Public Debate of the Nationwide Plan of Action for Economic Recovery

To ensure retention of jobs and income for the population, renewed economic growth and long-term structural changes to the economy, and negotiation of crisis phenomena resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, the Government prepared the Nationwide Plan of Action for Economic Recovery.

Taking into consideration the heightened interest in the Plan by citizens and business structures the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation together with the regional civic chambers developed proposals on supplementing the Plan with a complex of special support measures for the most vulnerable categories of citizens, as well as small and medium enterprises and forwarded them to the Russian Government.

The Civic Chamber’s proposals, aimed at supporting the most vulnerable categories of citizen, were reflected in the Plan’s provision to establish a single digital platform for the increased targeting and effectiveness of social support measures at federal, regional and municipal level, as well as to extend the list of provisions included in the program of social adaptation for recipients of government social welfare on the basis of a social contract.

The Civic Chamber highlighted the necessity of support measures for Russian farming and it was reckoned with in the Plan. The Plan includes provisions aimed at increasing the public procurement share of Russian-farm-grown agricultural and food products, and measures to improve information support for SMEs and selfemployed people.

The Civic Chamber proposals of support for SMEs hit by the pandemic were reflected in Plan provisions concerning: access for SMEs to support measures, including by means of synchronizing existing online support platforms and services within a single digital one-stop-shop platform, as well as in provisions to restrict the number of checks (and bases for conducting them) in 2021 compared to 2020; and the gradual switch to completely paperless cooperation between supervising bodies and SMEs.66

Civic Chamber Proposals for the Single Plan to Achieve National Development Aims

In accordance with Russian President’s Decree No. 474 of July 21, 2020, the Government has developed a single plan to achieve national development aims by 2024, and for the planning period until 2030. It defines strategic priorities for the next 10 years, and specific Government steps to achieve aims fixed in the President’s Decree. The plan gathered together all the aims, key indicators, and achievement mechanisms, resources, responsibilities of federal authorities, and improvements to create new tasks for national projects. The prepared Russian Government Plan67 must ensure retention of jobs and income for the population, economic growth, and long-term structural changes to the economy.

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Members of the Civic Chamber presented their proposals concerning the Plan at a Government meeting to discuss the draft Plan, chaired by First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government Andrey Belousov, on November 16, 2020.68

The people need qualitative changes in the social sphere. The society’s growing demand for government transparency in the decision-making process, and the involvement of the civil society institutions in the development of strategicplanning documents and oversight over their realization have become notable trends.

In this connection, it was proposed to consolidate the target indicator of public satisfaction, and include the Civic Chamber as coauthor of the Single Plan and national projects as regards public oversight and monitoring, and evaluation of the achievement of their target indicators. It was also proposed to reject the departmental approach to the formulation, improvement, and realization of national projects. This work must be conducted with the participation of all interested parties, and various government authorities and civil society institutions. It is necessary to take measures to increase cooperation between authorities and civil society institutions while improving and realizing national projects. It is also important to accelerate Government implementation of a highquality, modern information system to monitor the realization of national projects, and develop measures to increase connectivity between all national projects, and information openness in the realization of national projects.

Preservation of the population is acknowledged as the main national goal by the vast majority of our people.69 However, with significant growth in finance volumes for demographic policy,70 the demographic situation is not yet changing and the resident population is decreasing.71 Increased birth rate must play a key role in bucking this trend.

It is proposed to change the formulation of the aim of the Single Plan to achieve national development aims, from “stabilized birth rate” to “increased birth rate,” which will allow a more precise reflection of the main idea of demographic policy in times of low birth rate. To ensure increased birth rate, it is necessary to: establish Future Generation Fund; conduct research on the social wellbeing of families with children; consider the positive experience of high-income regions which also demonstrate a high birth rate (the Sakhalin Region); and step up the fight against poverty, within the framework of which it is proposed to change the Low Income” bracket, as defined in the Single Plan, to Families with Children; as well as supplement the Plan with a special section or addendum containing a list of public projects targeted at achieving the aims of national development.

As regards to education, it was proposed to supplement the national aims using the indicator of attracting students to a system of additional education in progressive areas of science and technology, and to a system of intellectual volunteering and mentoring, as well as to develop the spiritual, ethical, and formative elements of the education system.

To solve the problem of low life expectancy, it was proposed to consolidate work on the formulation of a prophylactic continuum to include the strengthening of public health (population prophylaxis), medical prophylaxis (health assessment), and regular medical checkups, as well as the creation of a system for the stable epidemiological monitoring of the prevalence and risk-factor dynamic of chronic noncontagious diseases in the various regions.

Within the system of long-term care, a complex approach was proposed which implies that people providing vital care for relatives who are unemployable and no longer able to realize their life plans are fully fledged target groups for the system of long-term care. With the realization of the system of long-term care, it was proposed: to ensure provision of free care services for up to 28 hours per week for elderly or disabled people in need; to provide medical patronage; and to organize day centers, specialized rental points for rehabilitation equipment, and schools of care for relatives.

The Civic Chamber continued to realize public oversight over ensuring the achievement of national development aims as defined by the President of the Russian Federation.

Improvement of National Projects and Public Monitoring of their Implementation

In his Address to the Federal Assembly of January 15, 2020, the President of the Russian Federation defined the preservation and expansion of the population as the highest national priority. At the same time, the head of state underlined the necessity to quickly solve the large-scale social, economic, and technological tasks facing the country. The substance of these tasks was reflected in the national projects, the realization of which demands better quality government management, work at all levels of public authority, and direct dialog with civil society

The pandemic and new economic reality made it necessary to change the planning horizon for national aims and national projects, and improve them, accounting for the economic crisis and new tendencies in the global economy.

After a meeting of the Presidential Council for Strategic Development and National Projects , the President charged the Government to integrate the measures of the Nationwide Plan of Action for Economic Recovery into national projects, and to provide for the achievement of socially significant results in the improved national projects directly affecting the quality of people’s lives. He also charged the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation to ensure regular public oversight over the realization of national projects.72

Earlier, on June 25, 2020, at a meeting with members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, the President had also charged the Civic Chamber to become involved with the current improvement and monitoring of national projects, to concentrate and consolidate, and to put difficult questions to all levels of public authorities.73

Within the implementation framework of the President’s instructions, the Civic Chamber commissions and the regional civic chambers formulated proposals on the improvement of national projects. The work was directly connected to the analysis of the experience of realizing national projects both throughout the whole country and in individual regions.

The Chamber received over 500 proposals on improvement of national projects.

The most proposals were for the Education (83), Demography (62), and Ecology (64) national projects. On the one hand, this indicates increased interest in these national projects, and on the other hand, it may indicate problems with their realization.

Moreover, in compliance with instruction No. Pr-1395 of the President of the Russian Federation of September 1, 2020, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation with the participation of the regional civic chambers collected and analyzed over 500 proposals, concerning support for public initiatives and the promotion of best practices aimed at improving the quality of people’s life.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation set up a Coordination Council for National Projects and the Preservation of the Population. Its aim was to ensure effective participation in: the formulation and realization of government policy on preserving the population; and the single plan for the achievement of national development aims, national projects, federal projects, and other strategic-planning documents and their addendums, as well as consideration of proposals concerning their improvement.

The Coordination Council held expert discussions with the auditors of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, representatives of responsible ministries and agencies, public councils under federal executive authorities, regional government agencies, regional civic chambers, independent research organizations, scientists, and public experts.

Six Coordination Council meetings were held concerning national projects and preservation of the population. They presented a unique method to calculate the Population Preservation Index,74 and formulated proposals for the Health Care, Ecology, Education, Science, and Workforce Productivity and Employment Support national projects.

During an extended meeting of the Coordination Council at the final “Community” forum in Moscow, the Civic Chamber delivered the provisional results of the campaign and presented the main proposals for all the national projects, most notably:

• to reject the departmental approach to the formulation, improvement, and realization of national projects. This work must be conducted with the participation of all interested parties, and various government departments and civil society institutions;
• to fix in the registration documents of all national projects, the customer-satisfaction target indicator for the quality of services provided within the framework of their realization;
• include the Civic Chamber in the registration documents of all national projects as co-executor to ensuring public oversight and monitoring, and evaluation of the achievement of their target indicators;
• to take measures for increasing cooperation between government agencies and civil society institutions while improving and realizing national projects, including by means of discussing problems on the Coordination Council platform;
• to support the Russian Government’s implementation work on a high-quality contemporary information system for monitoring the realization of national projects. To stipulate measures for increasing information openness for the realization of national projects.75

The Civic Chamber, based on the specifics of strategic planning documents, and the social importance and direct correlation to people’s quality of life, paid particular attention to their realization and improvement. Currently underway largescale work on improvements to national projects, in fulfilment of the order of the President of the Russian Federation, facilitated the uncovering of a significant number of problems in the realization of national projects. Solutions developed on the results of conducted work must be formulated with the participation of civil society institutions, and aimed at increasing the population and improving the quality of life for Russian people.