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| United Nations Development Programme |
The role of indigenous people, as well as the difficulties they are facing in a fast changing world, was recognised during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio 1992, and included in the future action plan for sustainable development. Since that time, UNDP has been active in preparing programmes that support the implementation of these Agenda 21 principles. This year problems of indigenous peoples were discussed in the range of other important aspects of sustainable development at the World Summit on Sustainable Development RIO+10.
The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have recently signed the new preparatory assistance project "Sustainable Socio-Economic Development with Indigenous People of the Russian North, Siberia and Far East".
Indigenous peoples have long inhabited the vast expanse of the Russian Federation, from the Kola Peninsula in the Northwest to the Chukotka Peninsula in the Northeast, and Primorie in the East. Today, the total population of indigenous people in Russia is about 200,000. Indigenous settlements were usually located in settings of diverse and high biodiversity value, taking full advantage of what the nature could offer, and communicating with environment in ecologically sustainable manner.
However, during the XXth century indigenous communities endured serious pressures on their traditional lifestyle and environment, related to the developmental interventions to the Northern territories and social reforms in the Soviet Russia, followed by the period of transition in the 90-ies. Once the former Soviet social security system collapsed, indigenous people appeared to be among the least protected, most vulnerable social groups.
Critical development problems of indigenous peoples of the
North include the crisis of the traditional economies, unemployment, conflict
of interests between the companies and indigenous communities in the process
of industrial 
development
of the North, degradation of health and decline in the quality of life, crisis
of the traditional life style and deterioration of the ethnic cultural, social
and economic tradition. Direct state investments and subsidies into economy
of reindeer husbandry and traditional craftsmanship decreased by dozens of times.
Number of active economic enterprises in the traditional economy, initially
substantially increased in 1992–1994, dropped by 90%. Low efficiency and profitability
of the traditional economy and unemployment followed by decrease of the local
incomes have a negative impact upon living conditions of indigenous peoples.
Overwhelming majority of aborigines live in extreme poverty. Very often the
sources for living are limited to private gardening, hunting, fishing, wild
plants harvesting and pension of the retired persons. Real financial income
of indigenous peoples of the North who mainly live in the rural areas, is not
only 2-3 times less than average level in Russia, but also by 25-30% lower than
average level in the subsequent regions.
At present economic situation, most important objective for indigenous peoples of the North is not merely preservation of their traditional economy but an adaptation of the latter to the modern market system.
The objective of the preparatory project launched by the Ministry of Economic Development and UNDP is to prepare an integrated capacity building programme that will contribute to the sustainable socio-economic development of the indigenous communities in the Russian North, Siberia and Far East. The programme will build upon existing experiences of UNDP Russia and within the UNDP network as well as on cooperation with the Russian indigenous people associations (RAIPON) and its regional organisations, and international donor community.
The project will build the capacities of the local and indigenous communities by:
1) supporting sustainable livelihoods;
2) contributing to community development and improvements in social services;
3) preserving and developing traditional land use practices and lifestyle;
4) strengthening the legal framework concerning traditional land use by indigenous communities (land rights issues); and
5) training, information exchange and networking.
New approaches and partnerships towards sustainable development elaborated during the preparatory phase will be tested in the project pilot area: Turukhansk District of the Krasnoyarsk Krai. The first fact finding mission to the district and consultations with the indigenous communities and local Administration were conducted in the end of August.
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On 7–12 July the 4th International Women’s Forum "Women for Survival of the Earth" was held in Irkutsk and Baikal region. Taking part were 815 representatives of governmental structures and NGOs, UN agencies and international foundations, citizens of Russia and other countries. The Forum’s participants worked out Program of Gender Development of Siberian Federal District (SFD).
The Program was initiated by the network of women’s NGOs of the Baikal Regional Women’s Union "Angara" working in cooperation with UN Development Programme (UNDP), with support from executive and legislative federal and regional bodies, Office of the Authorized representative of the President of the Russian Federation in SFD, Irkutsk olblast Government and Irkutsk State Technical University. Experts and specialists of the Russian Academy of Sciences, gender research centers and independent experts contributed to development of Program materials and Forum activities. Significant input was made by UNDP, UNIFEM Regional Office and other international and UN agencies operating in Russia: ILO, UNFPA, UNESCO.
Recently,
the concept of human development, initiated by UNDP, has replaced narrow
economic approaches and has become common world practice. Re-orientation from
equal rights for men and women to equal attitude to men and women in the labor
market and in other spheres of life by providing them with equal social opportunities
and broader public awareness of interconnection between gender equality and
sustainable development is currently under way. In order to evaluate human development
a special index is applied which summarizes three development criteria – longevity
(measured by life expectancy index), availability of education (literacy level
and share of students among children and youth), and level of incomes (measured
by per capita gross regional income).
It should be stated that in modern Russia equal opportunities are not ensured either on the federal or on the regional level. With regard to human development and its gender dimensions, SFD is one of problem regions of Russia.
Interregional inequality, measured by human development index (HDI) is the highest in the country. Tomskaya oblast is among a group of leading regions (7-th place in the Russian Federation), while two more regions (Krasnoyarsky Krai and Omskaya oblast) exceed the average indicator for Russia. Moreover, a quarter of SFD regions (Altay Republic, Chitinskaya oblast, Tyva Republic) are among outsiders, with the lowest HDI rating. Tyva is assigned the lowest HDI in the Russian Federation and by this index is similar to Tajikistan and Bolivia. 75% regions of Siberia lag behind the average level in Russia with regard to other human development components (income, life longevity and involvement of children and youth in education).
"Raw" character of Siberian economics increases gender disparity in incomes and employment structure. In the regions with high concentration of mining industry (Krasnoyarsky Krai, Kemerovskaya oblast) women’s average salary is 55% lower than that of men. Only in agrarian and poorly developed regions of Siberia, where people’s income is very low (Tyva, Altay, Buryat autonomous districts) salary of women is comparable to salary of men (85%). But this is equality in poverty.
At the same time women prevail among those employed in economics of SFD regions, with the exception of Krasnoyarsky Krai. The greatest misbalance is typical for less developed regions, where the share of women-workers is as high as 55 – 57% (small business not included), and the majority of women are employed in low-paid branches of the budget sphere. This means that society exploits women’s readiness to work in branches with low-paid labor, which may be considered another form of gender discrimination.
In overwhelming majority of SFD regions the level of total unemployment (measured by ILO methodology) exceeds the average national level. In the poorly developed regions (Tyva, Buryatia, Evenk and Buryat autonomous districts, Chitinskaya oblast) not only the level of unemployment is the highest (15–23%), but the level of male unemployment is 15–50% higher than female, as women are less demanding with regard to labor conditions and salary level. On the contrary, the registered level of unemployment is higher among women, which means that women have fewer chances to find a job through other channels, and more often apply to the government for help and meager unemployment benefits.
Women’s economic status affects negatively their political status, which is typical not only for SFD, but for the rest of Russia as well. The share of women – members of legislative bodies is 10–14% in most Siberian regions (in the Russian Federation – 9%). In 5 regions there are either no women in legislative bodies (Tomskaya and Novosibirskaya oblasts), or their number is very small (2-6% in Irkutskaya oblast, Buryatia, Altaisky Krai).
Gender equality in education is one of the inherited gains of recent years. Still, across SFD regions, there is gross equality in access to professional education. In certain areas there exists a well-developed network of universities (Tomskaya and Novosibirskaya oblasts), and the number of students therein is 3-4 times higher than in the regions with poorly developed university system (Southern Siberia, especially Chitinskaya oblast, Tyva and Khakassia). Though the number of universities and students in SFD is growing fast, regional disparities are not equalized. Thus, inequality in opportunities for human development remains unchaged.
Health of Siberian population is another major problem. Life expectancy in most parts of Siberia is lower than on the average across Russia. Life expectancy in Tyva is 57 years, which is lower than in such poorly developed countries as Bangladesh and Mongolia. Gender disparities in Siberia are intensified by extremely high and premature male mortality (except Altay Krai), life expectancy of men does not exceed 60 years, and in such regions as Tyva, Irkutskaya oblast and Evenk AD it is 50-55 years.
SFD is also notorious for high infant mortality; in 75% of Siberian regions indicators are lower than the average in Russia; in poorly developed autonomous republics and in Krasnoyarsky Krai the level of infant mortality exceeds the average level by 1,5 – 2 times. Lack of health care services and low level of life provoke a sharp increase in "social" diseases. Mortality from tuberculosis in all regions of Siberia exceeds the average level in Russia, in Tyva – more than 4 times, in Irkutskaya and Kemerovskaya oblasts – more than twice.
Environmental factors evidently affect people’s health: one third among 65 cities of Russia with the highest level of pollution are located in Siberia.
This situation is unacceptable for the area with rich natural resources, highly developed industrial base and high intellectual potential. Joint and coordinated efforts of all sectors of society – governmental structures, NGOs, business, trade unions and the broad community are critical to remedy the situation.
Program of SFD gender development outlines the strategy of
incorporating gender component of Millenium Declaration
(Millenium Goals) towards sustainable development of this region of the Russian
Federation. Program duration is 2002 – 2015. The Program presents several strategic
areas, which, in participants’ opinion, need to be focused on during Program
implementation, namely:
– Submitting proposals to regional legislation to make it gender orien-ted; disseminating information and explaining the goal of these changes, mobilizing public opinion and resources, and implementing concrete activities in the given sphere.
– Creating mechanisms of revealing gender and age discrimination and compensating damage to citizens subjected to discrimination.
– Elaborating measures aimed at decrease of sectoral and professional segregation (including education, professional training and re-training programs, professional promotion of women etc.), including a list of concrete events and tools for evaluating the efficiency of their implementation.
The Program covers the problems, goals and objectives, and specific arrangements on 6 key thematic areas: education and professional training, environment, equal opportunities for men and women to participate in decision-making, combating violence, health care, enhancing economic rights of men and women in SFD.
The Program calls for efforts of government agencies, local authorities, public associations and NGOs, aimed at creating conditions for SFD economic growth and improvement of social opportunities for SFD population.
SFD gender development Program can serve as a model for similar programs in other regions of the Russian Federation.
Anyone who is interested can contact Galina Kalinaeva,
UNDP gender adviser,
at: tel.: +7 (095) 787-21-00,
fax: +7 (095) 787-21-01,
e-mail: galina.kalinaeva@undp.org