“Encouraging signs that financial support for Russian CSOs is growing”

24.05.2021

Anna Filippova, a junior researcher at the Centre for Civil Society and Non-Profit Sector Studies at the National Research University’s Higher School of Economics, has revealed that State financial support for CSOs has been increasing year on year since 2011. It provides most funding for organisations that support education, health and social services, as well as sporting and cultural activities.

According to Filippova, the majority of SONGOs that have received Presidential grants since 1 January 2017 are based in the Altai Republic and the Nenets and Chukotka administrative districts.

The most SONGOs that have received federal support are based in the Republics of Ingushetia and Mordovia and Magadan Oblast. The largest number of CSOs that have received regional support (according to the register maintained by the Ministry of Economic Development) are from the Nenets and Chukotka administrative districts. The largest level of support given on average from 2016-2019 was to SONGOs in the Chukotka, Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi administrative districts.

“We can see an upward trend in the level of financial support for Russian SONGOs both at federal and regional levels which I find very encouraging. The higher the spending on education, wages and quality of life in the regions, the more support there is for CSOs”, said Filippova.

However, in her view, the transparency of federal and regional support for CSOs continues to be limited despite the introduction of the SONGO register. “Not all federal and regional executive agencies that support CSOs make registers on its provision publicly available – the level of openness needs to be increased”, said the researcher.

The collaboration between CSOs and executive agencies was discussed at an International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development held on 13 April. Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2021/05/24/chukotskij-avtonomnyj-okrug-lider-po-kolichestvu-so-nko-poluchayushhih-gospodderzhku/