UNDP OFFICE IN MOSCOW

In July 1997 UNDP opened its first full fledged country office in Moscow, Russian Federation. UNDP Moscow works in close cooperation with other UN organizations in the country (ILO, UNESCO ...).

The Russian Federation -the successor state to the former Soviet Union and still the largest country in the world- was, until recently, a net contributor to UNDP. Now Russia is drawing on the UN’s experience and expertise in making the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented one.

The first UNDP country programme for the Russian Federation (1994-1996) -managed under the overall guidance of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS- was mostly catalytic, contributing to the creation and strengthening of managerial and institutional capacities to support the economic, social and democratic transformations taking place in the country. During that period particular emphasis was directed towards promoting cooperation between UNDP and various recipients within the Russian Federation, including NGOs and the private sector. National execution became the principle modality for UNDP assisted projects, drawing on the country’s highly trained workforce and human resource capital.

In September 1997, the UNDP Executive Board approved the Russian Federation’s first Country Cooperation Framework , which focused UNDP’s cooperation on three main areas -democratic governance, sustainable livelihoods and environmental management.

The lessons learned during the period 1992-1997 are encouraging. They prove that even with limited resources a significant impact can be made, provided the effort is focused and innovative project initiatives are selected. In this connection, the promotion of the UNDP-guided economic alliances between cities of the Russian Federation and those of other countries, with a view to developing economic, cultural and people-to-people relations -such as between Vologda and Homestead, USA- is a very promising initiative.

An important step in the development of the programme was for UNDP to fund a team of national experts for the preparation of Russia’s National Human Development Report in 1995 and 1996. This team has also been instrumental in helping identifying areas that could be addressed with UNDP support. This resulted for example in the Barents Sea Regional Sustainable Programme, financed by Capacity 21, and in support to the indigenous peoples in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) to improve their quality of life and income-earning potential.

Lessons learned are firstly that, even with small resources, UNDP can have a significant impact provided. Secondly, because of the impact of UNDPs activities, additional resources can be mobilized. Thirdly, to ensure sustainability, capacity-building has to be an important part of UNDP support. Examples given are training of Government staff on Parliamentary procedures, the conversion of military infrastructure to peaceful and environment friendly purposes, urban transport planning and management in Moscow, and small and medium-scale enterprises (SME) development. Fourthly, once the Government improves its knowledge of UNDP operating procedures and the programme approach, coordination and resource mobilization will become easier goals to pursue. Fifthly, UNDP has been requested to play an active role in coordination by assisting to mobilize additional financial resources into well focused projects and programmes.

Since September 1997 several UNDP Sub-Offices are being set up in different regions, which also function as Common Local Services Centers (COLOS)Liaison/COLOS offices are located in Yakutsk, Sakha Republic, Nizhny Novgorod, Petropavlovsk- Kamchatsky, and Murmansk.

By the end of 1998 offices in Rostov, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk are planned to open.

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