2020 showed that in times of great tribulation, our society displays solidarity and solves arising problems in partnership with the government. This new model of public-authorities dialog was displayed most clearly in the “constitutional process”, during the battle with the social consequences of the pandemic, while developing support measures for the nonprofit sector, and also while working on important strategic-planning documents: the single plan for the achievement of Nationwide Plan of Action for Economic Recovery.

After taking active part in the preparation and approval of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, citizens looked hopefully at the responsibilities that were raised to constitutional level. The Civic Chamber saw its task as making sure that these expectations were justified, and that all proposals received at the amendment-drafting stage but not making it into the text of the updated Constitution were considered when developing legislative and other laws and regulations at federal, regional, and local levels. In this connection, in conjunction with the regional civic chambers, municipal civic chambers (councils), and public councils under federal executive authorities, control will be ensured over the legislative documentation of social amendments.

The Civic Chamber consistently advocated strengthening the resource base and independence of the regional civic chambers and the civic chambers (councils) of municipal organizations. Society expects these institutions to show more active involvement in the relevant agenda, the solution of the systemic problems and tasks facing our country, the public oversight of the realization of national projects, and discussion of projected federal and regional laws and regulations, and to participate in the realization of social projects and the support of public initiatives.

The issue of ensuring the information openness of the public councils under federal executieve authorities, and consolidated cooperation between them, their committees and working groups, relevant Commissions of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, the regional civic chambers, and other institutions of civil society remained on the agenda.

Clearly, the pandemic will continue to affect life next year, in 2021. The Civic Chamber will continue to monitor the consequences of the pandemic and their influence on vulnerable people in need of help, and to consolidate the strengths of the nonprofit sector and the volunteer movement to provide assistance to the needy and government support in overcoming the consequences of the pandemic.

In order to reduce poverty and increase the income and economic stability of Russian families, we must develop social partnerships, increased workforce productivity, and support for families with children, as well as a guaranteed minimum wage no less than the subsistence rate of an able-bodied population. The Civic Chamber: serves as a platform for the collection and formulation of public initiatives concerning the preservation and growth of the population; continues to provide support and assistance to representatives of civil society, including by realizing joint nationwide projects; will increase the efficiency and speed of work with civil society’s appeals and the achievement of concrete results by the governments of those regions that are sending out signals. The in conjunction with the regional civic chambers, the Civic Chamber continues to organize cooperation between activists, public communities, and the government.

The pandemic called into action the horizontal network structures of mutual aid, and affected the phenomenon of growth in the volunteer movement. For its further development, it is necessary to consolidate the experience in regulatory documents and spread successful practices, remove all existing administrative barriers, and increase the awareness of our people about receiving volunteer assistance and participation in volunteer and charity projects.

Civil society is the foundation upon which can be built a solid future for our great Motherland, a future for many long years and decades. And the task of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation is to help people realize their urge to participate in the life of the country. Only together can we make Russia economically powerful, comfortable for life, and open to the world,” President of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation Lydia Mikheeva.

Fixed in the Constitution are guarantees of the government’s support of civil society institutions and of the ensured participation of public organizations and associations in the development and realization of government policy. During the pandemic, NPO support measures, approved at federal level on the recommendation of civil society, not only allowed NPOs to not stop working, but also defined the direction of development for the sector for years to come. The Civic Chamber will continue to deal with questions of strengthening the nonprofit sector and its professionalization. Work continues on the creation of a single register of socially oriented nonprofit organizations. The Civic Chamber will work jointly with the regional civic chambers to track the inclusion of NPOs in the register, and investigate cases of groundless exclusion from the register, as well as fighting for the expansion of criteria for organizations’ inclusion in it. To ensure the stable development of the sector, analysis of the effectiveness of regional support measures for nonprofit organizations and existing institutional platforms will continue, including by means of rating the regions according to the level and quality of the development of the nonprofit sector.

It is planned to continue previously begun systemic work on analyzing legislation concerning NPOs, and developing proposals on its improvement. Currently it is replete with internal contradictions and unviable norms, and recently developed relationships remain unsettled.

Support for small and medium business is also a priority for the Civic Chamber: solutions for the improvement of the tax system and the launch of a “regulatory guillotine”, along with support measures for small and medium business, should create a positive environment for business and stabilize the social and economic situation.

Aside from many other problems, the pandemic highlighted the disastrous state of the care system for patients in neuropsychiatric inpatient facilities. Here the task is to create an institution of public oversight and an independent service to protect the rights of mentally ill people, as well as to involve the relevant NPOs in this work, and to improve legislation concerning guardianship and psychiatric help.

The institution of public supervisory commissions for ensuring human rights in detention facilities remains a priority for the Civic Chamber. The Civic Chamber consistently advocates initiatives for the legislative securement of questions of resource provision and support for public supervisory commissions. In 2021 the Civic Chamber will continue to ensure public monitoring of the resocialization of people released from detention facilities and their adaptation to contemporary society.

Oversight over the target financing of medical assistance and medicinal provision for children with orphan diseases, based on principles of accountability and transparency remains another priority. This oversight mechanism should come into force on January 1, 2021.

It is necessary to overcome the interdepartmental incoordination and narrow-departmental approach in realizing national projects. Without accounting for public initiatives in the realization of national projects, the latter cannot be considered authentically national. It is important for the Government to implement a high-quality contemporary information system for monitoring the realization of national projects and ensure measures for increasing connectivity between all the national projects, and information openness in the realization of national projects. Citizens should appreciate the improved quality of life and the positive results of national projects in their everyday lives. The Civic Chamber continues to conduct public monitoring of the effectiveness of the realization of national projects, while standing up for the rights and interests of the most vulnerable layers of the population: families with children, large families, and disabled and elderly people.

The ecological agenda for civil society next year will undoubtedly be concentrated around tasks voiced in the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation at the start of 2020. The Civic Chamber will ensure that information openness, obligatory reporting of popular opinion in the relevant regions, and swift consideration of popular appeals and mediation of conflicts become the norm for interaction between the government, civil society, and business, both in questions of the environment and urban-planning activity and in all other areas.

The pandemic set the task of intensively developing the digital education environment. A priority for the Chamber here is to ensure that the implemented capacities of online education facilitate the provision of quality education and equality of educational opportunity.

In 2020 the labor market faced new challenges: during the pandemic all organizations underwent several stages of transformation, including transition to temporary distance (remote) work and combined remote work. Despite remote work offering good opportunities and advantages for both employees, employers, and the self-employed, there remain difficulties with the switch to the remote work regime, and the organization of the working process in the new conditions. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation will pay particular attention to supporting the development of digital services to promote employment, as well as compliance with labor law for those categories of people for whom it is difficult to compete in the labor market – people with disabilities, women with small children, young people seeking work for the first time, and citizens close to retiring.

During the pandemic, society is experiencing a demand for the preservation of cultural space. Digitalization processes in the sphere of culture, receiving an impulse to develop in 2020, are far from always able to fully replace the viewer, the consumer of live presentations and performances, and visual sensations. The Chamber will monitor the preservation of conditions for public access to cultural activity, cultural values and benefits, and facilitate support for government and private cultural organizations during the continuing adverse epidemiological situation with its restrictive measures.

In a time of global political changes and growing ethnic conflicts, the Civic Chamber is recording appeals to strengthen the unity of the Russian nation and the ethnocultural development of the peoples of the country.

The state is firmly on the road to protecting and strengthening sovereignty, national security, national interests, and strategic national priorities,98 and has civil society’s support for this.

We proceed from the fact that Russia must have a strong civil society, and an independent, nongovernmental, nonprofit sector, which does not require financial support from foreign sources. It is important for conscientious associations and nonprofit organizations involved in socially beneficial acivities to be more active. The Civic Chamber will facilitate the preservation and increase the level of budgetary allocations for the support and development of public structures, as well as providing public oversight of the approval of legislative requirements aimed at increasing the liability of NPOs, public associations acting without registration as legal entities, and citizens involved in political activity in Russia on behalf of foreign sources At the same time, foreign interference in the domestic affairs, including elections, of our country is unacceptable. The Civic Chamber is ready to provide independent public monitoring of the elections to the lower house of Parliament in 2021.

2020 sees the 75th anniversary of the Victory of our people in the Great Patriotic War. The pandemic introduced adjustments and restrictions, but it could not cancel the commemorative events and social projects, many of which were conducted online. The efforts of civil society must be directed toward the preservation of the sacred memory of that war and the Great Victory, as the basis of our national unity and sovereignty, and toward the development of patriotic education for children beginning in kindergarten.

The events of 2020 demonstrated the potential of Russian civil society. The people’s and the government’s growing trust in civil society institutions allows us to count on the strengthening of the most effective practices of NPOs, and the further institutionalization and development of civil society in our country.