioned in a separate section on “other strategic planning document section” and approved by the centre of government or the President (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]). This simplification also aims to avoid duplication of efforts and possible conflicts between the concepts of developments of the industry/sphere and the concept of development of state bodies involved in those spheres, while keeping an important accountability element as state bodies are clearly in charge of the implementation and achievement of their own development plans.
These developments aim to streamline and consolidate the state planning framework, allocate clear responsibilities within the latter, and provide clear rules to harmonise documents and approaches across public entities, however some alignment gaps should be further addressed to ensure alignment and implementation of strategic priorities, and ensure consistency across the planning system. In particular, the new decree mentions the subordination of all state planning documents to the “state planning” goals set in Kazakhstan 2050 and the Carbon Neutrality Strategy, which are not covered in the document as they are part of the strategic planning system (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]).
Also, when faced with concerns of duplications between sector and individual bodies’ strategies, OECD member countries tended to keep the sector level plans as they were deemed more cross-cutting and comprehensive with many policy issues to be tackled collectively, but this does not necessarily imply that Kazakhstan should follow the same path. In the new system, Kazakhstan could however pay specific attention to the interconnectedness and co-operation between state bodies on specific issues, for instance on energy, transport and environment, or on investment, taxation and justice.
Kazakhstan’s Decree on State Planning provides a coherent and structured strategic (“state”) planning framework, with many similarities but also some remaining notable differences with OECD countries
The May 2024 revision of the Decree on State planning in Kazakhstan shares many similarities with countries having established a planning law, particularly on the definition of principles, typology, levels and time horizons.
Despite these similarities, several differences appear that could be worth further exploring in future versions of the decree or in separate legal or guidance documents. In particular, Kazakhstan lacks an interministerial strategic planning body at Prime and Minister level that usually ensures that strategic priorities are well defined, aligned and delivered by the whole-of-government (see below). While Kazakhstan has established a Supreme Council for Reforms, the Council has not been referred to and tasked with overall strategic supervision in the decree. Further, if the overall process to develop, review and approve documents has been removed from the decree to be set out in accompanying documents, once drafted, these documents should be referenced to ensure the consistency of all priorities and documents. Finally, Kazakhstan also introduces an additional level of documents compared to other countries with the development plans of public companies. This element seems crucial given their importance in the Kazakh context and the need to align their activities with sectoral plans and Ministries.
Mechanisms to ensure the alignment of strategies are crucial to further connect and deliver on strategic priorities
Kazakhstan’s recent procedural and legal developments have helped consolidate the state planning framework, allocate clear responsibilities, and provide clear rules to harmonise documents and approaches across public entities. This trend shows similarities with what has been done in OECD member and non-member countries to streamline their strategic planning environment, for instance Lithuania (Box 2.9) and Poland which have engaged in important streamlining efforts that have helped reduce the number of strategic documents by taking stock of existing strategic documents, cancelling, merging or replacing previous strategic document usually through the introduction of new laws and hierarchies (OECD, 2023[22]).
However, if the perceived importance of strategic planning is high and largely shared by the CoG, the government, and public entities across Kazakhstan, shortcomings in their monitoring and implementation have not enabled all plans to reach the expected objectives, partly due to excessive complexity and bureaucracy of the system. Given that the country is currently in a transition period, where all procedures and implementation documents have not yet been adapted to the new state planning framework, the coherence and alignment of the Kazakh planning system can be further supported by several mechanisms that are used in OECD Member countries. In particular, Kazakhstan could consider establishing a high level inter-ministerial committee to guide the work on strategic planning and discuss key priorities and strategic directions to ensure high-level alignment across the government. Such committees can be supported by other types of interministerial working groups on strategic planning to further review key measures and ensure that they are aligned with the strategic and operational plans of key players in the same field, particularly when the strategy concerns a crosscutting area, such as the environment or digitalisation.
The CoG in OECD member countries also performs regular reviews of strategic planning documents, particularly on the consistency with the government and country priorities, before they are approved and during their implementation. Some countries like Estonia have formalised those meetings into regular data review meetings between the CoG and the Ministry or state body authoring the strategy. In the context of Kazakhstan, the role of state bodies in reviewing the development plans of national companies or other bodies involved in their sector appears important to ensure consistency and efficiency of the implementation of their own development plan.
In Lithuania, more than 250 strategic documents existed in 2015, which led to a streamlining of the planning system between 2016 and 2020, where the Government developed a new Law, guidelines and an action plan for restructuring the strategic planning and budget-formulation system to focus more on results and ensure fiscal sustainability.
A new Law on Strategic Management was adopted in June 2020, laying down the principles of the new results-oriented and strategic management system, the levels and types of planning documents, their interrelationships and their impact on the planning of funds, the participants of the strategic management system, their rights and duties, and the provisions of governance of the system. The objectives of the Law were to optimise the number of strategic planning documents in order to make planning, monitoring and evaluation clearer and to revise the strategic planning system.
On the basis of the Law, the Government prepared a Strategic Management Methodology detailing its implementation that has been used in the preparations of the future Lithuania 2050 long-term strategy.
As a result, the number of strategic-planning documents were reduced to around 30, with the new hierarchy and list of documents including: 3 high-level state strategies (National Security Strategy, State Progress Strategy "Lithuania 2050) and Concept of Spatial Plan), one strategic level (the National Development Plan), and 28 sectoral and regional development plans. In particular, the sectoral and regional development plans integrate previously developed strategies as well as EU strategies. This also helped create a clear hierarchy of strategic documents across these different levels from the three state strategies to the strategic level (NDP), down to the programming level (sectoral and regional plans, and the government programme) and to the activity level (activity plans of the development plans).
Source: Based on interviews with the Lithuania’s State Chancellery and presentation on “Strategic Governance System in Lithuania”.
Several high-level strategies, particularly Kazakhstan 2050 and the NDP, are the key guiding strategic documents in the country
Kazakhstan’s strategic and state planning systems rely on two high-level documents that set the country and the public administration’s strategic priorities and are part of Kazakhstan’s “Strategic planning” pillar. Kazakhstan 2050, developed in 2012, sets the long-term vision for the country to become a welfare society based on a strong state and an economy among the 30 most competitive in the world, and to reach the SDGs (see Chapter 1) (President of Kazakhstan, 2024[39]). It is complemented by the Strategy for Achieving Carbon Neutrality of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2060 (the Carbon Neutrality Strategy), aiming to achieve sustainable economic development towards climate change and carbon neutrality by 2060 and reach net zero through the design and implementation of low-carbon policies at national and sectoral levels. Together, both documents define the goals of the country around which all other strategic documents should be developed (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]).
Within the “State planning” pillar of the system, the National Development Plan (NDP) and the National Security Strategy are the two highest-level strategies, subordinating all state planning documents. Both documents are to be developed by the MNE, the state body in charge of state planning and approved by the President, while the NDP also must be approved by the government. The NDP itself is subordinated to Kazakhstan 2050 and the Carbon Neutrality Strategy and should help implement their priorities, containing objectives, activities, and indicators to achieve them. All other strategic documents in the planning system, particularly, development plans of state bodies, regions, cities and national companies should contribute to the implementation of the NDP. The National Security Strategy sets the country’s vision on ensuring national security. While it was also submitted to Kazakhstan 2050 in the previous version of the decree on strategic planning, its hierarchical place in the national planning system is less clear in the May 2024 version of the decree.
The state planning system in Kazakhstan is also composed of strategic documents, called development plans, for state bodies, cities, regions and national companies aiming to implement the priorities set in the highest-level documents of the state planning system. The decree also describes their general expected content, development and indicators, and the need for an action plan described in detail by the rules which also provide detailed templates (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[40]). These documents typically contain an assessment of the situation, strategic areas, more specific goals and different level of indicators. While it is not explicitly mentioned in the decree, it appears essential to ensure that development plans for state bodies are aligned with those of national companies when they operate in similar sectors.
While the design of high-quality, harmonised and consistent plans is a cornerstone of robust planning systems, implementation is very often a major challenge and needs to be supported by the appropriate set of processes, mechanisms and instruments, including action plans, indicators, proper allocation of resources, and a strong monitoring system. The decree on state planning anticipates these issues and underlines the need to develop action plans and indicators, as well as monitoring activities for each level. In practice, state bodies and other public institutions develop those plans and set indicators, usually macro indicators and more specific target indicators for each goal.
Annual speeches of the President provide key strategic direction and adjustments as part of the Strategic planning framework
Given the central role played by the President in strategic planning, the President’s annual State of the Nation addresses to the Parliament constitute important strategic moments and guidance for the country. They build a narrative, provide a stocktaking exercise on its progress, and indicate priorities for the year to come and on the longer run (President of Kazakhstan, 2023[25]). In practice, the State of the Nation addresses are also a key element of the state planning system, providing each year a strategic framework for the work of line Ministries under the guidance of the President. The Address is an annual collective effort of the government and the Executive Office to reflect on implementation of measures of the previous year, and on drafting the priorities for the next one. In May of each year, the government submits proposals on policies to the Executive Office preparing the final Address. Once the Address has been presented by the President in September, the Executive Office, in co-operation with the MNE, engage into a dialogue with line Ministries to translates the Address’s provisions into action plans for implementation. Once these are finalised, they are approved by the Prime Minister and presidential decree. Following its entry into force, the Government Apparatus produces a detailed implementation table to be regularly filled in by implementing ministries, under the authority of their deputy prime minister who is held accountable for implementation progress approved by the government, for which the corresponding deputy prime ministers is accountable throughout the year (Government of Kazakhstan, 2022[6]).
This well-established practice is not unique to Kazakhstan and is also used in several OECD member and non-member countries, including the United States (State of the Union), the UK (His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech) and Morocco (Discours royaux) (OCDE, 2023[41]). Among its benefits, it helps share an overall assessment of the progress made and of the achievements of the national vision, as well as provide direction on the adaptation to be made and on future measures. The codified procedure for the elaboration of the Address and the implementation of its measures should contribute to ensure consistency with existing programmes and measures and across years to ensure stability of policies and avoid too frequent changes of priorities. However, the lack of explicit referencing of this practice in the latest version of Decree on State Planning can make it more challenging to ensure key objectives are defined, implemented and tracked in a consistent and efficient manner, and aligned with multiannual national and sectoral strategic plans. A minimal addition in a future revision of the decree could be a referencing of the decree laying out the rules of preparation of the State of the Nation Address and of implementation of the subsequent annual action plans for line ministries (Government of Kazakhstan, 2022[6]).
2.3.2. The institutional framework on state planning is built around the Ministry of National Economy and on strategic planning around the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reform
Kazakhstan, as in many OECD member countries, has a constellation model for the governance of strategic planning
OECD member and partner countries use different institutional models that are very often a product of history and political traditions. A majority rely on strategic units or entities in the centre of government, while other have devolved this function to specific ministries, such as Ministries of Economy, Planning or Finance (Box 2.10). Kazakhstan follows a constellation model for strategic planning entities led by the CoGs with several CoG entities involved in strategic planning with different roles and responsibilities. Altogether these entities perform similar key activities in Kazakhstan as CoGs in OECD member countries (Figure 2.3 and Table 2.3), with the notable difference that, in Kazakhstan, some entities pertain to the strategic planning and other to the state planning. In particular, the President and the Executive Office, as well as ASPIRE steer strategic planning. For instance, ASPIRE authors the NDP, in consultation with the government (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]). The MNE, the government, and line Ministries are responsible for “state planning”.
Source: Based on (Government of Kazakhstan, 2014[42]), (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]), (OECD, 2024[17]) and questionnaires filled by Kazakh stakeholders for the project.
The current Decree on State Planning indeed differentiates activities to be done by the authorised body in charge of state planning (MNE) and the authorised body in charge of strategic planning (ASPIRE), without explicitly quoting any of the two institutions and presenting their overall responsibilities (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]). While this can bring some level of flexibility in case of institutional reorganisation, this also can add confusion on the role of both actors involved in strategic and state plannings the more so that the decree is not defining the respective scopes of state and strategic planning. Strategic Planning Acts in OECD member and non-member countries traditionally provide an overview of the institutions responsible for elaborating strategic planning documents, with an enumeration of their roles, and of the general approval process, usually through the Council of Ministers and high-level Committees on strategic planning.
Providing for clear roles and functions across entities involved in strategic and state planning is essential to ensure their consistency and complementarity, as well as their ability to provide clear, univocal and transparent guidance to other public bodies. This requirement is even more important in constellation models where several CoG entities also have different responsibilities in the strategic planning process (Box 2.10). While the current version of the Decree includes a mention of the involvement of employees of state bodies, representatives of civil society and businesses, and experts when the draft NDP is published for public discussion, it could further describe the process of developing the NDP, including the involvement of public agencies other than the strategic planning body, and the review and approval procedures of all development plans that are subordinated to describing the role of the Government Office and of the Cabinet meeting in those documents. Czechia has for instance defined rules of procedures for the preparations, review and approbation of all policy and strategic documents, while Lithuania has included it in its strategic planning law and provided more details in its strategic planning manual and methodology (OECD, 2023[30]).
Estonia’s Strategy Unit in the Government Office
Estonia's Strategy Unit, situated within the Office of the Government, plays a crucial role in translating the Coalition Agreement into a four-year action plan known as the Government Programme. This unit collaborates closely with other central government institutions and line ministries to refine policy objectives across various sectors, ensuring alignment with the coalition's political commitments. Moreover, it oversees the translation of the Government Programme into actionable commitments, fostering effective strategic planning and resource allocation. Working in tandem with deputy secretaries-general and the Ministry of Finance, the Strategy Unit monitors performance and maintains coherence between the Government Programme, Estonia 2035, and multi-year budget framework. Notably, the unit empowers the Prime Minister to exercise quality control over government-wide strategies, streamlining processes and reducing redundancy.
Strategic Management Unit in Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development
In Egypt, as a central planning institution within the Egyptian administration, the MPED is mandated to steer and co-ordinate the strategic planning process in order to translate the country’s vision for sustainable development into annual actionable plans. It develops plans across different timeframes and ensures that sectoral strategies are consistent with national plans, the state budget law and other budget implementation laws. It is also responsible for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of plans, and diversifying funding sources for plans and programmes, as well as for promoting partnership mechanisms with the private sector, civil society and international partners.
In particular, the Strategic Management Unit in MPED, supports MPED’s strategic planning efforts. The Unit has been instrumental in the recent revision of Egypt Vision 2030 and leads the co-ordination with other strategic planning units across line Ministries. It provides guidance and support to them. Among its practical works is a manual that provides guidance on how to build effective planning processes and the importance of strategic planning to reach long-term goals such as the SDGs and Egypt Vision 2030.
Portugal’s Competency Centre on strategic planning, PlanAPP
In Portugal, the CoG assumes a critical role in steering strategic planning activities amidst a diverse institutional landscape. The Prime Minister’s Office coordinates government action, providing whole-of-government strategic orientations and priorities and ensuring that they are delivered. The Minister of the Presidency, assisted by the Secretary of State for Planning, has a direct responsibility over national and regional planning. The Ministry of Finance ensures support to strategic and operational planning, in articulation with financial programming, and monitors and evaluates the implementation of plans.
At the core of the CoG is the competence centre PlanAPP, situated under the Ministry of the Presidency and responding directly to the Prime Minister, that orchestrates strategic initiatives and ensures coherence across government actions. It is mandated to ensure co-ordination on strategic planning; reinforce the consistency of national strategies; shape and steer the strategic planning process; reinforce and co-ordinate sectoral efforts; and support and develop the line capabilities of line Ministries. It also organises interministerial coordination through its REPLAN network that involves line Ministries as well as civil society and academia to discuss, provide insights and coordinate on key policy issues.
Sources: (OECD, 2023[22]); (OECD, 2024[17]); (OECD, 2024[43]).
The Executive Office and the Government Apparatus are translating the long-term vision for the country into detailed implementation strategies
The specificity of Kazakhstan’s strategic (“state”) planning systems relies on its two distinct pillars, with state planning being entrusted to the President, which in practice is translated into the prevalence of the Kazakhstan 2050 and the Carbon Neutrality Strategy over all other documents. These being set, the President and its Executive Office mainly translate these into actionable long-term visions for the country and the government, by preparing higher-level strategies and performing strategic prioritisation, with the annual Addresses to the Nation being a cornerstone in this framework (Government of Kazakhstan, 2022[6]). ASPIRE, the main responsible body for state planning supports the Executive Office in these endeavours, notably by drafting the NDP (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]). While this functioning is not dissimilar to what is done in many OECD member and non-member countries, some among the latter have recently chosen more consultative and inclusive approaches to prepare their next long-term vision document (Box 2.11).
By mandate, the Executive Office provides analytical and legal support in the realm of the President’s prerogatives (President of Kazakhstan, 2010[13]). As such, the Executive Office oversees the strategic planning framework, by helping design its main features, monitoring its evolution through regular interaction with the government on the basis of reports provided by the latter, and transmitting the prioritisation and arbitrations of measures to the government. Two main interactions arise on an annual basis, on the occasion of the drafting of the President’s Address to the Nation, and upon receipt of the MNE’s implementation evaluation report. In practice, in co-operation with ASPIRE, the Executive Office is assisting the President in approving the NDP and the National Security Strategy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and is reviewing and approving documents that are not included in the core State Planning System, including the concepts, national projects, state programs, doctrines (strategies), comprehensive plans and the National Infrastructure Plan (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]).
By mandate, the Government Apparatus is tasked with an oversight role in relation to strategic (“state”) planning, especially in relation to the provision of analytical inputs on implementation progress and concerns raised by civil society, as well as on mediating between state bodies in case of disagreement on the interpretation of strategic documents (Government of Kazakhstan, 2023[31]). In practice, the Government Apparatus supports the implementation of the strategic long-term vision set out by the President and its administration, as it is in charge of translating those priorities into government policies and priorities and of assigning responsibility for their implementation. For instance, on the occasion of the translation of the annual Address to the Nation into action plans for each line Ministry and other public body, or the review of the NDP and other strategic documents. With the latest reform of the CoG, the Government Apparatus will also take more responsibilities in managing and setting priorities on economic policies (Government of Kazakhstan, 2023[31]).
Morocco New Development Model 2035
Adopted in 2021 under the King’s leadership, the new Development Model is “designed by Moroccans, with Moroccans and for Moroccans”, having benefitted from insights and ideas discussed in a commission made up of citizens with different and complementary backgrounds. The preparation and drafting of the Model were led by a Commission appointed by the King with representatives from civil society, academia, private sector, public agencies and former government officials. The Model embodies a new way of looking at development, one that is more participative, involving all stakeholders. More than 10,000 people were directly consulted and 110 workshop held across the country. Through the Model, the Kingdom commits to achieving several targets by 2035, making progress in terms of economy, human capital, inclusion, durability as well as governance and administration. The final new Development Model report was endorsed by the King and is the leading document for strategic visioning in Morocco.
Latvia’s National Development Plan 2027
In 2020, the Latvian Government and Parliament approved the National Development Plan 2021-2027 (NDP2027). The plan defines the strategic goals, priorities, measures, and indicative investment needs to achieve sustainable and balanced development for seven years. NDP2027 sets four strategic goals for 2027 in six priority areas and 18 directions for key policies. The plan outlines both the long-term vision as well as how it translates into operational plans. This includes the indicators, responsible authorities, and funding.
While the creation of the NDP2027 was centrally led by the Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre (Pārresoru koordinācijas centrs, PKC, now integrated into the State Chancellery) with a mandate to develop a long-term strategic approach to public policymaking, the NDP incorporates engagement with citizens, experts, and other stakeholders. Over 150 different stakeholders working in six working groups organised by the PKC under the Prime Minister’s authority. These activities helped the CoG gather insights from different groups which provided valuable inputs for the plans, while building advocacy.
ASPIRE ensures the development of long-term strategies and their coordination
Strategic planning is at the heart of the mandate of ASPIRE, tasked with “the development, adjustment, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of long-term strategic development plans” (President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2020[12]). The Agency was created in 2020 by the President, with the objective to further deliver on key and strategic reforms in a consistent and efficient manner. ASPIRE also ensures that proposals of line ministries and other public entities are linked to the main priorities of the government and aligned with the higher documents of the state planning system. In addition, ASPIRE is tasked with shaping and making proposals to structure and review the strategic planning system itself to ensure its continuous improvement (President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2020[12]). The Agency can therefore play a key role in the current efforts to radically transform the state planning system in Kazakhstan.
ASPIRE is also in charge of developing the NDP which is then approved by the Supreme Council for Reforms under the President and approved by decree of the President. In these endeavours, ASPIRE consults government and non-government bodies and experts. ASPIRE is also involved and consulted in the draft concepts for the development of spheres/industries and the national projects to ensure they are aligned with the NDP.
One distinctive feature with the MNE is that the Agency reports to the President, and not to the government (President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2020[12]). As such, the Agency’s subordination to the President makes it independent from the government on its work and opinions while the MNE is accountable and reporting for the government’s results and implementation outcomes. ASPIRE, within the framework of its functions, ensures monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of long-term and medium-term plans of the Republic of Kazakhstan, systemic (structural and institutional) reforms, including within the framework of the documents of the state planning system, and submits its conclusions to the Presidential Administration. However, functions to provide guidance, feedback or support to line Ministries were not assigned to ASPIRE.
The MNE has a pivotal role in the co-ordination and monitoring of state planning
In the current strategic planning system in Kazakhstan, the Ministry of National Economy plays a central role and carries out, by mandate, “the management, as well as intersectoral coordination in the areas of state planning” (Government of Kazakhstan, 2014[42]). The MNE performs wide functions on strategic (“state”) planning as it is in charge of implementing, monitoring and approving state planning documents. It reviews and monitors documents on the basis of the alignment and progress in addressing government priorities, in achieving cross-sectoral policy goals, in implementing strategic plans and priorities, and in legal compliance with government regulations and standards.
The MNE also defines the rules, standards and methodologies for preparing and monitoring strategic documents. In its role, the MNE provides guidance and helps line Ministries with the development and coordination of development plans. To support these activities, the MNE engages in bilateral and interministerial meetings, uses official written procedures and online systems to submit, review and approve documents. The MNE has also authored the Procedure for the Development, Implementation, Adjustment and Monitoring of Concepts, National Projects, Doctrines (Strategies), Integrated Plans (“the Rules”) and the Methodology for the development, monitoring, implementation, evaluation and control of the National Development Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Plan of Territorial Development of the country, concepts, development plans of state bodies, development plans of the region, city of republican significance, the capital (“the Methodology”) (Ministry of National Economy, 2021[45]; Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[40]).
The MNE also has a crucial role in implementation monitoring. Until the new strategic (“state”) planning system has been enforced, the MNE was sharing this prerogative with ASPIRE, as both bodies were producing an annual monitoring report analysing the status of implementation of strategic priorities by each Ministry, and reasons for delays. In the new framework to be implemented for the first time in 2025, only the MNE will be drafting an annual report on implementation, on the basis of its exchanges with line ministries and using centrally gathered data on implementation update. Once drafted, it will be sent to ASPIRE for feedback and finalised by the Government Apparatus before being sent to the Executive Office for approval. Once approved, this report will become the reference document for the monitoring of reform implementation.
Finally, the MNE, in co-operation with the Ministry of Finance, also oversees the alignment of strategic planning with budgeting to ensure that strategic priorities are funded. Budget plans, including request for funding priorities, are sent by line Ministries to the MoF with the support of the MNE, and are discussed in co-ordination with interested state bodies authoring the strategic plan. This practice also exists in most OECD member countries, where the CoG works together with the MoF to ensure that national strategies are aligned with the national budget or medium-term fiscal plan. 73% of CoGs in OECD member countries reported that ensuring the alignment across documents and with the budget is a significant priority.
Other non-CoG entities are involved in strategic planning, including the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry
Other non-CoG entities are involved in key activities in support to the state planning system in Kazakhstan, more specifically the provision of evidence and data to support strategy development. In particular, the Bureau of National Statistics under ASPIRE is collecting, developing and sharing statistical information to meet the needs of citizens and to the government and public entities including ASPIRE, that uses this data in its strategic planning activities (Kazakhstan's Bureau of National Statistics under ASPIRE, 2024[46]). The MDDIAI also has a central role in disseminating and sharing data and indicators, administering a digital data platform, and provides information for the preparation, analysis and monitoring of the implementation of strategic plans. This role is particularly important in relation to the MNE’s monitoring activities which can assess progress on key data and indicators through data provided by the MDDIAI.
2.3.3. Kazakhstan is developing new methodologies to guide and support line Ministries
The MNE has developed a series of guidance and methodologies to prepare strategic planning documents
Providing guidance and support to line Ministries is an essential function of the CoG to ensure the harmonisation, quality and consistency of strategic planning documents. In OECD member countries, CoGs have developed numerous instruments to help Ministries, including methodologies, taxonomies, templates and strategic manuals to develop robust strategic plans (Figure 2.5). These support materials are sometimes available on online platform to help raising awareness and dissemination. Several countries have also developed training activities to increase the strategic planning capacities in line Ministries and across the government. Key planning laws and framework documents in OECD member countries usually do not contain detailed guidance and methodologies, that are developed in separate manuals and guidance documents, as it is also the case in Kazakhstan.
Source: (OECD, 2024[17]).
In line with the Decree on State Planning and in co-ordination with ASPIRE, the MNE has developed a series of guidance and methodologies to support line ministries and other entities in the preparations, monitoring and implementation of their development plans (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]). In the previous state planning framework, these methodologies have helped provide a consistent view and model of strategic documents in Kazakhstan with shared guidelines and requirements, ensure the harmonisation and consistency of strategic plans at all levels, and structure the development, implementation and monitoring processes. Following the latest revision of the decree, the MNE has updated these methodologies in July 2024, to support the transition to the new framework (Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, 2024[37]).
The methodology on the development and monitoring of strategic plans is a comprehensive document that provides a detailed description of the content and process to develop the NDP and other plans, including the development of goals and (sub) objectives, the identification of indicators and the use of tools in the analytical phase such as SWOT matrices. It also covers implementation, introducing mandatory instruments and principles such as action plans, the allocation of resources or interdepartmental cooperation, as well as monitoring procedures and requirements, such as the submission of reports. Last, it also provides templates for plans, indicators and reporting documents (Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, 2024[37]).
The Rules, developed by the MNE and ASPIRE, provide guidelines and requirements on the development of these specific strategic documents. This shorter document focuses on their expected structure, content, duration, as well as procedure for their development, but is less comprehensive on other elements such as strategic alignment, indicators, tools and monitoring compared to the other methodology. It also provides detailed templates of these documents. The newest edition of the Rules is nonetheless comprehensive in scope, to the extent that it also covers in detail the documents that were set out of the core planning system by the latest version of the decree (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[40]).
New tools and instruments such as online platforms and training could be developed to further support line Ministries
While methodologies have been clearly defined and disseminated, Kazakhstan could consider complementing its set of support instruments through the use of more detailed templates as well as online platform and registries. The use of such tools would be even more relevant in the context of the current transition towards the new strategic (“state”) planning framework. Given the advanced use of online platforms in the country, the MNE could consider developing a platform acting as a registry of strategies as well as a repository of key templates, guidelines and information on strategic planning, like Czechia which has an extensive set of support instruments for line Ministries (Box 2.12). To enhance the strategic planning capacity across the public administration, Czechia has also developed courses on strategic planning that are available for civil servants working on the matter. This could help further increase the strategic planning capacities in Kazakhstan, the understanding of requirements, procedures and needed information, and raise the general level of strategic planning practices across the government and public entities.
Czechia, and particularly the Ministry of Regional Development (MoRD), has developed a number of instruments to support other line Ministries on strategic planning that has helped enhance the quality and consistency of strategic planning documents in Czechia and increase the capacities for strategic planning across the public administration and build a stronger sense of community.
A Methodology for the Preparation of Public Strategies (Methodology) was developed by the MoRD with relevant partners and approved by the government. The methodology streamlines and articulates the procedure for creating strategic documents with the aim of increasing their quality and interconnectedness. It describes the process of individual strategy preparation and implementation, from identifying the need for strategy creation, its preparation for approval and its actual implementation. The methodology also introduces a typology of strategic and implementation documents and elaborates on the use of knowledge in strategic work, the evaluation of strategies and their impacts. All this is graphically summarized in diagrams and figures.
Guidance available to line ministries can be found on the publicly available Government Portal for Strategic Planning, which is maintained and updated by the Ministry, including information on:
Methodological support –access to the current Methodology and the related tools and templates; typology of strategic and implementation documents; or comparison of methodologies at the state, regional and municipal levels.
Coordination and cooperation platforms – especially the Expert Group for Strategic Work, and the Working Group for the Registry of strategic documents.
Information on projects undertaken by the Ministry in the support of strategic work and their outcomes, including learning opportunities, tools useful for strategic work such and training, with three sessions of the main training program ("Strateduka”) held in 2023 and gathering more than 50 participants (Ministry of Regional Development of the Czech Republic, 2024[47]).
The MoRD also maintains an online registry of strategic planning documents (so-called Database of Strategies) where all strategic documents at the regional and central levels must be uploaded. To this Database is linked a network of strategic planners from all ministries and regions who are responsible for the documents of their respective institutions. The portal has supported the increase in capabilities of the public administration by providing reference documents, harmonised templates and capacity building sessions to civil servants involved in strategic planning across the administration.
Source: (OECD, 2023[30]).
2.3.4. The coordination of strategic plans and priorities is procedure-driven and led by the Ministry of National Economy
The MNE and ASPIRE are tasked with the co-ordination of planning activities and policies as well as a challenge function
Inter-ministerial co-ordination from the centre helps ensure consistency of strategic priorities by engaging line Ministries in alignment efforts, supporting the harmonisation of strategic plans and ensuing priorities, and disseminate guidelines and methodologies. It can also be effective in addressing specific strategic issues by bringing together all key players and collecting inputs and designing common solution and approaches. While not all OECD member countries have established coordination mechanisms at all levels, most OECD member countries have one or two of them (Box 2.13).
More than 80% of OECD member countries have developed interministerial coordination mechanisms, using a large number of instruments to support active coordination at three levels
High-level committees on strategic planning chaired by the Prime Minister and bringing together Ministries can help set the strategic vision, communicate key priorities, discuss progress and address key issues. It can also influence the shaping of the whole strategic planning system. At the technical level, interministerial working groups can help address specific priorities, share knowledge and guidance, discuss progress and find solutions. Informal networks can help share informal information and operational practices, discuss specific points and measures on strategic plans and ultimately build a sense of community.
The Development Council in Bulgaria
To support strategic planning efforts, Bulgaria has created the Development Council under the Council of Ministers that ensures consistency between the goals and priorities in the government programme and the national strategic documents. It is mandated with the co-ordination of the development, implementation, reporting and evaluation of the strategic planning documents, particularly of the National Development Programme Bulgaria 2030, and is supported by the Strategic Planning Department under the Council of Ministers’ Administration.
Strategic working groups in Finland
To further design, implement and monitor its strategic priorities, the government of Finland has set up interministerial thematic working groups, each focusing on one. The Government Strategy Department attends and supports these groups, which are led by Ministries in charge of the sector. These groups meet depending on the agenda, the progress made and needs. They discuss progress and develop new plans, measures and instruments to reach the strategic goal in the area. The working groups usually tied to the government mandate and new ones are established based on new priorities.
Meetings of Strategic Planners in Latvia
The State Chancellery of Latvia fulfils its co-ordination role by convening meetings of civil servants responsible for strategy and policy planning from the ministries and other public institutions. Routine co-operation work takes place online. For example, via a WhatsApp group chat exchange – with information flowing back and forth when the Prime Minister prepares to address the Parliament on planning issues. Physical meetings also take place, usually with strategic planners from different ministries and agencies to ensure the adequacy of the planning procedures. For example, during one of such meetings, Latvia’s policy planners actively discussed the results of a questionnaire on planning challenges previously answered by the group. Another Strategic Planners’ meeting resulted in embedding the Sustainable Development Goals into the country’s planning process.
In addition, in a vast majority of OECD member countries, the CoG provides review and quality control of strategic planning documents, particularly those submitted to the Cabinet. These reviews include that the submitted items follow the procedures for preparation and presentation, that the item is in line with the Government Programme and that the item has been subject to an adequate consultation process (OECD, 2024[17]). This challenge function also includes the possibility to return a document to the authoring Ministry for changes and later resubmission in several OECD Member and non-Member countries, like Canada, Estonia and Morocco. This gives important powers to the CoG to ensure consistency and alignment of documents with high level strategic plans and priorities.
In Kazakhstan, interdepartmental coordination is an important principle in the strategic planning system in Kazakhstan, that is reiterated in the key methodological and legal documents organising the system. The alignment and the challenge function are mostly played by the Government Apparatus that also assigns responsibilities for strategic priorities across government entities, while the MNE plays primarily coordination, support and yearly monitoring functions (Government of Kazakhstan, 2023[31]; Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]). The decree on strategic planning mentions the role of the MNE in ensuring the coherence of the implementation of the NDP across all involved line Ministries and other public bodies. It also sets the MNE’s role in reviewing and approving specific plans, especially the development plans of regions, cities of republican significance, the capital, and national companies. This complements the role of the MNE in supporting and guiding line Ministries on strategic planning and echoes the overall coordination role played by the MNE in a wide array of policy areas, including public administration, economic development, investment policies and many other areas (Government of Kazakhstan, 2014[42]). The well-established legitimacy and practices of the MNE in other areas also reinforce its coordination role in strategic planning and anchors this role in the Kazakh administration.
A wide array of practices and tools support the MNE’s coordination and challenge functions. In addition to informal exchanges between MNE and line Ministries, formal procedures have been established to engage in discussions with line Ministries, raise concerns and ultimately escalate to higher managerial levels up to Ministers and government meetings. For instance, formal written procedures and bilateral meetings, as well as informal exchanges to ensure the proper development and alignment of strategic planning documents. The review functions of the MNE are usually carried out using the online document platform used by the government for submitting and reviewing key documents.
ASPIRE is also given in its mandate responsibilities of coordinating strategic documents of the State Planning System and the activities of state bodies and quasi-public sector entities to ensure that strategic planning documents are aligned with the NDP and higher level strategic documents (President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2020[12]). In practice, ASPIRE is reviewing the alignment with the NDP that it authors, which is an essential challenge function given that the NDP is the guiding document for all development plans that should contribute to its implementation. However, the procedures for ASPIRE to ensure that all documents of the state planning system are aligned with the NDP have not been specified in the state planning law and would deserve establishing specific documentation and rules of procedures on the matter.
There are limited arenas in Kazakhstan for inter-ministerial discussions and reviews besides the government meetings
However, despite these coordination mechanisms and the regular government meetings, there are limited arenas in Kazakhstan for interministerial coordination on strategic planning that could allow open technical discussions and exchanges on progress and issues. This might hamper the co-ordination and dialogue on specific priorities and plans, that might not necessitate reporting and decisions in government meetings, but rather focus on sharing and aligning with multisectoral priorities, discussing progress and trying to find common solutions to obstacles or delays.
Many OECD member countries have established high-level and technical interministerial working groups on strategies to support this dialogue and help solve collectively issues that require multiple inputs. Inter-ministerial working groups on focused strategic priorities could be established by the MNE that could act as a Secretariat and be led by the key Ministry in charge of the strategic plan and priority, mirroring the example of Finland (Box 2.13). These working groups would then report to the Government Apparatus and their proposals be submitted in the government meetings when relevant. They would gather a Minister or Deputy Minister in charge and representatives of needed Ministries involved on this priority. Priorities could include for instance the further development of a “listening state”, climate change and environment or the liberalisation of the economy, all priorities mentioned in the 2024 President’s State of the Nation address (President of Kazakhstan, 2024[50]). Additionally, an informal network of strategic units and experts in line Ministries could be created and managed by the MNE to help exchange practices, ideas and instruments all year long during the preparation and implementation of strategic plans, which would echo the Latvian example (Box 2.13).
The importance of developing a Listening State, reiterated by the 2024 State of the Nation address, should also be applied to strategic planning
A wide and diverse range of evidence, inputs and data collected from citizens, academia, firms and other non-government stakeholders can help inform and strengthen the strategic making process by increasing its relevance, legitimacy and accuracy. Kazakhstan has established different bodies to support consultation of external stakeholders on policies and strategies, particularly Public Councils and National Councils as well as expert councils. ASPIRE also organises ad hoc consultations with business representatives, experts, representatives from NGOs, international organisations and academia as well as its Public Council when developing and monitoring the NDP. However, in addition to certain limitations pertaining to each mechanism (see Chapter 1), these consultations are usually ad hoc and not organised through open, transparent and systematic mechanisms. It is also essential that consultations represent a diversity of expertise and views to collect relevant inputs and information in the preparation of strategies.
While the previous version of the decree on strategic planning made no reference to external consultation, the revised version prescribes the consultation of representatives of civil society, business, and experts in the preparations of strategic documents (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]). This new requirement is conducive to fostering the development of systematic, inclusive and organised consultation practices in the strategic planning, and needs to be implemented. Since specific mechanisms are not introduced and presented in the Law, OECD member countries could provide some relevant examples. For instance, PlanAPP has developed multisectoral teams to collect scientific advice and involve citizens in informing policymaking (Box 2.14). These consultative groups are quite stable with an open and transparent membership and attempt to represent a diversity of points of views from civil society, business and academia.
PlanAPP, and particularly its Replan network, has developed the practice of multisectoral teams that help build and collect evidence and inform strategy making on key priority areas. They function as working groups and bring together policymakers, civil servants, academia and other stakeholders. They could contribute to enhanced evidence-informed strategy and policymaking on specific themes by providing, discussing and sharing inputs, data and analysis that could be used to inform the work of PlanAPP as well as line Ministries in the strategic planning and policy making process.
Sources: (OECD, 2023[22]).
2.3.5. Monitoring roles and responsibilities and tools are well defined, but could be further developed to ensure more proactive performance management and delivery
Monitoring and performance management systems and dialogues are crucial to ensure the alignment and delivery of key strategic priorities in OECD member countries
Robust monitoring of strategic plans is crucial to secure proper implementation of measures and priorities in a consistent and efficient manner and need to be supported by strong performance management systems. Performance management consists in an active way to carry out those monitoring activities and ensure that the progress of the implementation is constantly analysed, managed, and shared, and that corrective actions are taken in due course to reach the objectives set in the plans. This requires a series of tools, including action plans, dashboard, indicators and performance dialogue mechanisms. The latter involves building a regular and structured conversation between stakeholders to ensure continuous improvement and effective implementation of strategic plans and priorities. Performance dialogues are not just about collecting and reporting data; they are dynamic routines that encourage active engagement, accountability, and mutual understanding and trust among institutions. These dialogues help in identifying and addressing challenges early on, making the reform process more responsive, adaptive, and effective.
Kazakhstan has designed a legal framework to support the monitoring of strategic planning activities, based on the Decree on State planning and "the Methodology for the development, monitoring, implementation, evaluation and control of the National Development Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Territorial Development Plan of the country, concepts, development plans of state bodies, development plans of the region, city of republican significance, the capital" (Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, 2024[37]). Kazakhstan’s strategic documents provide a clear definition and objectives of monitoring, that should not only aim to collect and analyse data, but also identify opportunities and risks, develop proposals to address them and coordinate the implementation of documents (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]).
In line with the new Decree, the monitoring process of the delivery of strategic priorities has been updated, with MNE and ASPIRE keeping a key role
The recent revisions in the strategic and state planning system contain significant progress and streamlining of the monitoring process, particularly by connecting the monitoring activities and processes of the MNE and ASPIRE and removing the parallel procedures that were in place before. Both the strategic and state planning framework and the methodology on monitoring define the processes and responsibilities for monitoring in the strategic planning system. However, given the recent update of both, the first monitoring under the new framework will only take place in 2025. The methodology provides a clear description of the content, author, process, format and timeline of reporting for each key document of the strategic planning system as well as reporting templates (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]). It requires both analytical and quantitative assessments based on indicators as well as publication of the monitoring report of the implementation on the institution’s website. Importantly, the methodology asks for assessing the level of implementation and the reasons for not reaching the objectives or not fully implementing the activities, as well as on levels of satisfaction by beneficiaries, even if it is not specified how this satisfaction should be measured (Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, 2024[37]). The methodology also indicates quarterly and annual reporting on the implementation of the NDP, however under the previous framework, only the annual reporting was fully carried out.
The MNE and ASPIRE are the main institutions in charge of monitoring the strategic planning system in Kazakhstan (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]). The new framework provides greater clarity as to their respective roles, by entrusting only the MNE, in practice through its Department of Strategic Analysis and Development, with the production of an annual monitoring report on the implementation strategic objectives, based on regular exchanges with line ministries and data on implementation update. ASPIRE is to review the report, before it is finalised by the Government Apparatus and sent to the Executive Office for approval. This ensures clear consecutive activities and alignment of monitoring activities and outcomes with one final report produced and sent to the Executive Office, instead of two separate documents prepared in parallel by the MNE and ASPIRE.
However, Kazakhstan’s monitoring framework does not include all documents, in particular excluding the higher-level ones, such as Kazakhstan 2050 that could be further specified in a specific separate methodology. In Latvia for instance, the preparation of Latvia’s long-term strategy is included in a specific article of the planning law (Latvia's Sameia (Parliament), 2009[51]). The framework also does not establish how the entire system of strategic planning should be monitored by the centre of government but focuses on the monitoring of specific strategic planning documents.
New monitoring platforms and tools are being developed, and could further converge with advanced practices and tools used in OECD Member countries
Kazakhstan has developed processes and platforms to collect and share statistical data, from the Bureau of National Statistics under ASPIRE (here after “the Bureau”). To ensure the collection and review of information, the MNE and ASPIRE rely on information gathered through several sources: individual data requests to line Ministries, the official statistics of the Bureau and the use of other existing online data platforms, including from the MDDIAI (covering notably government services and industry) in Kazakhstan as well as international indicators. Due to its generic nature, the statistical information of the Bureau and the database of the MDDAIA are not built around strategic priorities and indicators of Kazakhstan’s strategic plans. The current processes require for strategic and state planning bodies to prepare ad hoc requests, map existing and missing information, and to review, recalculate and compile data from different sources for the monitoring of high-level indicators of strategic plans.
Kazakhstan has not yet developed a single platform to support the monitoring of the implementation of the NDP or of higher-level documents, particularly Kazakhstan 2050. The MNE reported that a digital platform for strategic plans was being developed to support the monitoring of strategic priorities and their indicators. Such an online platform could include all high-level indicators needed to monitor those documents and could be fed by data automatically reported from the Bureau of National Statistics, the MDDIAI, line Ministries and other state bodies. The platform could be managed by the Bureau of National Statistics and led by ASPIRE together with the MNE as both institutions oversee monitoring and will need the data and indicators for their reporting.
Several OECD member countries have developed both internal and external online platforms to monitor the achievement of long-term strategic goals and priorities. The internal platform helps data gathering and analysing, as well as sharing regularly with the government the progress on priorities and flagging successes and issues. It supports increasing accountability within the government, particularly from the implementers to the centre of government. The external platform, sometimes fed by the internal one, helps communicate to the public and increases accountability towards citizens. For instance, UK is relying on its Government Performance App (Box 2.15).
Next Generation platforms for performance information in the United Kingdom
In 2019, the CoG in the United Kingdom started moving towards real-time performance tracking. Triggered by the preparation of Brexit and sped up by the COVID-19 pandemic, the new dashboard, called Government Performance App, was extended to the top 200 and top 35 government priorities.
The Government Performance App is managed by the Cabinet Office and the HM Treasury and fed by the different departments leading the government priority projects. Consistent with standard operational procedures, every four weeks at least, lead departments are requested to co-ordinate with “contributing” departments and agencies and regularly provide the CoG with information on progress against milestones and deliverables and on major concerns. The Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit has full access to information. Focusing on a limited number of key policies can get a structured situational overview of progress on the overall government portfolio and inform decision-making.
Sources: (OECD, 2024[17]); (UK Cabinet Office, 2023[52]).
Annual monitoring exercises can be complemented by more proactive performance management to ensure progress and delivery, in line with OECD member country practices
OECD Member countries perform proactive and regular performance management activities that allow them to review the current progress, make proposals and adjust actions during the year (OECD, 2024[17]). They use frequent exchanges and meetings at technical and political level, usually on a monthly and quarterly basis, to have a close follow up and discussions on implementation progress, identify issues and find common solutions. For instance, the UK has built a structured and dynamic performance management system with regular informal and formal meetings and reports to ensure that performance is discussed and managed on a monthly basis, and that the course of action can be adjusted quickly (Box 2.16).
As highlighted in the decree and the methodology, the objectives of monitoring activities in Kazakhstan rightly underline the importance of analysing issues, of identifying opportunities to address them and of adjusting strategic and implementation documents to accelerate the implementation of long-term goals (Government of Kazakhstan, 2024[5]) (Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, 2024[37]). The newly established reporting practices, in line with previous ones, will allow the MNE to provide a yearly assessment of the implementation of the NDP and of key strategic planning documents. While this is essential to allow the Executive Office to build a new course of action, these practices are closer to evaluation rather than proactive management of the implementation of strategic plans that usually take place on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Active monitoring and performance management would call for analysis and discussions of real-time data and for more in-depth and frequent engagement with line Ministries and other state bodies involved in the implementation of plans. This would allow to assess implementation obstacles and progress issues on indicators early on and to design corrective actions to address them during the year. These discussions do not need to take place at the government meetings which might be too high level but could benefit from different interministerial technical bodies to support efficient discussions and problem solving (see above). Monthly formal discussions with units involved in strategic planning of each line Ministry and agency, and quarterly meetings at higher level can help ensure strong engagement, close tracking and active discussions to discuss progress made and find common solution.
The Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom is in charge of steering, co-ordinating and monitoring the implementation of priorities. It uses an advanced digital dashboard with a wide series of KPIs, oversees outcome delivery plans prepared annually by each department and delivery notes aiming at implementing government priorities, and leads performance dialogue to ensure the delivery of priorities.
The Cabinet Office organises monthly meetings of key contact points in each Ministry in charge of the outcome delivery plans, and of senior management, as well as quarterly meetings with State Secretaries of the various ministries to ensure that the government is on track with the priorities defined in the outcome delivery plans and monitored through the common online dashboard. It has also established a network of strategic planners (the strategic planning experts in each department) that meets monthly in an informal setting to discuss existing and new practices, methodologies and approaches and explore ways to further align plans and priorities, building a sense of community.
There are reporting documents and routines to the Prime Minister on the implementation of key priorities through monthly and six-monthly delivery reports. The monthly delivery notes summarise progress for each of the Prime Minister’s priorities. They highlight the main issues encountered in a short and data driven manner and describe what is planned. Six-monthly delivery reports are designed to be a comprehensive assessment of the state of play for all priority areas in a given department. They are written by the Head of the Prime Minister Delivery Unit for the Prime Minister and copied to the secretary of state and lead officials. Usually, the drafts are discussed with the lead officials first.
Sources: (UK Cabinet Office, 2024[53]) and interviews with representatives of the UK Cabinet Office.
Since the previous OECD Reviews, Kazakhstan has consolidated and streamlined the functions of its centre of government, particularly with the transfer of the functions from the Office of the Prime Minister to the Government Apparatus, the increased autonomy given to line Ministries and other state bodies, and the reallocation of functions. Kazakhstan has also revised and developed its strategic and state planning framework with the creation of new institutions, such as ASPIRE, and the development of legal documents and methodologies. The de-concentration of powers, the evolving role of the Government Apparatus and the transfer of functions to line Ministries and agencies on policy development bring Kazakhstan closer to practices of a number of OECD member countries.
As underlined by the President’s 2022 and 2023 addresses, Kazakhstan plans to continue and accelerate these reform efforts, especially to transform the strategic and state planning systems. The May 2024 revision of the Decree on State Planning serves as a testament of this will. The transition period to the new framework provides an opportunity to further reflect on the processes and practices that could be further enhanced for public governance to be effective and transparent in delivering on its long-term goals. In particular, it needs to be ensured that the new roles and responsibilities are well performed and that Ministries have the capacities to design and implement better policies more autonomously; and that efforts are continued to consolidate and streamline the strategic planning system by enhancing its legal framework and delineating more clearly responsibilities, simplifying reporting processes, and developing a more proactive approach to performance management through new tools and mechanisms.
Decision-making and policy coordination
Pursue efforts to effectively implement the decentralisation agenda:
Strengthening the co-ordination between the CoG and line Ministries and ensuring that the transfer of functions is well understood and performed by all actors. This includes the organisation of regular (at least quarterly) review meetings by the Government Apparatus with line Ministries and agencies to ensure that priorities and decentralised policies are implemented effectively (e.g. OMB in the United States or the Strategy Unit in Estonia). It can also take the form of systematic meetings between the Government Apparatus and line Ministry each time a new policy is prepared to ensure its alignment with government objectives and priorities.
Strengthening performance, accountability and monitoring systems, including reform impact and gap assessments. In particular, an online platform that measures the implementation of government priorities (e.g. UK Government App) and whose results need to be discussed during the review and government meetings can help assess the impact of decentralisation policies. An assessment of the impact and success in different decentralised policy fields can also be carried out by the Government Apparatus to evaluate the quality and progress on key delegated functions (for instance triennial reviews).
Granting adequate resources, capacities and legal powers to line ministries and central agencies to perform their new tasks and ensure the ability of line Ministries and agencies to carry out the newly delegated functions. In order to develop line Ministries’ capacities in policy making, new dedicated analytical units could be developed in each line Ministry to develop strategic plans and policies, including the recruitment of new policy analyst profiles. The Government Apparatus could design and provide guidance and methodologies on how to design and implement an effective policy and strategy by creating a manual and template and organising training and recruiting.
Ensuring draft policies and measures authored by line Ministries and their inputs and contributions to whole-of-government policies are examined, challenged, submitted and approved or integrated into new policies at the Government or during interministerial Council meetings.
Developing and publishing a manual of the Cabinet to ensure that new roles and procedures are clearly documented and implemented by all stakeholders. The manual should present the key work methods, roles and responsibilities and procedures between the centre of government and all actors (e.g. Canada and New Zealand).
Ensure that the newly created Government Apparatus has the capacity and instruments to perform its duties, including on economic policies, performance management and monitoring; also increasing its capacities to steer crosscutting priorities from the centre.
Increase capacities to steer crosscutting priorities from the centre and develop coordination mechanisms: develop the expertise and capacities (e.g. new specialised units) in the centre on few limited priorities identified by the President and the Government Apparatus; expand the use of interministerial Councils by focusing them on key priorities; revise the effectiveness of current National Councils and ensure that their recommendations are used, transmitted and discussed at the government meeting when appropriate; carry out a frequent revision of existing National Councils (at least every 3 years) to ensure that they are effective and relevant.
Strategic planning
Ensure that roles and responsibilities in strategic planning are clearly implemented in line with the new Decree:
Further define strategic and state planning in the latest version of the Decree on State Planning, detail the responsible bodies, and define their mutual interactions and the process to review and approve each document; consider also naming explicitly the bodies in charge of each activity to ensure a clear delineation of responsibilities, including the Government Apparatus, the MNE and ASPIRE when relevant; consider reintroducing explicit and stronger paragraph and elements on the hierarchy of documents to ensure that all state planning documents align with Kazakhstan 2050 and the Carbon Neutrality Strategy, but also with the NDP, as is done in Lithuania.
Better delineate the responsibilities of the MNE and of ASPIRE in strategic and state planning, particularly on coordination: describe in detail the responsibilities of the MNE and ASPIRE in the decree on state planning, at each step of the strategic and state planning system; formalise the procedures of exchanging, challenging and reviewing progress, measures and policy initiatives with line Ministries, the MNE and ASPIRE as part of the planning processes, in particular to discuss the alignment between the NDP and the concept of development of state bodies; build a performance dialogue between the Executive Office, the MNE and ASPIRE for instance by holding joint meetings to discuss key findings and suggested actions, and the new actions envisaged by the Executive Office particularly as the follow-up plan to the State Address of the President.
Implement the new monitoring process that reassigns the activities and sequencing between the MNE and ASPIRE on the NDP implementation and further expand performance management and monitoring systems and dialogue:
Consider establishing quarterly meetings between the MNE and line Ministries and other state bodies, for instance at Director or Deputy Minister level, to discuss the progress on indicators and priorities compared to the NDP and to the annual action plan and find common solutions; hold monthly meetings with counterparts in charge of strategic planning in each line Ministry and agency to regularly discuss and challenge progress; create a network of strategic planners across the government to share ideas, practices and issues.
Complete the development of online monitoring tools to ensure the achievement of country’s priorities: develop a digital platform focusing on strategic indicators shared between ASPIRE and the MNE and available to all actors involved in strategic planning; include in the platform all key indicators of Kazakhstan 2050 and the NDP with a breakdown by area and line Ministry; ensure that the platform enables to collect and display real time data and indicators; consider also a public interface of the platform to further communicate on the achievement of priorities to the public, like the Tree of Truth in Estonia.
Continue to optimise the strategic planning system to ensure the achievement of country’s priorities:
Further develop formal co-ordination mechanisms and procedures to ensure alignment of documents and strategic priorities:
Create an interministerial high-level committee chaired by the Prime Minister, and gathering all ministers and heads of relevant agencies, to define high level priorities, review the overall implementation and make key decisions on new plans and measures.
In addition, establish an interministerial working group, led by the MNE, and gathering operational-level members of all ministries and relevant agencies, meeting on a regular basis to specifically steer, coordinate and implement the priorities defined by the high-level committee (e.g. listening state, climate change or economic liberalisation).
Formalise a process for ASPIRE and the MNE to review and challenge strategic documents when they are prepared and to return them to line Ministries, for instance make this review mandatory before a strategic document or key measures approved in the government meetings.
Streamline the existing strategies by doing a stocktaking exercise of existing ones led by the Government Apparatus and MNE as was done in Lithuania, cancelling those that are irrelevant, not implemented or that do not fit in the new state planning decree, adapting those that need to be kept but that are not aligned with Kazakhstan 2050 and the NDP, and developing new ones as needed.
Continue to develop strategic planning tools for guidance and support: consider developing templates of strategic and state planning documents, develop training activities on strategic and state planning for all state bodies and create an online registry of strategies, that could also include all key legal and methodological documents for strategic and state planning, as was done in Czechia.
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