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  |  28 марта, 2013   |   Читать на сайте издания

Pro-Kremlin experts Propose Government Divides up the NGO Sector and Helps Social Organisations

Vedomosti publication

Alexei Nikolski

Maxim Glikin

Maxim Tovkailo

 

A report by the Foundation on Development of Civil Society entitled ‘The Third Sector in Russia:  Current Status and Problems Ahead’ claims that the percentage of socially orientated NGOs in Russia is far lower that that of developed countries in Europe and America – only 13.5% in Russia (most of which deal with control and expertise) as opposed to 60-70% in Europe and America.

 

 

State contribution to funding NGOs in Russia is also negligible – 5% compared to 54% in Eastern Europe, Canada and Israel. In recent years the State has increased funding to NGOs (from 4.7 billion roubles in 2012 to 8.3 billion in 2013)  and has expressed the need to hand over a range of state functions – such as providing employment for the disabled and searching for soldier’s graves - to socially orientated organisations. However, in practice, the process has stalled.

 

The Chairman of the Foundation’s Board, Konstantin Kostin (former head of the Presidential Department of Internal Politics) says that the NGO sector, which employs nearly one million people, needs 60-80 billion roubles. Part of this will come from the State but part will come from corporate donations encouraged by tax relief. The reason why there is a shortage of national, socially orientated NGOs, he says, is that few have the necessary competencies.

 

Socially orientated NGOs are already receiving grants – from 2013 to 2015 – the regions will get 630 million, 650 million and 690 million roubles respectively.  An official in the Ministry of Economic Development said that the President believes that the quality of service will be higher among NGOs when the central government devolves some of its functions to them.

 

 Pavel Chikov from the ‘Agora’ Association claims that the criteria for dividing the NGOs into those with social orientation and so on is incomprehensible and unjustified. It is unclear he says, why human rights activities cannot be considered social. He, like many other NGOs would welcome an injection of funds ‘but officials are not capable of distributing them effectively.’ Political analyst Alexei Makarkin says that dividing NGOs into those who are socially orientated and therefore useful and worthy of funding, and less useful ones, will naturally lead to a situation where help will be given to those NGOs who don’t criticize the authorities.