Moscow conference aims to accelerate progress on 11 social issues

On November 14 and 15, 2011, representatives from 70 US and Russian non-governmental organizations will gather in Moscow for a conference entitled “US and Russian Civil Society: Deepening Partnerships.” The conference is an initiative of the US-Russia Civil Society Partnership Program (CSPP), implemented by Eurasia Foundation with its partner New Eurasia Foundation. Funding support is provided by USAID.

Organized into working groups, the NGOs will hammer out priority policy recommendations toaccelerate bilateral progress on 11 social issues, including anti-corruption, local community development, environmental protection, education, migration, child protection, youth, gender equity, new media, public health and human rights. Also participating in the conference will be dozens of Russian and US organizations that are registering and plugging in virtually through the CSPP website, www.usrussiacivilsociety.org.

Through the working group structure, participants will develop work plans and explore opportunities for cross-thematic joint action. The ultimate goal of CSPP is to create sustainable mechanisms for the development and delivery of recommendations from citizens to policymakers, leading to meaningful improvement in the lives of citizens of both countries.

Working groups already showing resultsCo-conveners for each working group have been identified, and

most groups have met in advance of the November conference. Some groups have been active since previous Civil Society Summit meetings in 2009 and 2010, and several are already demonstrating concrete results from the collaborative action. The Anti-Corruption Working Group, after meeting six times between 2009 and 2011, successfully advocated for Russia to adopt the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. The Public Health Working Group, also active since 2009, was the catalyst behind the introduction of text4baby in Russia, a free mobile information service designed to promote maternal and child health. As a result of previous summit meetings, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the V.I. Kulakov Scientific Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology will sign a memorandum of understanding at the Moscow conference to “strengthen the scientific and medical links” between the two countries and “to strengthen cooperation and collaboration in perinatal and neonatal care to benefit children.”

News from CSPP

Svetlana Makovetskaya, Director of the Center for Civic Analysis and Independent Research, participates in the Octo-ber Steering Committee meeting. Also pictured (from left to right) are Eurasia Foundation President Horton Beebe-Center and New Eurasia Foundation President Andrey Kortunov.

Matthew Murray, Chairman of the Center for Business Ethics and Corporate Governance, and Yuri Dzhibladze, Director of the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, participate in the CSPP Steering Committee meeting, held in October 2011, to set priorities for the program.

For more information contact:

Laurens Ayvazianlayvazian@eurasia.org

Eurasia Foundation1350 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 1000Washington, DC 20036tel. 202.234.7370 x136www.eurasia.org

New Eurasia Foundation3/9, 3-rd Syromyatnichesky per.,Bldg. 1, 5th FloorMoscow, 105120, Russiatel. 495.970.1567

CSPP website to sustain momentum between annual conferences CSPP’s Online Resource Platform, www.usrussiacivilsociety.org, provides a forum to connect Russian and American civil society organizations at any time. Organized thematically into affinity communities, the website has a built-in translator to facilitate access in Russian and English to feature case studies and success stories, as well as updates on upcoming meetings and events. Users of the website will also be able to take part in forum discussions on the site. The platform will feature online registration for program events. Archival video and audio content from the annual conference, working group meetings, and other program events will be posted to the site. At the end of the Moscow conference on November 14-15, 2011, each working group will post the PowerPoint presentation that it has produced, containing priorities, recommendations, and work plans.

This publication is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of the Eurasia Foundation and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United StatesGovernment.

(from left to right) Kathleen Newland, Director of the Migrants, Migration, and Development, and Refugee Policy Programs at the Migration Policy Institute, Ivan Pavlov, Board Chair of the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information and CSPP Steering Committee Co-Chair, and Sandra Marchenko, Director of the Koons Family Institute on International Law and Policy at the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

CSPP grant competitionIn November 2011 CSPP plans to announce a two-stage grant competition as a part of its US-Russia Civil Society Partnership Program. The mandate areas for the grant competition will be based on the priority areas that are identified by the 11 working groups at the November 14-15, 2011 conference in Moscow, “US and Russian Civil Society: Deepening Partnerships.” The competition will be held in two stages, and there will be a Request for Proposals (RFP) for each stage. In the first stage, CSPP will invite pairs of US and Russian NGOs to submit Contact Project proposals of up to $3,000 that will serve exclusively tofacilitate the development of larger Linkage Project proposals.

Contact Grant funds cover expenses for the establishment of communication channels and organization of meeting(s) between partner organizations. As a whole, Contact Grants facilitate the development and submission of the Linkage Project proposal, including the exchange of information and experience to plan for concrete collaboration on the Linkage Project. Proposals will be reviewed by expert panels and CSPP staff. Both stages of the grant competition will include a cost-share requirement.

Please see below for more information regarding the deadlines for the competition and for the award announcement schedule.