FRAEC’s Russia Blog

Often the press reports on what is perceived as the “erosion of democracy” in Russia. What is not often reported is how Russia, through its reforms, is shaping citizen engagement in its country.  A few years ago the Russian government passed Law 131 – not something that you might have read about – but it essentially instructs Russian municipalities, local cities, to take more responsibility for their city’s social and economic development. It also states that areas with 1,000 or more people must form a municipality, which has dramatically increased the number of municipalities throughout the country, and that cities must engage their citizens, hold public hearings, and a whole variety of other tasks. This is dramatic change!

So you may wonder why I am raising this now. In my last post I mentioned the US-RFE Municipal Partnership Program, a program funded by USAID, one of many initiatives that was created to assist with these reforms. Many city and municipal leaders were unprepared and looking for models and practical tools to assist them. Our program works to improve local governance in the Russian Far East through city-to-city exchanges, consultations and training. Our two Russian partners, the Institute for Urban Economics (Moscow)  and the Far East Center for Social Innovation (Khabarovsk), are doing the majority of the consultations and training, but an integral part of the program is the partnership between Washington and Russian Far East (RFE) cities.

In 2008 delegations from four Russian Far East cities traveled to Washington State to meet with their partners to learn about local governance, how to engage citizens and to develop a joint project that would assist the RFE municipality in complying with the reforms. This was a first for most of the cities and I am pleased to say that they embraced each other immediately. This short video highlights their experience while in Washington State.

Following this exchange visit, the cities have been hard at work in developing their joint projects.  Bremerton and Sovetskaya Gavan (Khabarovsk Krai) are working to increase citizen participation in the RFE city. The Khabarovsk Municipal District (Khabarovsk Krai) and the City of Seattle have launched a project to increase the quality and accessibility of information on recreational opportunities as a key economic development tool for the municipality. University Place and Slavyanka Urban Settlement (Primorsky Krai) are working together to increase citizen participation in Slavyanka’s strategic planning process adapting the U.S. partner’s experience. They have been holding periodic video conferences via Skype since the beginning of this year.

Finally, Leavenworth and Yelizovsky Municipal District (Kamchatka) are working together to promote tourism opportunities in the Kamchatka region. The Russian partner is interested in establishing a public-private partnership based upon what the City of Leavenworth and the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce have created to promote tourism.

Soon representatives from the Washington State partner cities will start traveling to the Russian Far East to further these projects, so look for more stories from the field.

Russia in the Global Storm was the topic of a presentation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace last month. One of the presenters, Zeljko Bogetic from the World Bank, cautioned that Russia’s “lack of attention towards greater social safety net programs was worrisome.” He went on to say that it is estimated that 4.7 million Russians would fall into poverty this year, compared to the 1.1 million that did so last year.  According to Bogetic, regions that rely on only a single source of employment, those that had pre-crisis high unemployment and those with large stakes in sectors that have been most affected, including manufacturing, construction and retail trade, will be hit the hardest.

We have alumni of FRAEC in many of Russia’s regions, so this article prompted me to review the results of a recent informal survey we conducted. We had asked our alumni about how things were going, what were the most important issues facing their communities and how we could work together to address them. The responses came from Moscow, the Urals, Siberia, and the Russian Far East. They included business owners, politicians, NGO leaders, educators and representatives from tribal arts groups. Their comments were as diverse as their professions and locations, and yet there were common themes.

What they said certainly echoed the concerns expressed by the article. Many mentioned the problems of the economy and the impact on their region. They worried about unemployment, not just for those already employed, but for the university graduates facing a challenging job environment. This was particularly challenging for our alum living in the Urals, a region dependent upon heavy industry manufacturing. Many asked that we share our experience from the US regarding professional development and job placement.

Another issue raised by one of our regional government alums was society’s “misunderstanding of civil servants in government and the idea of how to construct a civil society.” His work, and the work of his agency, is to help better inform the citizens of their rights and how to interact with government departments and agencies. This was underscored by another official from a different region who said: “It is even more poignant now to learn how to draw civil society and non-commercial organizations to the administration at the municipal level.” He went on to say, “It is very important to ensure that the population believes that the question of how the territory where they live develops, depends on them.” I was pleased that our USAID-funded US-RFE Municipal Partnership Program is targeted to assist with both of these concerns.

Finally, many shared concerns about youth and the growing challenges of xenophobia, crime, aggressive youth and bullying. This is not to say that all youth in Russia are aggressive, but as the economic situation worsens and unless there is an effort to help find jobs for the youth, they worry that there will be more problems. Again they are looking to the U.S. for ideas, models and training. Fortunately there are a number of good programs in Russia; some funded by the US government, but it is clear that they are looking for more ideas and assistance.

One bright spot related to youth was a response from our alum in the City of Artyom. In 2006, our governance exchange program brought 16 leaders in two groups from two regions in the Russian Far East to Seattle. Each group developed a project to be implemented. One group, which included the Mayor of Artyom, decided to conduct a Day of Youth Governance in his city. Some months later, after a week-long intensive training program, including job shadowing of their adult mentors and presentations by the Model UN-Russian Far East members, thirty young people assumed the positions of mayor, city council deputies and department heads. Afterwards, one young participant commented that “it is tough making these decisions.”

Because of its success, it is now an annual event in the City of Artyom. The city has added a competition for youth projects, such as an internet cafe, a youth initiative for “harmful habits” prevention and a youth television project. In 2009 they added two new ideas: “Leader”, a competition for project research and management and another, “Young Politician”,  to increase youth participation in the socio-political activities of the city. The winners of both of these projects will be considered for job openings at the city, and most importantly, this model is now being replicated to other cities in Primorsky Krai and hopefully elsewhere in Russia. What a success!

International volunteers' trail building

Yesterday I met with several members of the Great Baikal Trail Organization and their American partners to learn more about what they have been doing since we gave them a grant many years ago. It turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to appreciate, again, what people can do when united in a common purpose.

In 2002 the Adventure Tourism and Mountaineering Federation of Buryatia, Russia and Earth Island Institute, San Francisco, competed for and won a grant from FRAEC under our USAID-funded US-RFE Partnership Activity. The Great Baikal Trail Association was newly established and our grant, their first, gave them the necessary support to exchange experience and knowledge about how to build trails around Lake Baikal, the largest fresh water lake in the world and a World Natural Heritage site.

Just two years later, Great Baikal Trail Organization (GBT) in Russia was established to facilitate further funding support from other donors. It is now an international, volunteer-driven, nonprofit organization working to develop, maintain, promote, and protect the first national system of trails in all of Russia, and to advocate for the sustainable development of Lake Baikal.

The fact that they have created the first national system of trails in Russia as well as attract other partners is in itself quite an accomplishment, but they have done so much more! Every summer they conduct camps for volunteers from all over Russia, Europe, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand to help build the trails.  Over the last six years they have held 114 summer camps with over 3000 volunteers.

When I asked the director of the GBT what she thought were the most important results so far, she said it was working with youth. Their outreach education to children from villages around the lake include subjects such as the importance of clean water and a healthy earth. Most of this education is done by university students based in Irkutsk who are members of the Student Club. Equally important, the GBT works with leaders in the lake’s surrounding villages educating them about the of value ecotourism and how they can benefit from tourists who come to build the trails. Not only has this improved the economic situation in the villages, but the trails are no longer being damaged by local communities that didn’t understand the goals.

Over the life of our grant program FRAEC was able to give GBT three grants to expand their efforts around the lake, and to take their experience to Kamchatka, Russia to assist them with that region’s efforts in developing ecotourism.  I would like to congratulate this great team of Russian and American organizations and individuals. They have accomplished so much and are an excellent example of the power of partnership.