Co-ordinating efforts at Donors Forum A meeting of over 20 Moscow-based branches of varied national and international non-commercial funds and government structures was held last October in the UNDP Moscow Office. The meeting, known as Donors Forum, is traditionally held every three months under the UNDP auspices with the aim to coordinate assistance to Russian NGOs and avoid duplication of efforts and financing in this sphere. It also serves as a clearing house for information and experience. At the last meeting, Donors Forum participants concentrated mainly on ways to overcome difficulties in financing NGOs activities at times when accounts in most of the Russian banks have been frozen after the default measures of August 17,1998.New equipment for maternity hospitals The UNDP Moscow Office is spending $120,000 to buy and install medical equipment in maternity wards in the Yakutian district centers of Olekminsk and Srednekolymsk. The purchase of equipment was part of a project designed to assist reproductive health services in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The project also envisages the training of local medical staff about reproductive health, family planning and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. Experts of the World Health Organisation (WHO) have been invited to conduct training courses at four 10-day workshops in Olekminsk and Srednekolymsk. |
Far North employment problems discussed in Yakutsk The Government of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) and the RF Ministry of Labour, in cooperation with the ILO, held recently in Yakutsk a conference on Employment Problems and their Solutions in the Extreme North of Russia. The Prime Minister of the Sakha Republic Mr.V.M.Vlasov, spoke at the opening ceremony of the conference which was attended by representatives from the federal and regional governments, industrial managers, trade unions, researchers and academics. There were also representatives from neighbouring Krasnoyarsk and Amur Territories. The ILO Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia in Moscow was represented by Vataly Savin, Specialist for International Labor Standards and Mr. Thorsten Bargfrede, Associate Expert for Enterprise Development and Employment Promotion. Mr. Huseyin Polat, Chief of the ILO Programme for Indigenous People from ILO headquarters in Geneva, presented possible approaches for revitalizing the traditional jobs of reindeer breeders in the North through a combination of capacity building and institutional strengthening. About 50 speakers covered a whole range of issues connected with employment problems, vocational training, development of small and medium enterprises, regional and sector industries (gold mining, diamond industry, oil and gas extraction, agriculture), as well as the employment situation with vulnerable groups such as women, youth and indigenous peoples. |
| 9-year old Moscow school student wins UN
prize Vanya Matveyev, a 3rd grader at Moscow School No. 1274, received $800 as a UN prize from Philippe Elghouayel, the UNDP Resident Representative in Russia at a recent ceremony in Moscow. Vanya became the top winner among other Russian children who took part in an international drawing competition «School Students Against Narcotics», sponsored by the UN and New Names Charity Foundation. Eight other Russia participants received consolation prizes at the same ceremony. Matveyev's drawing is now being exhibited among 3,000 other children's works in the UN Headquarters in New York, USA. |
Vanya Matveyev looks triumphantly at his parents as he receives his prize from Phillipe Elghouayel, UNDP Permanent Representative in RF. |
