The Russian government has adopted a plan of action and a plan of urgent measures. Both documents place top priority on social problems. And if we succeed in implementing these plans, we will be making the most effective contribution to poverty alleviation. Many people erroneously believe that the best way to fight poverty is to help the poor. If we only concentrate on this, the State will never prosper. The main concern is to revitalise the economy and give enterprises the opportunity to earn money and pay their employees decent wages. In short, the State should give a man a fishing rod and teach him to catch fish, instead of giving him fish.

What incentives do you intend to introduce?

Here, both the carrot and the stick work well. In this case, the carrot is the tax reform which envisages lowering the payroll tax and reducing the burden of the social tax, which will stimulate enterprises to pay their employees more, rather than hide their revenues from the tax collector. The stick is law enforcement by the State, supervision over tax payment and the legal payment of wages, and a gradual increase in the minimum wage.

Jean-Victor Gruat, a.i. UN Resident Coordinator, said that the ILO, whose Office in Moscow he heads up, has been working for 12 years now on the pension reform in Russia...

We cooperate closely with the ILO and appreciate its help, since it has a wealth of experience with working in different countries. With respect to pension reform, in addition to working on compulsory pensions, we want to gradually switch to professional pension systems, then to accumulating pension systems, and in this sense, the UN’s experience may be extremely beneficial. The demographic situation is such that before too long there will not be 300, but 450 pensioners to every 1,000 people in the work force. The official state pension will be insufficient, so we will have to change to a accumulating system. I think we can accomplish this, but it will require an immense effort.

What are the social targets of the new economic program?

One of the first steps was the government’s approval of the Russia’s Children Programme. This shows that top priority is being placed on the resolution of social problems. What is the Russia’s Children Programme? It encompasses the Disabled Children Programme, the Child Victims of Chernobyl Programme, and the Refugee Children Programme, as well as the organisation of summer vacation activities, etc. Under the Russia’s Children Programme, we can give real help to four million children. Approximately 17 to 18 million impoverished children need assistance. We are transferring the payment of child allowances stipulated in the laws on the disabled and veterans to a federal level. We are creating respective centres across the country, from children’s centres to boarding homes for pensioners. I believe that the State’s top priority is to provide its citizens decent life.

Do you think the new economic policy will help to attract investments into Russia?

In essence, investments require an atmosphere of confidence. If the programme is implemented, if the government fulfils its promises, investments are bound to flow in. Even now, investors are not looking so much at the tax rate (will it be 15 or 20 percent?), they are more interested in whether the State will keep to the rules of the game.

The Labour Ministry is one of UNDP main partners in Russia. What do you think are the undeveloped areas we could engage in?

The main undeveloped area is social development. We used to be concerned with social protection. While actually our policy should be on the edge of attack. We must help people pull out of poverty, give them the opportunity to earn money, get an education, and draw a pension. Now we are investing large sums in social universities, which we did not have before. We are conducting research, developing textbooks, and training social workers. We need to teach our social workers how to help people develop and adapt to the new conditions. After all, it is not only pensioners who are suffering today. Our common goal is to return people to a dignified life.

What is your attitude to socially oriented projects?

One of our most successful joint cooperation projects with UNDP is the SYSLAB centers - system for highly professionals seeking employment in Pushkino and Fryazino. But, regrettably, disseminating such projects on a large scale requires enormous funds. Of course, the advantage of such small-scale projects is that large returns and specific results can be achieved at relatively little expense, particularly in the regions, since most of the money comes from the territorial budgets. And such projects would be easier to develop in the regions.

After reorganization of the employment services, which structures in the government or the Labour Ministry should UNDP work with?

On our Ministry, since the employment service is now entirely under our jurisdiction. We will have a role in all the employment programmes, and even if there is no employment fund, which is being closed for financial reasons, employment programmes will be financed from the budget.

What main elements should be incorporated in the demographic policy concept and is such a concept really justified at present?

I am against conceptions. But there is no other way to resolve all the problems in this field. We need to know how many people will be living in Russia twenty years from now, how many places will be needed in schools, how many in universities, and how to change the employment structure. In this respect, the recent studies conducted with the help of UNDP on mortality crisis in Russia, as well as the annual National Human Development Reports, are very beneficial. The future of the North is also a demographic problem. And what about the problem of oil-dependent towns? Even prosperous cities have their difficulties. The State must be able to forecast how the demographic situation will develop, since the socio-economic situation ultimately depends on this. This is why we need a demographic conception.

The UN Population Fund is cooperating with the Labour Ministry. What do you see as the priority forms of cooperation in this area on the part of UNFPA/UNDP?

• Helps countries build capacities for people-centred, sustainable development, working with government policy-makers, and with people and their organizations;

• Supports programmes in 174 developing countries and territories through a network of 132 country offices;

• Focuses on poverty eradication and promotion of livelihood for the poor, gender equity, environmental regeneration and good governance;

• Stimulates development of dialogue and action by commissioning a yearly Human Development Report and supporting the preparation of National Human Development Reports in 110 countries;

• Coordinates country-level development activities of all UN agencies;

The Third International Women’s Forum, Women for Survival of the Planet, was held in Irkutsk, East Siberia, on July 7-12, provided an opportunity for women from different countries to discuss and hear answers to many compelling questions, share their joys and fears, and appreciate their vital role in life. More than a thousand representatives from government and citizen organisations in Russia, the CIS states, and elsewhere came to the conference, which was held with the support of the UNDP programme on Democracy, Governance and Participation in Russia.

Alexander Avanesov, Senior Regional UNDP Advisor, and Galina Kalinaeva, National Programme Coordinator took part in the forum. The forum participants shared their innermost views on women’s creative function. Spirituality and culture, violence and drug addiction, education and health care, women’s employment and gender problems, slave trade and the sex industry, child and environmental protection were just a few of the topics discussed by the participants in the Baikal forum.

Human development problems in Russia was the topic of regional roundtables held in Bryansk (for the western regions) and Ufa (for the Ural and Volga regions) in May. Top officials of the Russian regions and representatives of the federal and regional governments, public organisations, UN agencies, and foreign diplomatic missions in Russia took part in these regional roundtable meetings. During the open dialogue between the UNDP representatives and regional leaders, that was based upon the annual report on human development, there was a beneficial exchange of opinions on the socio-economic situation in the country and ways to resolve the urgent problems. Holding roundtable meetings in the provinces has been a successful attempt to shift the human development dialogue to the Russian regions, on whose prosperity the country’s future largely depends. Lively discussions on such topics of concern to Russians as access to education, democracy and governance, local government, the formation of civil society, health care, reproductive health, fertility and mortality, and gender problems confirmed the correct choice of the regions as a place for holding such meetings.

UNDP Russia and UNDP Kazakhstan are jointly launching a new 12-month UNDP/GEF preparatory project "Bioregional biodiversity conservation in the Altai-Sayan Mountain Eco-Region: Phase I". The project was approved by the Global Environmental Facility in May. The objective of the project is to conserve the internationally and nationally important biodiversity of the Altai-Sayan eco-region. In Russia the project will be implemented within the territory of the Altai, Khakassia and Tyva Republics and the Altai Territory.

The project will be complemented with a similar project in Mongolia, and potentially later China. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a key partner participating in, and co-financing most of the activities.