April 2012
Team members of the Responsible Management of Water Resources for Sustainable Development Program took part in the XVI Scientific and Practical Conference “Sustainable Regional Development: Situations and Prospects”
The key implementers of the Responsible Management of Water Resources for Sustainable Development Program – scientists and graduate students of the Institute of Water Problems at the Russian Academy of Sciences - attended the XVI Scientific and Practical Conference “Sustainable Regional Development: Situations and Prospects” organized in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky on April 24, 2012. Their presentations were devoted to the objective of furthering the mechanisms of improving water resources management in the Russian Federation. In his introductory speech, Prof. Venetsianov, head of the Water Protection Laboratory at the Institute of Water Problems, stressed the significance of challenges related to municipal water resources management. This subject was of special interest to the audience that was made up mainly of instructors and students of universities and colleges specializing in the field of water management.
April 2012
A new project of the Communities Development Support Program (CDSP-ICT) was launched in the city of Satka in Chelyabinsk Oblast
On April 12, in Satkinsky Raion, a press conference was held on the question of quality control of heat and water supply to the community, at which journalists from the local press, radio and television – Satkinsky Rabochy, Gornyak Baikala, and OAL SKAT-MEDIA – were acquainted with the new initiative of the raion administration, the project “Introduction of a soft hardware platform Raion Energy Resources Consumption Monitoring Dispatcher Center”. The staff of resource supply organizations and companies servicing heat and water supply networks and operating entities attended this event.
April 2012
A new project of the Communities Development Support Program (CDSP-ICT) was launched in the city of Satka in Chelyabinsk Oblast
On April 12, in Satkinsky Raion, a press conference was held on the question of quality control of heat and water supply to the community, at which journalists from the local press, radio and television – Satkinsky Rabochy, Gornyak Baikala, and OAL SKAT-MEDIA – were acquainted with the new initiative of the raion administration, the project “Introduction of a soft hardware platform Raion Energy Resources Consumption Monitoring Dispatcher Center”. The staff of resource supply organizations and companies servicing heat and water supply networks and operating entities attended this event.
April 2012
Lake Baikal Region: Second Round CDSP ICT Program Projects are Launched
On April 1, 2012, three projects of this program were commissioned in Ust Barguzin and Tankhoi municipalities in the Republic of Buryatia and in the settlement of Khomutovsky in Irkutsk Oblast. These projects are focused mainly on the priority area of the grant round: energy-efficiency and the introduction of information and communication technologies.
Project teams met with local government officials and the staff of FSD (projects manager Elena Milanova and financial director Olga Mashkova) and FSD East Siberia Regional Center (director Vladimir Belogolovov and manager V. Gustomesova). The participants in the meeting discussed issues facing communities and explored possible ways and means of resolving them; noted the interest of the local public in the projects; and considered the possibility of cost sharing projects by local organizations.
April 2012
Small Business Development in Local Communities Program
The model communities selected for this Program include Luzhsky, Tosnovsky and Gatchinsky raions in Leningradskaya Oblast; Sasovsky and Kasimovsky raions in Ryazan Oblast and 5 raions in Moscow Oblast with a center in Kolomensky raion.
Mini-grant contests for starting a small business were held among local first-time entrepreneurs and unemployed citizens. The applicants presented their business-plans for the contest developed in the course of trainings they had attended under the Program. A total of 15 projects were approved and grantees were awarded mini-grants from 50,000 to 150,000 rubles. In Ryazan Oblast, the winner projects involved developing children’s education centers and agriculture (a goose farm). In Leningradskaya Oblast, funding was provided to projects to upgrade the public services sphere, including home nursing of handicapped, and the development of tourism and farms. In Moscow Oblast, these were projects of processing used tires and developing a private bee farm.
April 2012
The brochure “Small Business and Sustainable Development in Russia: Best Practices” put out by the Fund for Sustainable Development was presented in Yekaterinburg at the round table “Small and Middle-Sized Environmentally Oriented Businesses”
The round table, held on April 10, 2012 in Yekaterinburg by the Fund for Sustainable Development (FSD) and its partner, Ural Regional Center, was devoted to this publications produced by the Fund for Sustainable development under the Citi Foundation program “Promoting Sustainable Development in Russia.”
This event was joined by 38 participants representing government institutions, municipal administrations (Sverdlovskaya Oblast Center for Ecological Monitoring and Information; Satkinsky Municipal District Administration, Chelyabinsk Oblast; and Rezh City Administration) and owners of small businesses, many of whom are the heroes of case stories included in the brochure (IE Maslikov – Tavolga Pottery LLC, Uraltermoplast LLC, IE Dobrov, IE Gabova – Environmental Audits and Consulting, UralVEK LLC – oil spill cleanup with the use of microbiological substances), NGOs (Union of Small and Middle Sized Businesses, Sverdlovskaya Oblast, Ural Environmental Union, Sverdlovskaya Oblast Branch of VOOP, Ural Association of Environmentally Responsible Businesses; Nevyansk Small Business Support Center, Environmental Training and Information Center, Institute for Environmental Studies, Ural Federal University, Occupational Safety Research Institute, Ural Association of Environmental Science Teachers) and the media (Echo or Moscow Radio Station and URFO Journal). P.Christopher McCabe, Consul for Political and Economic Affairs, US Consulate General in Yekaterinburg, who also attended the round table, expressed much interest in the FSD programs in the area of supporting environmentally oriented and social community development.
April 2012
The Fund for Sustainable Development Held a Round Table “Environmental Businesses as a Regional Sustainable Development Tool”
This event was organized by FSD on April 4, 2012 in Ufa in collaboration with the Republic of Bashkortostan Union of Ecologists and was devoted to the presentation of the brochure “Small Business and Sustainable Development in Russia: Best Practices” published by FSD under the Citi Foundation funded program Promoting Sustainable Development in Russia. The over 60 attendees of the round table included heads of environmental services of enterprises/nature users (Republic of Bashkortostan Waste Processing Association, EcoUris LLC, Promvodokanal LLC, Ecotech-Meleuz LLC and Ecotrade LLC), officials from the republic’s ministries and departments (Ministry of Nature Use and Ecology, Rosprirodnadzor Authority, State Committee for Business and Tourism, Kama Water Authority and Forestry Ministry); and representatives of the scientific and teaching community (Eastern Economics and Law Humanitarian Academy), NGOs ( VOOP, RB Union of Ecologists and the Public Council for the Environment) and the media (National State Television and Radio Company, the newspaper Rossiiskaya gazeta, the TV channel All of Ufa and the newspapers Kommersant and Bashkortostan Argumenty i fakty. Among the participants were also Oleg Goncharov, manager of Citi Bank Ufa Branch and the heroes of case stories included in the brochure (R.Khanov from Medical Audits, Service and Consulting LLC and A.Veselov from RB Association of Waste Processing).
March 2012
The Fund for Sustainable Development presented its Promoting Sustainable Development in Russia Program at the RF Chamber of Commerce and Industry
On March 28, the Fund for Sustainable Development together with partners - Russian Microfinance Center and the Citi Foundation - conducted a round table “Is it Easy to Become an Entrepreneur in Russia? Pros and Cons” at the RF Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
At this event, the participants became acquainted with the Promoting Sustainable Development in Russia Program that was carried out by FSD in 2011-2012 with support from the Citi Foundation. A brochure “Small Business and Sustainable Development in Russia: Best Practices” printed during project implementation contains 29 concrete practical examples of business success stories. Oleg Fokin, FSD executive director, presented this publication and spoke about how its idea had originated and why entrepreneurs from all corners of Russia and their experience described in the publication deserve much respect and a careful study.
March 2012
Eleven CDSP-ICT Round 2 applications approved for funding
FSD Advisory Committee Working Group meeting was held on March 15, 2012 in Moscow. Advisory Committee Members, representing State Ministries and NGOs discussed and approved eleven CDSP-ICT Round 2 projects in competitively selected communities from Russian Far East, Baikal, Sverdlovsk and Nizhniy Novgorod areas. Community Development Support Program based on ICT (CDSP-ICT) is funded by USAID and this particular Round was devoted to the introduction of the best energy saving practices in Russian municipalities.
February 2012
News from the Program “Responsible Management of Water Resources for Sustainable Development”
On February 1, 2012 at the Training Center in Samara, a seminar “Regional Water Management” was conducted as part of the advance-training course “Environmental Safety” attended by 26 representatives of the management and staff of 21 small and middle-sized businesses.
Galina Kotsubinskaya, leading specialists/expert of the Water Resources Department for Samara Oblast at the Lower Volga Watershed Authority, conducted the seminar.
February 2012
The project “Increasing heat supply efficiency in educational establishments of Sysert Urban District has been launched in the Ural region in the framework of the Community Development Support Program
The site of this project is Kindergarten # 56 located in the settlement of Dvurechensk, Sysert Urban District of Sverdlovskaya Oblast, which is a pilot institution of the municipal energy-efficiency program for 2012. The project is fulfilled by the Ural Center for Energy Saving and Ecology (UCEE) from Yekaterinburg whose staff is well aware of local problems.
Last year UCEE designed an energy-efficiency program for the Sysert Urban District that was approved by the Government of Sverdlovskaya Oblast. The program provides for a whole range of measures in the housing and utilities services and entities funded from the municipal budget, including the installation of heat supply automatic control systems (SART) in Kindergarten # 55. Elena Bondarchuk, FSD projects manager, during her site visit to Sysert monitored the launched project, conducted training on reporting procedures and met with project participants.
January 2012
The Program “Youth Votes for Health!” is Continuing in Belaya Kalitva
The second phase of the Alcoa Foundation Program “Youth Votes for Health!” was launched in January 2012. Under this Program, which has begun in 2011, new outdoor fitness sites will be opened in 2012 in the city of Belaya Kalitva and in Belokalitvensky Raion.
In December 2011, the Program partners – the Fund for Sustainable Development (FSD), which has developed the program and is currently implementing it; the Public Relations Department of Alcoa Metallurg Rus; and Belaya Kalitva Committee for Sports examined potential areas where outdoor fitness machines will be installed.
January 2012
26th Webinar of FSD Regional Centers
The twenty sixth seminar of FSD Regional Centers held on January 13, 2012 in the form of a webinar was devoted to a discussion of the beginning of work on the first round of the Community Development Support Program Based on Information and Communication Technologies (CDSP-ICT) and its prospects, as well as of the priorities of the second round whose contest of concept papers was opened on December 26, 2011.
O.Fokin, FSD executive director, and R.Butovsky, FDS program director, described the CDSP-ICT planned activities, priority areas, the specifics of the second round and the role of RC in Program implementation.
RC directors (S.Pleshakov, V.Belogolovov, K.Strukova and E.Volkova) spoke about activities of the initial stages of CDSP-ICT first round projects. Most of these have begun with feasibility studies and were coordinated with local Electric Inspection Services. In his presentation, V. Belogolovov focused on the importance of social contracts as an energy savings reinvestment mechanism supporting social project contests.