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United Nations Development Programme |
The Komi Republic is one of the UN Development Programme’s partners. The region’s leaders have been giving increasingly serious attention to the UNDP’s Human Development Reports. The Republic was the first Russian region to have supported the preparation of the national human development report for 2001, particularly its regional chapter. What has sparked this interest in cooperating with UN agencies on the whole, and with the human development reports in particular? Yuri Spiridonov, the Head of the Komi Republic, kindly agreed to answer this and other questions for The UN in Russia.
In this twenty-first century that has just begun, humanity’s ability to carefully manage the achievements of science will be of ever greater importance. In drawing up our plans for the further development of the Komi Republic, we are actively employing the help of scientists. We simply cannot pass up the enormous scientific potential at the United Nations’ disposal. For us, the human development reports in the Russian Federation have recently become a major aid in our socio-economic planning. These fundamental studies have been done by a panel of independent Russian experts. The reports contain statistical data, analyses and forecasts of the social and economic situation, the migration and plight of refugees, the systems of education and health care, the distribution of income, the labor market, and crime. In a word, one can get a complete picture of all the various processes now at work in this country.
We believe that right now, there are no shortcomings in the different kinds of economic and statistical studies....
Oh, I agree. However, first of all, we were quite close to the initial position of the national reports’ authors to begin with. They started from the fact that the human development is a people-oriented concept, one which measures a nation’s level of development by the well-being of its citizens. An index of human development is used to compare different countries. It is based on three indicators: income, life expectancy, and education. We prefer just such criteria – not tons or cubic meters of production, but how much people earn, how long they live, and what kind of education they manage to obtain.
Second,
the other features of these reports are no less important to us. Since 1998,
they’ve included a special chapter that’s devoted entirely to the regions. It
shows how summary indices that describe the standard of living in each of Russia’s
89 regions are calculated. Such data is of special value to the public agencies
in the constituent members of the Russian Federation. This is the objective
scientific view of independent national experts who have worked under the aegis,
and with the methodology of the UN. We were pleased to realize that, alongside
the UN’s agencies, international organizations, and bilateral partners, the
Komi Republic was the first Russian region to have supported the preparation
of the national human development report for 2001, particularly its regional
chapter.
How does the Komi Republic look in these studies?
Let’s take the last national report, for the year 2000, and start with the economy. Economic growth is unthinkable without capital investment, including money from abroad. Any natural riches will remain buried in the bowels of the Earth, as long as we don’t look for funds to extract them. The Komi Republic is one of the leaders in the per capita volume of foreign investment attracted from 1995 to 1999. With a figure of $348 per person, we hold the rather high 13th place among the 89 regions. We’re not about to rest on our laurels, either; at present, we’re actively conducting negotiations with a number of foreign business partners on new investment projects.
If we can now shift to the social sphere, and how your people are managing to get by during theis difficult period of reform....
It is precisely the people, their lives, their health and their well-being that are constantly at the center of attention of the Republic’s leadership. I’m convinced that no reform can be successful if the government ignores its social consequences, and our actions are taken on the basis of this conviction.
Let’s look at the data from the human development report once again. I’ll start the conversation on the social sphere with such important areas as health care and social security. The per capita income of the Social Security Fund’s territorial divisions in the Komi Republic exceeds the average level across the country by more than one and a half times, while the per capita income of the territorial funds for compulsory medical insurance here is a bit more than twice the Russian average. It is gratifying that our republic is also in the top 20 of the Federation’s constituent members according to per capita social expenses, which substantially exceed (by 28.5%) the RF’s average figure as well.
Now, let’s look at incomes. In November 1998, the cash income of the Komi Republic’s population exceeded the subsistence mini-mum by a factor of two; a year later, this figure was 2.45. Accor-ding to this indicator, we’ve risen from 12th place among Russia’s regions to 6th.
Finally, according to the summarizing indicator – the Human Development Index – the Komi Republic held 16th place among all the Russian Federation’s regions not too long ago. Now, holding 11th place, it has all but entered the top ten. We should note here that, according to both the indices for income and for per capita gross internal product, we have already joined the top ten, and hold a very high 6th place – after Moscow, the Tyumen region, Tatarstan, the Krasnoyarsk and the Samara regions.
We are counting on, and from here on shall rely upon, your scientific studies and human development reports to more accurately plot our republic’s course towards further improvement in our people’s well-being.
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From 18–20 October 2001 Kalman Mizsei, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Europe and the CIS, United Nations Deputy Coordinator of International Cooperation on Chernobyl visited Moscow.
Mr Mizsei’s visit included meetings with Yuri Fedotov, Director of the International Organizations Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ivan Materov, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Commerce; Maxim Yakovenko, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources; and Nadezhda Gerasimova, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations. The parties discussed new development approaches to the needs of the people most affected by the Chernobyl disaster. These issues were also reviewed at the roundtable organized by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, where Kalman Mizsei presented the Executive Summary of the Report of the UN Inter-regional Situation Analysis Mission on Chernobyl. The UN Mission visited Ukraine, Russia and Belarus in July-August.
Mr Mizsei held consultations with partners on the Chernobyl programme: the representatives of the UN agencies – OCHA, UNICEF, WHO, World Bank; bilateral and multilateral donors, and NGOs who participated in the August Chernobyl Mission meetings.
Mr Mizsei discussed preparations for the Global Compact meeting with Russian business elite, due to take place on 19 November in Moscow. The Global Compact is the initiative of the UN Secretary-General who asked the business leaders to support core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, and environmental practices which “will give a human face to the global market”.
Kalman Mizsei took part in the press-conference at the United Nations Information Centre, and gave a lecture at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) entitled “Good Governance is the Key to Success for Economies in Transition”.
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UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation |
Within the framework of the UNESCO programme “Man and the Biosphere”,
Biosphere Reserves have been established as model sites to promote solutions
to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. Several
regional networks link the work of the individual Biosphere Reserves. The East
Asian 
Biosphere
Reserve Network (EABRN) comprises the
Biosphere Reserves of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. This network, initiated in 1994, has three subjects as priority for cooperation: eco-tourism, conservation policy and transboundary conservation. It also serves as a mechanism to facilitate information exchange, training and site-to-site cooperation. Six meetings had been held so far, the last one in 1999 in China. Russia, formerly being part of the EuroMAB-network only, was recently admitted to this network as well, acknowledging the close links between the nature of the Russian Far East and its neighboring countries. Now it was the first time for Russia to host a meeting of the network.
With the support of the UNESCO Offices in Moscow, Beijing and Jakarta, the meeting was organized by the Russian Committee of the Man and the Biosphere Programme. All member states of the network were represented by their MAB Committees and specialists in the field of nature conservation and sustainable development except of China, where problems with the Visa occurred in the very last minute.
Part of the meeting was conducted in Vladivostok, part in the Sikhote-Alinsky Biosphere Zapo-vednik. One of the objectives of the meeting was to evaluate this interesting nature reserve, using the experience and the different backgrounds of the participating foreign experts. Other subjects were transboundary cooperation (with regard to Russia e.g. in the Altai region, in the Daurien mountains and in the Far East) and capacity building for sustainable management of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves.
Most participants visited Russia for the first time. The Sikhote-Alinsky Biosphere Reserve as well as nature conservation in Russia in general was unanimously praised for its achievements to protect vast areas of virgin nature and big predators as the Siberian Tiger. Several participants expressed their wish to return for a longer stay.
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A new website, devoted to the World Cultural and Natural Heritage,
has been opened at the official UNESCO Moscow Office webserver (http://www.unesco.ru).
The
aims of the new Internet project are to efficiently provide information on the
UNESCO program to preserve natural and cultural sites, both in Russia and around
the world, to a wide circle of users; to popularize the idea of protecting our
heritage, so that it may be passed on to successive generations; and draw public
attention to the problems of protecting the environment, and caring for architectural
and artistic masterpieces and other cultural treasures.
At present, this is the only Russian-language website with documents, legislation, and various kinds of information from one of the best-known UNESCO programs. More than a thousand of webpages that make up the site are combined into six large thematic sections.
Opening the first, titled “The Convention”, one can view the text of the UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage; the procedure of nominating and the criteria for including cultural and natural sites in the World Heritage List; a list of the states which signed the Convention; masterpieces of our oral and intangible heritage, and data on UNESCO partners in this area.
The “Operational Guidelines” section describes the principles that determine the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s actions in putting together the World Heritage List, and World Heritage List in Danger; in rendering international assistance via the World Heritage Fund; and how the UNESCO World Heritage Center is working with other agencies to implement the Convention. One can also find all nomination and reporting forms of document required for this, with accompanying commentary.
The next section, “Emblem”, contains detailed information on basic principles and rules of using the World Heritage emblem.
If one is interested in exactly which nature and cultural sites make up the world heritage, one can look in “Sites” section. It contains photographs and brief descriptions of the World Heritage List sites in Russia and other countries, along with information on the World Heritage List in Danger.
“Documents” provide the visitor of the website with additional data on the conventions, and recommendations adopted with the aim of the heritage preservation legacy.
The “Projects” section describes particular events taking place within UNESCO World Heritage Program.
At the websites, one can also view information bulletins from the World Heritage Center, along with regularly updated, topical news.