Civic Chamber plans to catalogue rural NGOs
Civic Chamber plans to catalogue rural NGOs
09.03.2016
The study, which will be carried out in conjunction with a series of forums titled ‘Countryside – the soul of Russia’, will help to identify the main problems of rural non-profit organisations.
The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation intends to catalogue the most successful rural NGOs by the end of 2016. “The Civic Chamber plans to create an electronic catalogue of successful and worthy NGOs which have experience of working in rural regions. This will enable us to identify the main problems of rural NGOs and provide the support required”, says Evgenia Uvarkina, Chair of the Civic Chamber Commission on Rural Development.
The Civic Chamber has sent electronic questionnaires to rural organisations. The study will enable the creation of a project passport, which will include the organisation’s name and the type of activity undertaken. In addition, the study will show whether these projects received grants and what challenges the organisation faced. “After collecting and ordering the data, we intend to publish the electronic catalogue on the website of the Civic Chamber and its regional counterparts. Any activist can explore any section of interest to them”, says Uvarkina.
The creation of the catalogue will occur alongside a series of forums titled ‘Countryside – the soul of Russia’, the first of which took place on 10-11 March in Vologda. Their aim is to mobilise civil society for the implementation of the Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Rural Regions of the Russian Federation to 2030, and to replicate the success of socially significant projects which have been implemented by NGOs in rural areas. In 2016 ten such regional forums will take place.
In December 2015 as part of a message to the Federal Assembly President Putin ordered the provision of presidential grants for socially-orientated NGOs, ‘carrying out activities in the social sphere, including in small towns and rural areas’. The Civic Chamber has proposed the creation of a grant operator, which would distribute funds between NGOs from small towns and villages.
Author: Georgii Ivanushkin
