N I S C L O S E U P
Programs aimed at solving the environmental problems of the Volga River basin have required substantial international cooperation between donors, governments and NGOs. While progress has been made, the environment remains heavily stressed — a situation which prompted the Volga NGO Coalition to conduct a study evaluating past international cooperation and providing recommendations to increase effectiveness.Created in 1997 and composed of some 34 groups, the Coalition used funding from the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe to conduct a study of 63 local and regional projects in 23 cities and towns in the Volga river basin, from north Russia to the Caspian Sea.
Among its many conclusions, the study found that international assistance to NGOs in the region resulted in high environmental benefits at minimal cost and that international cooperation with Russian NGOs significantly improved the effectiveness of their activities. Therefore, more cooperation with NGOs was called for.
Among its recommendations for donors, the study advised that they provide more information (including financial) about their programs to NGOs and the mass media to increase openness and publicity. It also advised greater citizen control of international programs in the basin.
"Some programs appear to have no benefits for beneficiary countries," said Coalition President Elena Kolpakova. "For example, 90 percent of some program budgets are paid to Western experts. It shouldn't be more than 40 percent."
Kolpakova referred to the Russian project Environmental Management in the Russian Federation, funded on credit by the EBRD, in which most of the funds went to pay Western expert salaries. The project was also to include public participation in its decisionmaking process, but information was consistently denied to NGO requests, she said. Recommendations also called for decentralising projects away from Moscow.
Although Kolpakova found it difficult to distribute the study to ministers at Aarhus, she hoped that governments would consider its conclusions and recommendations, and the experience of NGOs, as relevant to their environmental work, so that donor money will be better spent in the future. "I don't expect them to react quickly but we rely on their efforts," she said. "We hope our voice is heard."
Signs of progress already exist. The Volga Coalition was asked to provide information to consultants implementing a public participation component for an EBRD-funded project for a Russian refinery. And car manufacturer Fiat requested a consultation about a joint venture in Russia.
"The Russian partner didn't want this," said Kolpakova. "Western countries are more concerned. But people here are now realising the relevance of public participation and NGOs like the Volga Coalition."