Building Civil Society and Community Development in Russia: 2004-2006
In March and November of 2004, key CAMBA staff and then-Board President Beverly Morris traveled to Russia to provide technical assistance in organizational development to NGO leaders representing minority communities in the Volga Federal Region. We provided training and technical assistance in areas including coalition and consensus building, networking and resource sharing, partnering with local government and police, strategic planning, mission development, board development, project implementation, and the operation of community-based and non-governmental organizations as businesses.
Through this trip and other activities, CAMBA has been active in building civil society in Russia. Our efforts have centered on developing and strengthening the organizational capacity of Russian Non Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) serving ethnic minorities. Through this work we promoted and supported cooperation between ethnic organizations, state authorities, law-enforcement bodies and the media by applying the best practices and successful models developed by CAMBA and other American NGO’s working on similar issues. In addition, we were able to reduce bias, promote tolerance, and build mutual acceptance of, among and within diverse communities.
Funded by the United States Agency for International Development through the International Research and Exchange Board, CAMBA presented its experience working with local communities, police, government and the media to combat bias and promote dialogue and improved inter-group relations as a model that may offer useful strategies and methods that can be positively adapted and applied by NGO’s in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). CAMBA trained and conferred with NGO leaders representing the Armenian, Azeri, Chechen, Georgian, German, Jewish and Tartar communities, as well as local government officials. These leaders then implemented pilot projects in their communities with great success based on the results of our trainings and technical assistance. In Samara, one such pilot project is now being sustained through local government resources. Following our suggested model of partnering with government, this minority rights organization now has a representative of the government social services department out-stationed in their offices to facilitate access to services for members of minority communities. This is the first time a local government-NGO partnership has been implemented in this region of the CIS.
In September of 2006, CAMBA Executive Director Joanne M. Oplustil and Program Director Eileen Reilly traveled to Anapa, Russia to participate in a conference organized by the Center for Interethnic Cooperation (CIC) in Moscow. CAMBA reported upon its multi year partnership with CIC, to provide technical assistance in organizational development to NGO leaders representing minority communities in Russia. This project focused upon developing and strengthening the organizational capacity of Russian NGO’s serving ethnic minorities; and promoted and supported cooperation between ethnic organizations, state authorities, law-enforcement bodies and the media by applying the best practices and successful models developed by American NGO’s working on similar issues.