Programme approved on access for SONGOs to budgetary funds
26/05/2016
MOSCOW, RUSSIA
The draft programme for allowing socially-oriented NGOs gradual access to the budget covering the period 2016 to 2020 has been approved.
The Russian government has now approved the draft programme for allowing socially-oriented non-profit organisations (NGOs) operating in the social sphere gradual access to budget funds allocated for the provision of social services to the population. The package of measures in the project programme is intended to cover the period from 2016 to 2020. It includes measures to improve the legal regulatory framework, a number of measures to enhance the capacity of socially-oriented NGOs, a series of related sectoral measures as well as measures aimed at coordinating the activities of the authorities to ensure NGOs have access in order to be able to provide social services.
The programme was developed due to the proclamation of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and was submitted to the government by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. According to the Director of the Department of Social Development and Innovations of the Ministry of Economic Development, Artem Shadrin, the purpose of the programme is to gradually increase the availability, quality and variability of available social services by expanding socially-oriented NGO participation in the realisation of relevant programmes active in the federal subjects and municipalities of the Russian Federation. A series of projects organised as part of the programme to allow NGO access to budgetary resources is planned for pilot testing in certain regions.
According to the project programme,the draft federal law “The state (municipal) order for the provision of state (municipal) services in the social sphere” should be put together before November 2016, and the active legislation should be revised in connection with the adoption of the aforementioned law before June 2017. In addition, the learning and guide materials for the establishment and support of NGO resource centres which provide support for Russian regional socially-oriented NGOs, volunteer centres and innovation centres focusing on the social spehere will be developed before September 2016.
In particular, the draft project programme also includes a requirement for the development of a Russian Federation-wide rating of regional federal subjects based on how advanced their NGO support mechanisms are, how well they ensure socially-oriented NGOs have access to being able to provide social services in addition to being based on whether they have successfully introduced and ensured the entrenchment of competitive methods of providing state (municipal) services in the social sphere. The plan is for the rating to be based only on the basis of quantitative indicators, the data then intended to help determine whether the regional authorities actually help socially-oriented NGOs with the process of entering the social service market.
AUTHOR: Georgiy Ivanushkin
