EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Angara: The Baikal Regional Union of Women was formed 15 years ago in the City of Irkutsk, Irkutsk Oblast/Region in Eastern Siberia, bordered on the east by Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is the world’s largest (23,000 cubic kilometers – about 1/5 of the world’s water resources), oldest (25-30 million years old) and deepest (1637 meters) fresh water lake in the world. The Lake is home to 3,500 species of fish, plants and animals, many of which are unique to Lake Baikal. The Union is named after the famous Angara River, the only river running out of Lake Baikal, although 300 tributaries and 5 large rivers run into the Lake. The Trans-Siberian Railroad goes through Irkutsk.
Angara was formed as an NGO, united the skills, expertise and strategies of 6 women:
1.Albina Shirobokova, Ph.d,
President of Angara Board of Directors, Professor, Irkutsk State
Technical University. Albina is a member and Vice President of the
prestigious Russian Federation Association of Business Women and the
Russian Federation Social Council.
2.Svetlana Uralova,
Angara Executive Director, Professor, Irkutsk State Technical
University and driving force in Angara of the initiatives regarding anti
corruption, international trafficking of women and children and the
gender initiatives of Angara. She is a member of the Irkutsk Oblast
Council on Budget Transparency.
3.Oxana Krivoschokova, Board Member and Angara Office Manager, and Manager of the Best Director Contest for Angara.
4.Olga Troitskaya, Member of Board and Vice Director of the City of Angarsk Private School of Entrepreneurial Development and Consulting Company.
5.Maria Moschova, Member of the Board and leading businesswomen of Irkutsk Region, developer of tourism awareness of Irkutsk and Lake Baikal and President of the Baikalia Travel Agency.
6.Tatiana Tapkina, Member of the Board and President of the Center for Folklore and Culture for the Irkutsk Region.
Summary: Activities & Successes
Angara’s ability and expertise in raising the image of women in the region, raising the issues of the crises in trafficking of women and children, gender issues, anti corruption needs, city and region development of civil society, starting and supporting entrepreneurial centers and businesses in tourism and developing linkages among and between business, government and civil society has been phenomenal. In 2002 Angara published the “2002-2010 Program of Gender Development for Siberian Federal Districts” -- the first manual on Gender and Society ever published in the Russian Federation.
The unique and critical aspect of Angara is that they have not only identified the issues, but they have offered over 17 years of specific and continual solutions to these issues. Utilizing new technologies and mechanisms developed all over the world, they have adapted them to fit the local needs.
They have developed linkages and interaction to the critical 3 legs of civil society: the government, the business community and the non-profit civil society. A good example is the Council of NGO’s Angara created with the City of Irkutsk Administration with the support of the Mayor. These linkages, coupled with their training in project development have led to numerous relationships with global well respected institutions such as the Irkutsk, Russian and United States Chambers of Commerce, US and Canadian Embassies in Moscow, United Nations Agencies such as UNDP, MSI (Management Systems International) and IREX in Washington DC. Angara and its founders have been invited to join many of the most prestigious Councils in Russia and to attend conferences all over the world.
Angara’s Stakeholders and Partners include: women, NGO’s, rural communities and settlements in Irkutsk Oblast/Region, Chambers of Commerce, Business Community, City Administrations in the Oblast/Region and RF key government officials, plus the citizens of the Oblast/Region, Eastern Siberia and Russia.
Four of the greatest challenges to Angara and its stakeholders in the future are:
- Convincing the authorities, civil society and stakeholders of the severity and complexity of the problem of transnational trafficking in Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia and Russian Federation.
- Since Angara is the early warning system for gender issues in Irkutsk and eastern Siberia, they must provide the strategy, resources and solutions to many of the critical problems before their stakeholders will take action. Therefore, additional expertise in gender issues and a variety of resources (grants, credit union, Angara owned and managed Fund for new concepts, etc.) are needed.
- Identifying and utilizing the most effective new mechanisms and technologies (legislative, judicial and administrative) to solve gender, anti-corruption and civil society economic and social problems. An important aspect of these new mechanisms is the creation of a statistical center within Angara’s structure to allow Angara to gather, provide and distribute original and world class data in these fields.
- Identifying expertise, resources and strategies for the planned Angara owned and managed Fund to distribute grants to needed structures in Irkutsk to combat the trafficking, gender, health and economic problems of women.
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