The Far East Center of Social Innovation

The Far East Center of Social Innovation (FECSI) is a non-profit partnership created in 2003 to work on the issues of local self-governance in RFE. The mission of FECSI is to facilitate social development of the Russian Far East and to promote democratic culture, rule of law, and humanity of social relationships. The focus of FECSI’s activities is directed at improving local self-governance in the RFE and engaging citizens into local self-governance.

FECSI provides a number of services to RFE municipalities, including:

-Assistance in development, introduction, and dissemination of effective social and economic development practices among RFE municipalities.

-Expert support for the introduction of new methods of municipal management in RFE.

-Development of information and methodological resources.

-Educational trainings and seminars to improve public administration skills of municipal specialists, elected deputies and community leaders to manage local resources.

-Assistance in developing civic education.

-Informational and expert support to NGOs and initiative groups of citizens.

FECSI provides expert consulting to Far East municipal specialists and community leaders, organizes and provides educational trainings, produces and disseminates comprehensive and timely publications and methodological materials on a broad range of issues faced by municipalities. FECSI has conducted a number of researches for RFE municipalities including a project on the ways and approaches in resolving local issues (for municipalities of the Primorsky Territory), conducted monitoring of municipal and government procurement orders in Khabarovsk and Khabarovsk Territory and carried out research on municipal priority needs faced by municipalities.

FECSI’s services are especially valued by smaller municipalities that may not have specialized knowledge and skills available on staff.

In 2006, FECSI created a database of municipalities in Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories and the Library of Municipal Best Practices (LMP), an online informational and methodological resource focused specifically on RFE municipal best practices and issues of municipal management. The LMP resource is permanently supplemented with new advanced municipal practices and material on local self-governance.

FECSI is a co-organizer of the annual seminar “Local Self-Governance in the Russian Far East” which is conducted for municipal specialists, elected deputies and public leaders of RFE. Past seminars have focused on the following issues: citizen participation in local self-governance, approaches and tools in resolving local issues, regulation of economics on municipal level, etc.

FECSI’ Strengths:

-Experienced in working with RFE municipalities. Extensive knowledge of RFE conditions and challenges that RFE municipalities face.

-A strong network with RFE expert organizations, specialists, educational institutions, government agencies, and non-commercial organizations.

-A developing informational resources – the Library of Municipal Best Practices, which is oriented toward the needs of RFE cities and includes best practices of RFE municipalities.

-Capacity to provide expert consulting and training on different issues, including effective utilizing of community resources, technologies in citizen engagement, performance management methods, competitive procurement systems for goods and services, management of regional and local social programs, approaches in resolving local issues, etc.

-Broad experience in organizing and conducting educational seminars, trainings, roundtables and conferences for municipal specialists.

-Long-term vision of developing FECSI into a sustainable expert consulting organization serving RFE municipalities.

FECSI is headed by Veprikova Elena, the Director. E. Veprikova is a candidate of science in economics, an expert in the area of local self-governance and citizen engagement.

Address: 18”B” Lenin Street, office 707, Khabarovsk, Russia, 680000

tel/fax:  (4212) 75-06-70

e-mail: centerdv@mail.ru