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United Nations Development Programme |
This is the name of a new project launched by the UNDP Country Office in Moscow in May jointly with the Russian Ministry of Federal Affairs, and Nationality and Migration Policies to support socio-economic rehabilitation, reconstruction and development in the North Caucasus region.
As its first step, a Reconstruction and Development Coordination Centre is being established in Rostov on Don to alleviate socio-economic destabilisation caused in the region by rising unemployment, declining quality of life and falling standards of health care and educational services. It will also organise regular seminars for local government officials with emphasis on socio-economic development in the emergency situation, in-depth analysis and collection of data that could be used as a core for a Human Development Report on the North Caucasus in 2001.
The first seminar for representatives of all federation members in the region was held in Rostov on Don in July jointly with UNESCO and the World Bank Institute. Another seminar is scheduled to take place in Makhachkala in November. Simultaneously, training will be given, jointly with UNESCO, to schoolteachers from Chechnya to raise their professional skill and displaced persons in Ingushetia will be trained in new occupations, also jointly with UNICEF.
We put together a team of scientists, specialists, local representatives, including displaced persons, and international and local NGOs to conduct socio-economic surveys. Work will start in accordance with the proposal we made in the UN Appeal for the period until December 31, 2000.
Among the projects to be implemented are TV programmes under
the general name of "A Person of Caucasian Roots" and a TV serial
designed to promote interethnic tolerance in the South of Russia, to be prepared
by the Alexander Politkovsky Studio.
The SCANEX Research and Development Centre began manufacturing a ScanER personal ground station complex for acquisition and processing of natural-resources data from the Russian natural-resources satellites Resource 1, Ocean O and Meteor 3M. The complex is to be delivered to the Southern Regional Data Analysis Centre in Rostov on Don and is considered by the regional authorities to be important in reviving the economy in the South of Russia. The complex will provides the following information: harvest monitoring, soil humidity, transportation and navigation routes, and emergency situations.
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To help a person recognise his talent, realise his hidden or unclaimed potential and make a career in the name of common goal _ these are the principles guiding the staff of the Copers project, which has been under way within the framework of the UNDP since the middle of 1999.
In the context of the ongoing transition process in Russia, Copers' mission is to analyse the labour market in order to identify people capable of building high-power teams of companies, which will, in their turn, contribute to economic and social development of Russia.
In order to succeed at the microeconomic level, Copers has developed methods
to make out skills and abilities that are considered crucial: commitment, responsibili
ty, initiative, autonomy, and reliability.
For over 20 years Copers has played a leading role by providing assistance
to job candidates, whose recruitment and therefore careers it helps to establish.
Copers is a sort of agency, which deals with recruitment of middle and executive
management professionals. But in contrast to common la
bor exchange, it is not professionals who offer their services to the company,
but the opposite.
Though this system seems to be unusual for Russia, in Western and Central Europe
thousands of high professionals succeeded thank to it.
Managers of the Moscow Copers Office Vera Yakunina, Anna Gryaznova and Nadezhda
Fedorova
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UN Resident Coordinator System |
The ILO Office and the Resident Coordinator system in the Russian Federation jointly convened a roundtable meeting on poverty in Moscow on September 19, 2000.
This initiative was a logical follow up to the International Tripartite Conference on Social and Labour Issues (Overcoming Adverse Consequences of Transition in the Russian Federation) conducted last October by the ILO, as well as of recent events concerning the follow up to the World Summit on Social Development held at the United Nations system level, including the joint UN-WB-IMF-OECD report on "Better World for All".
The roundtable meeting was one of the first events patronised by the Interagency Theme Group on Poverty, recently created within the UN Resident Coordinator system in Russia.
Representatives of the UN agencies in Moscow, the World Bank, TACIS and several
bilateral donors, government experts, representatives of the Russian Parliament,
the Ministry of Labour and Social Development, the Ministry of Economic Development
and research institutions attended the meeting. Introductions to the dis
cussion were made by Mr. Alexander Razumov (ILO and UNDP Consultant, Analysis
of Poverty in Russia) and Mr. Guy Standing (ILO Headquarters, Director of In
Focus Programme on Social and Economic Security).
The major goal of the meeting was to identify possibility for future coordination
between different participants: federal, regional and local authorities, NGOs
and international organisations in conducting research on poverty and activities
to alleviate poverty. The ultimate goal of this search for synergies was to
make a significant contribution towards the elaboration of an integrated National
Strategy on Poverty Alleviation in Russia, involving
all aspects of the complex, multi-sectoral phenomenon.
The Resident Coordinator system in the Russian Federation has decided to support such efforts, through use of special funds allocated by the Swedish Government for facilitating integrated approaches by the United Nations family at the country level.
Related to this new approach to poverty alleviation, the ILO Moscow Office officially launched on September 29, its project on Social Expenditure Review cum Social Budgeting in the Russian Federation. This project is to be implemented in partnership with the World Bank and UNDP, and will involve all interested national partners participating in quantitative analysis applied to the social sector. The project will rely on the expertise of national experts from the Ministry of Labour and Social Development, the Ministry of Economy and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, the social partners, the State Statistics Board, the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and other interested extra-budgetary funds, and will benefit from the technical advice of the ILO Actuarial Services in Geneva. Its expected duration is 12 months, starting from October 2000.
Participants of the roundtsble to make a significant contribution towards the elaboration of an integrated National Strategy on Poverty Alleviation in Russia
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Eugene Onegin, which was performed at New Opera in the evening of October 17, was free for all guests invited to this charity event by the UN Office in Moscow. The performance was intended for low-income members of Russian society, such as pensioners, war veterans, and the disabled, people for whom the theatre in today's Russia is a luxury they cannot afford.
Before the performance Mr.Jean-Victor Gruat, the UN Resident Coordinator a.i. in the Russia, said that it's important that the week of the activities dedicated to the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty begins with such an important cultural event, because the culture is essential part of decent way of life. The charity concert at the New Opera was possible thanks to the initiative of the UN Information Center in Moscow and its Director Mr. Alexandr Gorelik.
UN agencies in Russia are thankful to the New Opera and personally to its Executive Director, Mr. Serguey Lysenko, for the charity performance.
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United Nations Population Fund |
"Demographic issues are quite urgent for the Russian Federation and this fact was acknowledged by the President Mr. Putin in his first address to the Federal Assembly" said Mr. Philippe Elghouayel, UNFPA Representative in the Russian Federation at a press conference at Interfax Information Agency on release of UNFPA Annual report "One life _ two worlds. Men and women in the transition period".
At the same time gender discrimination was largely ignored on the ground of
its insignificance, noted Mr. Elghouayel. Gender equity is a priority task in
the field of human rights protection. In spite of the colossal changes in the
way of life of humankind in this century, gender discrimination and violence
against women remain a reality. In many countries, including Russia, one of
the consequences of gender inequalities is the growth
in the number of HIV-infected women. The UNFPA Representative emphasized that
in some regions of the Russian Federation more and more women are becoming victims
of HIV- infection.
Ms. Ludmila Zavadskaya, Director of Gender Programs at the American Bar Association commented at the press conference that the number of women svictim to domestic violence (12-16 thousands a year) is almost equal to the military losses of the former Soviet Union during its 10 years war in Afghanistan.
The representative of the Ministry of Labour and Social Development Ms. Marina Gordeeva also present at the press conference said that in Russia the state policy on strengthening women's status is already functioning. She also added that the "Russian government is very attentive to the ideas in this field proposed by the world community".
Press conference at the Interfax news agency
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Congratulations!
UNDP Resident Representative in the Russian Federation Philippe Elghouayel extended
sincere congratulations to Mr.Zhores Alfyorov, Rector of the Joffe Institute
of Physics and Technics and one of the UNDP National Project Director, for the
Physics Nobel Prize in 2000 he has just been awarded. In 1998 Mr. Alfyorov initiated
one of the most successful projects with UNDP for the creation of a college
for gifted Russian students in physics in St.Petersburg, the city where he lives
and where he made most of his prominent inventions. "Thanks to the development
of laser-beam the CD-player was invented, special ceramics and fiber-optic technoligies
among others marked mankind technological progress. It is a great honour for
us that in Your person Russian science was recognized by the most prestigious
prize emphasising the world significance of the work of the Institute of Physics
and Technics you are heading", states the letter of the UNDP Resident Representative
in Russia.
Our photoshop
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A special convoy with UNFPA humanitarian aid was dispatched from
Moscow to Nazran, Ingushetia, in the last days of September. It carried supplies
purchased for UNFPA funds for reproductive health protection service institutions
in this North Caucasian republic. The supplies included medical equipment for
maternity homes and hospital obstetrics departments in Ingushetia. According
to Alikhan Albakov, a spokesman for the republic's Health Ministry, who was
interviewed by UN in Russia, all surgical instruments, and breathing
and anaesthetising equipment for young mothers and new-borns is to be delivered
to Nazran's central hospital, and from there to destination areas, according
to demand at local hospitals.
