Increasing People's Environmental Awareness and Activism: Experience of International Cooperation Project

Brief description of the project: The project is aimed at advancing Kazakstan to the informationally open society and increasing people’s civil activeness by disseminating and applying in the activities of environmental organizations of Kazakstan the experiences from other countries of cooperation between the people, local self-government bodies, and environmental services for practical provision of the right to obtain environmental information and to improve the environmental safety of living conditions.

The project is aimed at involving women and youth in Kazakstan in public management of environment; disseminating international experience of people’s participation in improvement of environment of their city and home; legal support of environmental initiatives.

For this purpose it is planned to create "We and the Environment" Information and Advice Center, to hold series of regional round tables and international teleconferences, to hold the ´Legal Provisions of Obtaining Environmental Information and Improvement of Environmental Conditions of People’s Livesª international seminar in Almaty or one of the partner countries.

Entry of the Republic of Kazakstan into the way of democratic reforms opened opportunities of broad participation of interested groups of people in improvement of the environmental conditions of their lives.

However the society is facing a paradoxical situation: in spite of decrease of scale of industrial production, the environmental situation in the Republic of Kazakstan, and in particular the environment in Almaty, continues to grow worse, and the population of the country remains practically debarred from solving their environmental problems.

The reasons of such a situation take their roots in our past. In the mentality of people in Kazakstan, even of the young people, still dominate the opinions that the public problems should not be solved by each one individually, but by someone standing above. In the country there is no infrastructure of civil society, among whose elements are accessibility and free sharing of information. Sometimes even the good laws don’t work well. The institutional forms for people to exercise their democratic rights have not yet been found. For this reason many of the ways of environmental activeness of people which were accepted in democratic countries remain undeveloped in our society.

Transition from the closed to informationally open society progresses quite painfully. According to some experts, the national mass media now have a more limited access to information than before, at the very beginning of perestroyka.

The information flows got disorganized. A part of information which used to be gathered by agencies of state and departmental statistics is not accumulating any more because of organizational reforms and lack of funds.

Departmental channels are becoming more and more commercialized for profit making purposes which makes them inaccessible to broad sectors of public. Alternative services of environmental control and environmental information are not being developed.

The legal base of information’s functioning in the society needs a significant improvement, in particular that of information services in the third sector and that, of people’s needs in obtaining environmental information.

It is necessary to involve greater sectors of population in solving environmental problems at the local level. It is necessary to develop the understanding, that first of all own efforts are needed. As a matter of priority, youth and women need to be involved, for they are the most active part of the community interested in the improvement of their living conditions.

The project will be implemented in two years, and in two stages with an intermediate and final reports, prepared by the Greenwomen Environmental Information Agency at the end of 12 and 24 months of work.

First stage (first year of implementation of the project) provides for achievement of the following objectives:

1. - study of institutional forms, as well as of needs and opportunities of people in obtaining information about the environment of their city and home in partner countries as compared to Kazakstan. The necessary information shall be gathered according to the questionnaires specially developed for this purpose. This information shall be sent by Internet to representatives of the Greenwomen Environmental Information Agency in Almaty for statistical processing and analysis.
2. Preparing and conducting international conferences on the following topics:
3. ´Environmental Awareness and Activeness of People in Different Countriesª, #2 ´Public Management and Administration of Environment at the Regional Levelª, #3 ´Advancement Towards Informationally Open Societyª; #4 ´Provision of the Right to Obtain Environmental Information on One’s Living Conditionsª.
4. Holding round tables in the partners’ regions of work and in Almaty.
5. Developing an organizational plan, creating and presenting We and the Environment Center.
6. Broad coverage of the work in press.

Second stage (second year of project’s implementation) provides for achievement of the following objectives:

1. Working with school students, youth, women and other socially active groups. Involvement of experts form mass media and expert lawyers.
2. It is planned to work with several types of questionnaires 1) for NGOs and mass media about their needs and opportunities of getting information about the environment of their city and home; 2) for state and public organizations, which deal with gathering and dissemination of environmental information, regarding its contents, conditions and forms of presenting it to people, NGOs and Mass Media; 3) for the community about ways of their environmental activeness, and their need to participate in public management and administration; 4) for agencies of state and public government and expert lawyers about the legal base of providing environmental information to people, and opportunities of their participation in public administration in the field of environment.
3. Work of We and the Environment Center with the people.
4. Preparing and holding the international seminar in Almaty or one of the partner countries (50 persons, 20 speakers (including 10 foreign) and 30 guests.
5. Publication of collection of presentations from the seminar.
6. Working with remote regions of the Republic of Kazakstan.

Information sharing among the partners will be accomplished by means of the teleconferences system.

The office of Greenwomen Environmental Information Agency in Almaty will be the place where the information on the project will be accumulated and systematized.

No less than half of the work will be done free of charge, by volunteers, members of environmental NGOs, civil servants, journalists of mass media, and university students, who are interested to assist in the project, and to obtain the environmental information accumulated in it because of the type of their main work.

Four staff members: head of the project, manager, coordinator and accountant will be getting a fixed salary continuously for two years.

Payments to highly qualified expert staff will be made step by step according to the work they will have done (autobiographies of the personnel are attached).

The project shall also involve the implementers of the VI category (staff of the specialists involved in implementation of the project shall be approved personally by the director at the beginning of each stage).

Other details of the planned activities are described in the ´Schedule of project implementationª section.

1. Collecting preliminary information about opportunities and ways of obtaining environmental information for people of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Bulgaria, Netherlands (participation of other partner countries is possible).

2. Consultations with partners: discussion and approval of reporting forms, mutual intentions and obligations. Approval of staff and involved implementers for the first year of the project.

3. Procurement of equipment, software and connection to the Internet.

4. Development of questionnaires and assignments, and their dissemination among the residents of Almaty, Ust-Kamenogork, Moscow, Sofia and other cities in partner countries. Sending the information with questionnaires and statistical processing software to all participants of the project.

5. Conducting pilot surveys. Preparation of suggestions on improvement of questionnaires. Teleconference of the participants of the project.

Implementers: L. Astanina, Greenwomen Environmental Information Agency, Almaty, Kazakstan; A. Fedorov, O. Lopatin, Association of Users of Information Technologiesª, Almaty, Kazakstan; L. Sapozhnikova-Mann, branch of the Greenwomen Environmental Information Agency in Bishkek, Republic of Kyrgyzstan, L. Elufumova, a member of the Russian Society of Sociologists, Moscow, Russia; Georgy Furnadzhiyev, Ecoforum, Sofia, Bulgaria, and other representatives of partner countries.

6. Preparation for gathering the main set of questionnaires from 7 cities: a) printing the questionnaire forms, b) identifying the combination of groups of target population (samples), c) training and orientation of staff, d) developing the list of experts.

7. Collection and analysis of information on the basis of the questionnaires, improvement of the questionnaires.

Implementers: L. Astanina, Greenwomen Environmental Information Agency, Almaty, Kazakstan; A. Fedorov, O. Lopatin, Association of Users of Information Technologiesª, Almaty, Kazakstan; L. Sapozhnikova-Mann, branch of the Greenwomen Environmental Information Agency in Bishkek, Republic of Kyrgyzstan, L. Elufumova, a member of the Russian Society of Sociologists, Moscow, Russia; Georgy Furnadzhiyev, Ecoforum, Sofia, Bulgaria, and other representatives of partner countries.

8. Questionnaire surveying, collection and processing of the gathered information.

9. Presentation of results of the analysis of information gathered with the help of questionnaires to all implementers of the project.

10. Preparing and holding teleconference #1 ´Environmental Awareness and Activeness of People in Different Countriesª.

11. Developing the concept and plan of work with target groups in the community of We and the Environment Center.

12. Creation and presentation of We and the Environment Center.

13. Preparing and holding teleconference #2 ´Public Management and Administration of Environment at the Regional Levelª.

14. Trip to Almaty from Moscow for 20 days.

15. Preparing and submitting the intermediate report on implementation of the First stage of the project.

Implementers: L. Astanina, Greenwomen Environmental Information Agency, Almaty, Kazakstan; A. Fedorov, O. Lopatin, Association of Users of Information Technologiesª, Almaty, Kazakstan; L. Sapozhnikova-Mann, branch of the Greenwomen Environmental Information Agency in Bishkek, Republic of Kyrgyzstan, L. Elufumova, a member of the Russian Society of Sociologists, Moscow, Russia; Georgy Furnadzhiyev, Ecoforum, Sofia, Bulgaria, and other representatives of partner countries.

16. Conducting regional round tables with NGOs, self-government bodies and regional state administration in the field of environment.

17. Involvement of specialists and consultants in the activities of We and the Environment Center.

18. Working with various social groups in schools, universities, homes and through youth and women’s environmental organizations.

19. Preparation of methodological materials on the work of We and the Environment Center.

20. Publication of pamphlets with a summary of experiences from teleconferences #1 and #2 of project-partner countries about people’s participation in solving environmental problems in their lives.

21. Preparing and conducting by partners and participants the project of round tables and teleconference #3 ´Advancement Towards Informationally Open Societyª.

23. Work of We and the Environment Center with the community.

24. Campaign on promotion of activities of We and the Environment Center in mass media.

25. Express-survey of residents of Almaty.

26. Conducting teleconference #4 ´Provision of the Right to Obtain Environmental Information on One’s Living Conditionsª

27. Processing and analysis of the gathered information.

28. Publication of pamphlets with a summary of materials from teleconferences #3 and #4 ´Advancement Towards Informationally Open Societyª.

29. Selection of location and preparation for international seminar ´Legal Provisions and People’s Opportunities in Obtaining Environmental Information and Improvement of Environmental Conditions of Their Livesª.

30. Holding the international seminar ´Legal Provisions and People’s Opportunities in Obtaining Environmental Information and Improvement of Environmental Conditions of Their Livesª with participation of representatives of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Bulgaria, Netherlands and other partner countries.

31. Preparation of proposals to the government and concerned organizations on improvement of legislation in the Republic of Kazakstan in the area of institutional provision of the right to obtain environmental information about the conditions of one’s life, and people’s participation in public management of environment.

32. Publication of the materials of the seminar.

33. Preparation of the final report on implementation of the project.

1. Increase of the democratic culture of people in the Republic of Kazakstan: development of institutional forms of people’s participation in improvement of environmental conditions of their lives which are accepted in other countries.
2. Increase of environmental awareness and activeness of various socially active groups and first of all of youth and women.
3. Development of environmental organizations of the Third sector in the Republic of Kazakstan.
4. Formation of the public environmental management and administration in the Republic of Kazakstan, more effective governing of the society.
5. Identification of specific problems, ´weak spotsª and areas in need of improvements in the legislation of the Republic of Kazakstan in the field of informational provision of the people.
6. Strengthening of the non-governmental sector, activation of civil initiatives in the Republic of Kazakstan.