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FY 1995 Annual Report on "U.S. Government Assistance to and Cooperative Activities with the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union," published April 1996. Prepared by the Office of the Coordinator of U.S. Assistance to the NIS Submitted Pursuant to Section 104 of the FREEDOM Support Act (Public Law 102-511).
U.S. INFORMATION AGENCY (USIA) FREEDOM SUPPORT ACT EXCHANGES
In FY 1995, over 8,800 NIS citizens and some 3,000 U.S. citizens participated in USIA's FREEDOM Support Act-funded exchange programs. Of these 11,800 participants, 140 took part in programs with Armenia; 103 with Azerbaijan; 658 with Belarus; 180 with Georgia; 864 with Kazakstan; 126 with Kyrgyzstan; 345 with Moldova; 7,042 with Russia; 101 with Tajikistan; 57 with Turkmenistan; 1,955 with Ukraine; and 252 with Uzbekistan. (USIA also administers and reports separately on NIS exchanges funded through its base budget.)
Secondary School Exchanges
During the 1995-96 academic year, more than 5,400 NIS high school students are traveling to the United States, and 2,950 U.S. high school students are visiting the NIS under USIA's Secondary School Initiative. In this third year of the program, the secondary school exchanges have extended their reach even more broadly throughout the NIS and to virtually every state in the United States. Under a pilot program, disabled students are now participating for the first time.
The program's growing NIS-wide network of alumni groups attests to the impact this program has had on its participants; efforts are under way to track the progress of these alumni as they move on to college and careers. To keep in touch with each other and to share their U.S. experiences, the alumni publish a quarterly newsletter, the Bradley Herald, hold monthly or bimonthly meetings and discussions, and take part in community service projects. Some alumni have also formed American-style debating clubs. Program alumni have put their U.S. experience to good use in many ways. For example, In Kiev, several alumni helped out with President Clinton's visit last May, and in Chechnya, a program alumna worked on Chechen-Russian negotiations. In Tbilisi, 10 students each from Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia met to discuss regional issues and conflicts in a workshop which they had organized themselves.
Recognizing that funding levels are likely to continue dropping in the coming years, USIA will be discontinuing its short-term Thematic Exchange Program as of the 1996-97 academic year. Although the program supported many worthwhile exchanges, its limited scope and duration prevented it from having the kind of impact that longer-term academic exchanges have, or the strong school-based support of the School Linkage Program (see below).
Academic-Year Program: About 1,600 NIS high school students arrived in August to live with U.S. families and attend U.S. high schools for the 1995-96 school year. They were chosen from over 38,000 applicants through an open, merit-based selection process involving written exams and personal interviews. An extensive NIS-wide recruitment effort has widened the geographic and ethnic diversity of the students. In addition, this year's group includes 10 students with disabilities who are participating in a pilot program: at the request of the Russian Ministry of Education, USIA developed a program for students with disabilities and awarded a $130,102 grant to Mobility International to expand the inclusion of students with disabilities in future programs. At some point during the school year, all of the Academic-Year Program participants will visit Washington, D.C., where they will receive an in-depth introduction to the U.S. political system, institutions and values.
Academic Studies Program: During the 1995-96 school year, 750 NIS students are studying in the United States, and 150 American students are studying in the NIS for one semester, or in some cases, for the entire academic year, under USIA's Academic Studies Program, which is specially designed to enable private exchange organizations to develop an infrastructure in the NIS in order to support small U.S.-based youth exchange programs that will continue even after U.S. Government support ends. Priority will be given in the future to expanding this model.
School Linkage Program: More than 300 pairs of American and NIS high schools are linked through the School Linkage Program--USIA's most fully reciprocal U.S.-NIS exchange program--which promotes long-lasting institutional and community ties. Under this program, 1,950 NIS students will travel to the United States, and 1,950 U.S. students will travel to the NIS for short-term programs averaging three weeks. In addition, 300 NIS educators and 250 U.S. educators will travel to their partner school for professional exchanges. The growing popularity of e-mail has solidified these linkages by allowing for frequent communication between partner schools. In order to deepen the school linkages operationally and substantively, the schools involved in FY 96 linkages will be required to implement joint projects--something many of them are already doing quite successfully.
Thematic Exchange Program: Currently in its last year (see above), the Thematic Exchange Program will bring 800 NIS students to the United States and send 600 U.S. students to the NIS on four- to eight-week programs focusing on specific themes such as youth leadership, volunteerism, agriculture, environmental education and business.
Teacher Exchanges
In FY 1995, USIA administered two openly competed FREEDOM Support Act-funded teacher exchange programs in Russia: the Russia-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program (RUSTEP) and the Russian Teaching Assistants Program (RTAP). For academic year 1995-96, the RUSTEP program was enhanced to introduce civic education-focused content to the exchanges and was broadened to include other NIS countries.
USIA's teacher exchange programs have been praised by the Russian Ministry of Education for having an "extremely positive" impact, especially in terms of facilitating networking among social sciences and humanities instructors. In addition, exposure to U.S. culture has allowed English-language educators who as country-studies specialists had focused exclusively on the United Kingdom, to begin teaching American studies. Program impact has been enhanced by giving the NIS teachers computers and e-mail accounts for use while in the United States and upon returning to their home institutions in Russia, where they have been training their colleagues and students in the use of e-mail and using it to maintain ties with fellow program alumni, their U.S. host schools, USIA and other professional contacts and friends in the United States. The organizations that are contracted to assist USIA in administering these two programs are conducting follow-on meetings in Russia for program alumni. An Internet ListServ that was created specifically for program participants in the United States will soon be established in Russia.
Russia-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program (RUSTEP): Under the Russia-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program (RUSTEP), 24 secondary-school teachers from Russian pedagogical institutes were given an opportunity to teach in the United States for one year and to develop knowledge and skills reflecting democratic approaches and methods. The educators, whose expertise was in the fields of English, science and computer science, developed new curricula and textbooks which they will use upon returning to their home institutions. In addition, four U.S. educators taught in Russian schools, sharing U.S. educational philosophies, methods, and curricula with local faculty and students.
RUSTEP will continue through the 1996-97 academic year, but with two important modifications: (1) it was renamed the NIS-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program to reflect the planned expansion of the program into Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakstan, Moldova and Ukraine; and (2) the program was restructured to focus on civic education for social-science educators--a priority field for USIA. In late FY 1995, 18 social-studies and American-studies educators from the NIS began year-long exchange programs comprised of three elements: in addition to teaching in U.S. secondary schools, the teachers are observing and participating in community activities that enable them to experience American-style civics in action, and--most importantly--they are developing civic-education curricula for use in their home countries. The NIS-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program is designed to instill in the visiting teachers an awareness of the importance of civic education in building and sustaining a democratic society--the teachers, in turn, will pass this knowledge on to their colleagues and students at home. To facilitate the development of their civic education projects, the NIS teachers attend an intensive 12-day mid-program civic education institute and are able to communicate continuously throughout the year with their civics mentor through a USIA-administered ListServ (electronic mailing list) dedicated to the program.
The NIS-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program also fosters civic education in the NIS by sending several U.S. teachers to serve as civics and other types of social science instructors in NIS institutions. At the end of FY 1995, two U.S. teachers began year-long teaching assignments, one in Lviv, Ukraine, and the other in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
Russian Teaching Assistants Program: Under the Russian Teaching Assistants Program (RTAP), USIA placed 56 young Russian educators in the fields of English, history, geography, mathematics, and science at U.S. colleges and universities to serve as teaching assistants for a semester or academic year. The teachers Russian acquired practical experience in U.S. teaching methods and curricula, and enrolled in courses to broaden their knowledge and skills in their fields of specialization, as well as to learn more about U.S. institutions, culture, and society.
Educational Reform Programs
Summer Institutes: Three six-week summer institutes were conducted in FY 1995 for 61 Russian university and secondary school educators on American-studies curriculum development and on the U.S. political system. In addition to being exposed to U.S. society, culture, and institutions, the participants were given informational resources and contacts that will enhance their ability to teach courses related to American studies and political science.
Civic Education Workshops: Funds were provided to USIA's Moscow office for a series of 14 workshops organized by Russian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in cities throughout Russia. Through these workshops, the Russian NGOs familiarized Russian educators with the USIA-supported civic education project at the Nizhniy Novgorod Humanities Center, and to organize town meetings for the discussion of important civic issues. The 14 workshops involved over 850 participants.
Social Science Curriculum Development Fellowships: Ten Russian university professors from a variety of social science disciplines are spending from 6 to 9 months at U.S. universities under a USIA-funded program administered by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). These fellowships expose the participants to social sciences courses, methodologies, and resources available in the United States, and enable them to develop and teach new courses at their home universities.
Future Programs: USIA's educational reform staff is currently discussing with USIA's Moscow office program options for additional projects in secondary-school and higher education. USIA is developing plans to support a variety of civic education initiatives and to assist with the development of social science curricula at selected university departments throughout Russia. Initiatives include: a linkage program for U.S. and Russian political science, history and economics departments; workshops in curriculum development in political science and international relations; and support for a nationwide civic education association.
A USIA-funded partnership between Syracuse University and Nizhniy Novgorod State University resulted in a decision by regional education officials to identify civic education as the number-one curriculum priority and issue a directive supporting experimental courses in schools throughout the region. Elementary- and secondary-school curricula developed under this partnership are now being tested in 50 classrooms throughout the region using Russia's first-ever curriculum framework for civic education, which was published with USIA funding and input, and is now gaining popularity in other regions. The Russian partners will publish the curriculum for use throughout Russia and will hold workshops to introduce these concepts in other regions.
Undergraduate Exchanges
In FY 1995, USIA awarded grants totaling over $4.15 million to the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR), the American Collegiate Consortium (ACC), and Youth for Understanding (YFU) to select and place 202 undergraduate students from all 12 NIS countries at 43 U.S. colleges and six community colleges throughout the United States for the 1995-96 academic year. The three grantee organizations have provided roughly $1.2 million in cost-sharing--mainly tuition and room-and-board. The participants live in dormitories or with American families, and focus on one of the following fields: agriculture, business, communications/journalism, computer science, criminal justice studies, economics, education, English as a second language, government, library and information science, or sociology. Upon returning to their home countries, many undergraduate program alumni have begun working for U.S. firms such as Price Waterhouse.
This year's program included several improvements and innovations, including increased participation by NIS specialists in the selection process, closer participant monitoring at all stages of the program, improved tracking and follow-on programs, improved program evaluation and orientation tailored more specifically to individual programs and participants. ACTR and ACC are working together to plan alumni gatherings scheduled for spring 1996.
Graduate Exchanges Program
USIA's Graduate Exchanges Program provides scholarships to NIS graduate students for masters-degree study and professional development programs in the United States in the fields of business administration, communications/journalism, economics, education administration, law, library and information science, public administration and public policy. In FY 1995, the first communications/ journalism fellows began and completed their first year of study in the United States; U.S. host institutions enthusiastically welcomed the addition of this field of study. The program is designed to foster democratization and the transition to market economies through intensive academic and professional training. Graduate Fellows participate in one- to two-year academic programs, and a majority of them earn a degree at the conclusion of their program. In FY 1995, approximately $11.3 million was awarded in grants to ACTR, IREX and the Soros Foundation/Open Society Institute to support 226 Graduate Fellowships, bringing the FY 1994-95 cumulative total to 443 fellowships worth a total of $22,297,125 (not including $7.8 million in cost-sharing by grantee organizations).
In FY 1995, USIA focused on full-scale alumni coordination, tracking and enrichment activities. These efforts resulted in the creation of an alumni newsletter, directory, and database; the formation of two Internet discussion groups for current participants and alumni (one in the United States and one in Russia); and the planning of professional enrichment workshops throughout the NIS. In addition, an alumni center jointly funded by USIA and USAID was established in Uzbekistan.
Many graduate program alumni now hold influential positions in their home country. For example, a Georgian participant in the 1993 program was elected to the Georgian Parliament in 1995. Other positions held by program alumni include the deputy director of the Project Finance Department of the National Credit Bank in Moscow, and the director of finance and administration of the Moscow Center for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Russian-Eurasian Awards Program (REAP): In FY 1995, USIA's Russian-Eurasian Awards Program (REAP) supplemented financial aid offered by U.S. colleges and universities for 365 students from the NIS, awarding 225 first-year grants and 140 renewals. U.S. host institutions provide more than half the financial support for the students to study in the United States, making REAP one of USIA's most cost-effective programs. This year's participants are being hosted by 145 colleges and universities in 43 states. Program alumni are now working for U.S. and European firms doing business in the NIS, as well as for U.S. assistance providers.
U.S.-Eurasian Internet Access and Training Program: The new U.S.-Eurasian Internet Access and Training Program is a public/private-sector partnership designed to foster access to and provide training in effective use of the Internet and e-mail among USIA and other U.S. Government-funded exchange and training program alumni at universities, libraries, and civic organizations in ten designated regions of Belarus, Kazakstan, Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The program is funded through a $994,000 USIA grant to the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX), with an additional $700,000 in private-sector cost-sharing from U.S. foundations, computer companies and publishers, and NIS partner institutions.
Under this program, eight bilingual U.S. Internet Fellows, 60 local trainers from the NIS, and IREX staff in the NIS will establish 40 public-access Internet sites at NIS partner institutions and will provide Internet access and training to 300 other NIS institutions. All Internet Fellows will be affiliated for one year with NIS partner institutions selected by USIA field offices in collaboration with IREX. Internet Fellows and IREX staff will train individuals who will, in turn, conduct their own training programs, encourage the development of low-cost academic e-mail networks, establish public World Wide Web sites, support the development of on-line Internet materials in English and local languages, and leverage the resources of the U.S. and NIS private and public sectors to expand the impact and sustainability of this initiative. Internet access will enable U.S. Government-funded exchange program alumni to broaden their professional knowledge after returning to the NIS, and will enable them to maintain professional contacts with their colleagues at U.S. institutions.
Start-up activities for the program, including recruitment of American Internet fellows, began in the United States and the NIS in August; most U.S. Internet Fellows will begin their year-long fellowships in the NIS in early 1996.
FREEDOM Support Act Fellowships in Contemporary Issues: FREEDOM Support Act Research Fellowships in Contemporary Issues is a new merit-based, openly competed program designed to attract qualified NIS professionals, policy-makers, scholars and leaders of civic organizations interested in political, economic and social reform issues. During the 1995-96 academic year--the first year of the program--some 160 participants from all 12 NIS countries are conducting research in the United States on contemporary issues related to reform efforts in their countries, consulting with U.S. specialists and counterparts, writing articles for publication, giving lectures, and participating in a variety of public fora in their U.S. host communities. Fellows also participate in professional development activities and join U.S. professional associations in their specific fields. FY 1995 funding for this program, which is administered through grants awarded to ACTR and IREX, is $2.5 million plus an additional $500,000 in cost-sharing from ACTR and IREX.
Contemporary Issues Fellows are placed at leading U.S. universities, policy institutes, NGOs, or U.S. Government agencies for three, six or eight months, and are matched with U.S. host advisors who act as their professional mentors. The first group of Contemporary Issues Fellows began their U.S. programs in August, and a second group in late January 1996; the Fellows are studying critical issues such as privatization, conflict resolution, defense conversion, environmental protection, market economics, electoral processes, and organized crime. While in the United States, Contemporary Issues Fellows also receive Internet training and participate in the Contemporary Issues newsgroup and Internet ListServs, which use articles from Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization to stimulate dialogue. Upon returning home, the Fellows can use the Internet to continue collaborating with their U.S. colleagues and to build upon their U.S. research. Regional meetings of Contemporary Issues alumni are scheduled for fall 1996 in Kazakstan, Russia and Ukraine.
University Partnerships
The following five USIA programs have helped establish partnerships between U.S. colleges and universities and their NIS counterparts with the goal of organizing faculty and student exchanges and training, and developing curriculum and teaching methodologies. In FY 1995, over 1,000 U.S. and NIS exchangees participated in programs under these partnerships.
NIS University Partnerships Program (NISUPP), College and University Partnerships Program for Russia (CUPP): NISUPP and CUPP support a total of 27 two-year partnership projects--20 of which involve Russian institutions--designed to develop curriculum and teaching methodologies, and to modernize administrative structures at institutions of higher education in the NIS. In FY 1995, 130 U.S. and 169 NIS citizens participated under the NISUPP; and 162 U.S. and 212 Russians participated under the CUPP. Program accomplishments in FY 1995 included the creation of new curricula and degree programs in business education, a new civic education program for secondary schools, a draft American English textbook for high school teachers, and publications on special education; and the setting up of e-mail links between the partner schools.
NIS Linkages Program (NISLP): Modeled after USIA's University Affiliations Program, the NISLP fosters the development of new curricula and teaching methodologies, and the modernization of the administrative structures at universities in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. In FY 1995, 34 American and 66 NIS exchangees participated in this program. NISLP is administered through partnerships with seven U.S. universities and colleges, and focuses on curriculum areas including law; business/economics, education/continuing education/curriculum reform, public administration and communications/journalism. For example, St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, received a $300,000 NISLP grant to establish a partnership with Kharkiv Polytechnic University (KhPU) in Ukraine, under which St. Norbert is creating a business development center and a small-business incubator at KhPU, and is organizing exchanges of faculty, graduate students, and entrepreneurs; exchanges of the latter have facilitated several business arrangements between Wisconsin and Kharkiv companies.
Kyrgyz-American School: The International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX), along with a consortium of four U.S. universities, received a $500,000 grant to help the Kyrgyz-American School in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to develop undergraduate and graduate curricula in the areas of English as a second language, business, law, American studies, political science and psychology. In FY 1995, two American and four Kyrgyzstani professors participated in exchanges under this program. With the help of its Moscow-based telecommunications team, IREX will establish a LAN computer network and will purchase printers and computers for faculty and student use. The program will also help expand the collection of the school's library.
American Russian Center (ARC): Operated by the University of Alaska at Anchorage, the American Russian Center (ARC) facilitates the development of U.S. business opportunities, free markets, and democratic institutions in the Russian Far East through projects that (1) expand access to Western information sources; (2) assist indigenous nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) involved in public processes; (3) familiarize participants with U.S. Governmental institutions and processes; (4) educate Russian Government officials on methods of regulating the use of natural resources; (5) demonstrate methods used by U.S. state and local governments to encourage investment and to regulate development; (6) train independent media to increase their advertising revenue; (7) upgrade to Western standards the curricula of Russian vocational institutes certifying workers; and (8) create a continuing education system to retrain adult workers for the rapidly evolving labor market. In FY 1995, 101 Americans and 60 Russians participated in ARC programs.
Linguistic University of Nizhniy Novgorod (LUNN): USIA is funding a partnership between a consortium of educational institutions led by the University of Florida and the Linguistic University of Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia. The partnership's goal is to establish an American Institute at LUNN. During the three-year funding period, U.S. experts will train Russian faculty in three areas: English as a foreign language, Western business practices and American studies. In FY 1995, 33 Americans and 30 Russians participated in programs under this partnership.
Professional Exchanges
Federalism Exchanges: In FY 1995, USIA awarded five grants totaling $750,000 to U.S. organizations to foster relationships between Russian and U.S. state and regional governments. All five projects focus on power-sharing between national, regional and local governments. Originally limited to three territories--Khabarovsk, Primorskiy and Sakhalin--the program has been expanded to include all territories in the Russian Far East. For example, the Asia Foundation is working with the Khabarovsk Duma to build professional connections between local and regional government officials of the Russian Far East and their counterparts in California. With the help of a several program alumni and Temple University's Center for the Study of Federalism, the Siberian International Center for Regional Research and the Institute of Economy and Organization of Industrial Production--both organizations within the Russian Academy of Sciences--began publishing a series of books on federalism in June 1995. Meanwhile, the Council of Governors' Policy Advisors, an affiliate of the National Governors' Association, is helping to create a network of political advisors in the Russian Urals and will offer internships to four Russian political staffers to look at the mechanics of association-building and management.
FREEDOM Support Grant Program: Since January 1993, the FREEDOM Support Grant Program has been bringing high-level NIS officials to the United States to meet with their U.S. counterparts in order to explore issues related to democratic and economic reform. Since its inception, the FREEDOM Support Grant Program has given over 850 senior NIS officials an opportunity to participate in projects focusing on issues related to federalism, state and local government, market economics and business development, defense conversion and privatization, foreign policy and international security, and the rule of law. In FY 1995, special funds were allotted to federalism projects for Russian parliamentarians and rule-of-law initiatives to help participants focus on combating organized crime and corruption in their home countries.
In Russia, the FREEDOM Support Grant (FSG) Program and the USIA base budget-funded International Visitor (IV) Program have achieved their goal of boosting participation from Russia's provinces by coordinating with other U.S. Government-funded technical assistance providers in the field, particularly the Peace Corps. In FY 1995, two thirds of USIA's 287 FSG and IV grantees were selected from outside of Moscow. All 48 programs were designed with input our embassy and consulates in Russia and were designed to reinforce programs being implemented by other agencies. Legislative and rule-of-law issues received an especially large amount of attention. Specific FSG programs were targeted at regional governors, speakers of Russia's regional legislatures, and the Russian Presidential Administration.
Prominent participants in the FY 1995 FREEDOM Support Grant Program included the newly elected Speaker of the Russian Duma; Russia's Minister of Education; Supreme and Constitutional Court justices from Belarus, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine; Kazakstan's Minister of Agriculture; members of the Russian Federative Council's Committee on Security and Defense; spokespersons for the Presidents of Russia and Uzbekistan; oblast (regional) governors; and nearly fifty parliamentarians from Russia's regional parliaments.
"Business For Russia" (BFR) Exchanges: In FY 1995, 600 entrepreneurs and government officials interned with U.S. small businesses through the highly successful and cost-effective "Business for Russia" program, bringing the cumulative number of participants since the program's inception to 1,000. Now into its second year of operation, the "Business for Russia" program has expanded from 11 U.S. host communities to 30, with clusters of Russian participants recruited from cities in 18 different Russian regions--another 320 participants were selected to participate in the FY 1996 program. Formal alumni activities began for more than 300 BFR interns who participated in the 1994 program, and active alumni groups were registered in the Moscow Oblast, St. Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod and Khabarovsk.
Whenever possible, clusters of BFR participants from particular Russian cities were placed in their U.S. sister cities in order to strengthen these self-sustaining community linkages. Sister-city ties between U.S. and Russian communities were also strengthened by members of the U.S. host communities who traveled at their own expense to visit the BFR alumni who had been placed in their communities. A variety of informal business deals have been initiated and a number of joint ventures, and formal business contracts have been signed between U.S. and Russian BFR participants.
To broaden the impact of the BFR program, USIA distributed video-taped management courses which were subsequently introduced into business curricula in several Russian universities, bringing the total number of participating business departments to twenty. USIA also plans to establish computer centers in each of the regions covered by BFR so that program alumni can establish their own e-mail accounts and access business-related information through a specialized BFR directory and the Internet.
Media Programs
Media Workshops: USIA organized a workshop on television management for Kyrgyz journalists and a workshop on news production for Russian television journalists. At the end of the Kyrgyz workshop, one of the participants--a manager of a quasi-independent television station--observed a substantial change in thinking on the part of one of the participants representing Kyrgyz State Television. The Russian Television News Production Workshop exposed participants to the concept of media ethics and the need for balance and accuracy in the presentation of news stories. Participants said that they would be able to adapt much of what they learned upon returning to their own stations. For those who spoke English, internships were arranged at local U.S. media outlets. USIA will also conduct two FREEDOM Support Act-funded workshops for Russian journalists and organize a three-month internship for a Kyrgyz journalist in FY 1996. Professionals-In-Residence: In Moscow, a U.S. professional-in-residence continued to work at the Media Assistance Clearinghouse, while another concluded her 10-month assignment, during which she held seminars and published a manual on newspaper design which was so well-received that another 20,000 copies are being printed. Yet another professional-in-residence, a former CBS vice president, served as a consultant to private television and radio stations in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, Russia; Almaty, Kazakstan; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; and Minsk, Belarus. During the run-up to Russia's parliamentary elections in December, a former USA Today journalist talked about U.S. election coverage with his colleagues and newspaper publishers in Moscow, Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk.
Russian American Press and Information Center (RAPIC): In FY 1995, USIA continued to fund the Russian American Press and Information Center (RAPIC) for a second year. This past year, RAPIC branched out from its base in Moscow to open offices in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Rostov. The new RAPIC offices provided additional locations for the organization's highly successful press conferences, which have helped transform the understanding of government accountability in Russia. RAPIC also launched a comprehensive campaign to monitor press coverage of the war in Chechnya, and published an extensive study of its findings, which provided valuable feedback to journalists throughout Russia, many whom were for the first time covering a conflict as independent reporters. In addition to spearheading a similar effort to analyze press coverage of the 1996 Duma campaign; RAPIC also sponsored five election-coverage seminars and produced a Russian-language source-book on election coverage. RAPIC also continued to offer its standard programs educating journalists on their rights to government information and on how to take advantage of those rights, as well as on the business aspects of journalism.
In FY 1995, RAPIC continued to have a significant impact on media development in Russia. For example, the Yeltsin Administration turned to RAPIC's Standing Commission on Freedom of Information for help in preparing Russia's first freedom-of-information law and in implementing a presidential decree on guaranteeing public access to legislation. Several months after attending a RAPIC newspaper-management seminar in Omsk, the editor of the Tyumenskiy kuryer (Tyumen Courier) reported that his paper had doubled the size of its advertising department and increased its advertising space by 250 percent. After a RAPIC-sponsored national conference on press ethics, a number of Russian newspapers adopted codes of ethics based largely on the sample American press ethics codes distributed at the conference. As a result of RAPIC's media monitoring project for the 1995 Duma elections, a journalist in Perm independently organized five seminars for the region's editors to discuss the problems faced by local media--after these discussions, the journalist was able to convince the Governor of the Perm Region to lift a number of restrictions on journalists' access in the region.
RAPIC's Media and Conflict Program organized a session in Pyatigorsk, Russia, with media professionals and community leaders from the neighboring Northern Caucasian republics of Northern Ossetia and Ingushetia, between which a border conflict has resulted in sporadic violence and heightened tensions since 1992. Despite warnings that journalists from each side would not even sit together in the same room, the RAPIC program resulted in an agreement between the Ossetian and Ingushetian participants to continue to work together to prevent the media from being used to exacerbate tensions. Journalists from both republics suggested setting up a politically neutral center for facilitating communication amongst themselves.
Media Resource Clearing House: In FY 1995, USIA established a Media Resource Clearing House to help prevent overlap in media assistance by collecting and disseminating information on assistance activities. The Clearing House publishes the information regularly in a Russian-language calendar which it sends to Russian media organizations listed in its database. Located within the RAPIC building, the Clearing House works closely with the International Center for Foreign Journalists based in Reston, Virginia. Book-Translation Programs: Since journalism textbooks remain scarce in Russia, USIA began a program in FY 1995 to provide easily adaptable English-language journalism textbooks to schools and other organizations throughout the country; the books will be purchased and delivered in FY 1996. Working with an expert on the Russian media, USIA also produced substantial bibliographies for print and electronic media.
By the end of FY 1995, USAID had obligated a total of $155 million, including $35 million in FY 1995, and expended a total of $99 million under the NIS Exchanges and Training (NET) Project to provide short-term U.S.-based training to reformers from throughout the NIS. In FY 1995, the NET Project provided training to 5,130 participants--85 from Armenia, 48 from Azerbaijan, 39 from Belarus, 42 from Georgia, 334 from Kazakstan, 238 from Kyrgyzstan, 43 from Moldova, 3,317 from Russia, 84 from Tajikistan, 109 from Turkmenistan, 632 from Ukraine and 159 from Uzbekistan--bringing the Project's cumulative number of participants to 6,629. Subject areas included economic restructuring (20 percent), business development (18 percent), democratic reform (13 percent), housing-sector reform (11 percent), health-sector reform (10 percent), environmental policy (8 percent), energy-sector reform (7 percent), agricultural-sector reform (7 percent), and nongovernmental organization (NGO) development (3 percent).
Among the participants who have received training under the NET Project to date are over 2,500 senior officials, including deputy ministers, television-station directors and presidents of national banks. NET Project alumni include the Head of the Privatization Department of Uzbekistan's Cabinet of Ministers, the Chairman of the Board of the Tashkent (Uzbekistan) Stock Exchange, the Armenian Vice Ministers of Energy and the Economy, deputies of the Kazakstani Parliament, the Moldovan Minister of Justice, the First Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, the Head of the National Bank of Georgia, and the Minister of Justice of Uzbekistan.
The NET Project also sponsored in-country follow-on activities for returned participants and their colleagues. To date, 2,079 NIS professionals have attended NET follow-on programs, including 1,457 from Russia, 291 from Central Asia, 184 from the West NIS and 147 from the Caucasus.
Results from an extensive evaluation of the NET Project, conducted by Aguirre International, indicated high levels of participant satisfaction and program impact. Ninety-nine percent of NET participants reported sharing training-related information and skills with colleagues upon returning, 86 percent reported being "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their training experience, 71 percent reported an increase in their job skills, and 10 percent reported having subsequently influenced their country's policy process. Through a series of cost-cutting steps, the NET Project was able to achieve significant reductions in the per-participant cost of its programs in most of the NIS, and will continue to seek additional cost-cutting measures in FY 1996.
NET Institutional Partnerships Project
Implemented by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the NET Institutional Partnerships Project is designed to support sustainable partnerships between U.S. educational institutions and professional associations and their counterparts in Russia and Ukraine, with the goal of increasing the indigenous capacity of the NIS partner institutions to provide services. In addition to contributing 25 percent of the cost of the partnership, each set of partners is required to create an information product, such as a model curriculum or an instructional video, for mass duplication and distribution.
In FY 1995, the NET Institutional Partnerships Project successfully launched all 22 of its partnerships linking U.S. educational institutions and associations with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts--USAID has contributed a total of over $24.3 million to this program. In addition to program start-up activities--which included establishing in-country offices, holding introductory workshops, finalizing work plans, and making a total of 24 site visits to subgrantees--an environmental resource center was opened in Lviv, Ukraine, 13 environmental-technology manuals were created and translated, a Center for Continuing Education was opened at the Nizhniy Novgorod State Agricultural Academy, and dozens of Russian and Ukrainian educators received training in the areas of agriculture, business, governmental affairs and environmental policy. In addition, several electronic resources, such as World Wide Web sites and computer databases, were established.
The SABIT Program is a unique joint effort between the U.S. private sector and the U.S. Government designed to support the transition to market economies in the NIS while simultaneously fostering long-term U.S.-NIS commercial ties. The SABIT Program provides competitively awarded grants to U.S. companies to help defray the costs of hosting NIS managers and scientists for three to six months of hands-on training in the United States. SABIT reimburses the cost of each intern's round trip airfare and a small per diem to cover meals and incidental expenses--the maximum grant amount is $7,500 for six months of training. The U.S. host firms pay the remainder of the costs, including visa fees, housing, medical insurance, and the cost of the training itself. Since the companies' costs are usually equal to or greater than the amount of the grant, the SABIT Program is quite effective in using U.S. Government funding to leverage a large amount of private-sector funding.
As of the end of FY 1995, the SABIT Program had awarded grants to over 250 U.S. companies and had trained 604 NIS executives and scientists. In FY 1995 alone, 316 interns arrived in the United States for SABIT training: 2 from Armenia, 1 from Azerbaijan, 11 from Belarus, 5 from Georgia, 18 from Kazakstan, 6 from Kyrgyzstan, 7 from Moldova, 203 from Russia, 1 from Tajikistan, 2 from Turkmenistan, 54 from Ukraine and 6 from Uzbekistan. In FY 1995, the SABIT Program received a total of $4 million, bringing the total amount of program funding to $13 million. Of this total amount, some $8.4 million had been obligated and $6.8 million expended by the end of FY 1995.
More than 60 percent of the U.S. organizations that have participated in the SABIT Program have maintained ongoing ties with their interns. To date, U.S. host companies have attributed more than $15 million dollars in export revenues to the U.S.-NIS business relationships facilitated through the SABIT Program, with anticipated future sales of $100 million. SABIT gives priority consideration to U.S. companies in the following fields: agribusiness, defense conversion, energy, environment, financial services, housing, health care, product standards and quality control, telecommunications, and transportation. Two new specialized SABIT programs got off to a successful start in FY 1995: the SABIT Standards Training Program and the SABIT Defense Conversion Program.
SABIT Standards Training Program
In collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), SABIT implemented a comprehensive standards training program for NIS experts in the areas of standardization, product certification, quality control, and laboratory accreditation. The Standards Training Program is designed to improve product standards and quality control in the NIS while boosting U.S. trade with the region. The program provides a two-week orientation at NIST followed by six weeks of company visits to familiarize the NIS experts with U.S. methods of product certification and standardization. Each two-month session focuses on a particular vital sector of the economy and is comprised of 20 to 25 experts from throughout the NIS.
In FY 1995, the SABIT Standards Training Program trained 69 NIS experts from the automotive, medical equipment, and telecommunications sectors. FY 1996 sessions have been scheduled in the aerospace and food-processing sectors, and additional sessions are being planned in the oil and gas, construction/infrastructure, financial services and environmental sectors, pending the availability of FY 1996 funding.
By facilitating the development and use of harmonized international standards, the Standards Training Program helps improve access for U.S. products to NIS markets. The Ford Motor Company, which hosted the group of NIS automotive standards experts, credits SABIT with facilitating several million dollars' worth of automobile exports to the NIS.
SABIT Defense Conversion Training Program
In FY 1995, SABIT collaborated with the Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Administration to initiate a training program for defense-industry experts from Belarus, Kazakstan, Russia and Ukraine. The program consists of two weeks of management training in Washington, D.C., followed by six weeks of hands-on training in U.S. companies currently converting their product mix to consumer goods. In FY 1995, the SABIT Defense Conversion Training program trained 38 NIS defense-industry experts in its first two sessions. In addition to facilitating the conversion of defense enterprises from military production to the production of industrial and consumer goods, the SABIT Defense Conversion Training Program also enhances U.S. trade opportunities in these countries. For example, with the help of its SABIT Defense Conversion interns, the U.S. company Senco hopes to begin manufacturing spars, nails and fasteners at a plant in Kharkiv, Ukraine, to be sold in European and Asian markets.
SABIT continuously endeavors to diversify the programs by increasing the number of non-Russian interns. While the program has achieved notable success in this effort--from FY 1993 to FY 1995, the percent of non-Russian SABIT interns increased by 12 percent--it remains a challenge since many of the U.S. organizations interested in doing business in the NIS tend to focus only on Russia and are thus not willing to consider sponsoring interns from other parts of the NIS.
SABIT Follow-On and Outreach Activities
To further encourage U.S.-NIS cooperation and trade, the SABIT Program provides a variety of support services for its interns after they have returned to their home countries, including the maintenance of an alumni network, an alumni directory, a quarterly newsletter, and electronic access to program information. Over 300 NIS executives became members of the SABIT Alumni Network during FY 1995, bringing the total number of members to 541. The SABIT Program hosted several Alumni Network meetings, providing a forum for the NIS alumni to network among themselves and with the U.S. business community in the NIS. In FY 1995, inaugural meetings were held for SABIT Alumni Network chapters in Minsk, Belarus; Novosibirsk, Russia; and Central Asia.
In FY 1995, SABIT published two issues of its newsletter, the SABIT Exchange, which is distributed to SABIT companies and alumni. The newsletter includes stories about successful post-internship business relationships between SABIT alumni and their U.S. host companies, as well as industry-specific information and details about upcoming SABIT Alumni Network events. To widen the distribution of SABIT program information and the SABIT Exchange, the SABIT Program established a homepage on the World Wide Web (http://www.itaiep.doc.gov/sabit/sabit.html), which has already been accessed more than 1,500 times.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Cochran Fellowship Program provides three- to five-week U.S.-based agricultural training programs for NIS senior- and mid-level agricultural specialists and administrators. This training is implemented in collaboration with various USDA agencies, agricultural trade and market-development associations, universities, and private U.S. agribusinesses. In FY 1995, the Cochran Fellowship Program provided training to 292 participants from all 12 NIS countries--174 with FREEDOM Support Act (FSA) funding and 118 with Emerging Democracies Program (EDP) funding. From FY 1993 through the end of FY 1995, a total of 661 NIS agriculturists had received training under the Cochran Fellowship Program--243 with FSA funding and 418 with EDP funding.
Cochran training covered a wide range of topics, including agricultural policy, land tenure, agricultural bankruptcy, agricultural finance and banking, food processing and marketing, food safety, international trade, wholesale-market development, livestock processing and marketing, food retailing, and cooperative and agribusiness management.
The Cochran Fellowship Program has been widely praised by NIS officials and entrepreneurs, U.S. embassies throughout the NIS, and U.S. agribusinesses, universities, and trade associations. The Cochran Program's participants have said that the most valuable aspect of the program was the exposure to the way in which free-market agriculture, private ownership of agricultural enterprises, public-sector/private-sector collaboration, and democracy work together to increase agricultural productivity and efficiency. For example, a team of Ukrainian agriculturists who attended the World Congress of Wholesale Markets in Baltimore, Maryland, were subsequently able to increase the amount of attention being devoted to improving Ukraine's wholesale-market capabilities.
In addition to facilitating agricultural-sector reform in the NIS, the Cochran Fellowship Program has created numerous export opportunities for U.S. agribusinesses. The USDA Agricultural Office in Moscow reported that requests for information about importing U.S. agricultural products increased noticeably after Cochran participants returned to Russia. Several U.S. agricultural universities have established self-sustaining linkages to NIS universities through the Cochran Fellowship Program, leading to the creation of additional business opportunities for U.S. agribusinesses, as well as initiating further exchanges of information, students and faculty.
On the policy side, the USDA's Agricultural Office in Moscow reported that Russia's agricultural bankruptcy law was being written by former Cochran Program participants making use of what they learned while in the United States, and that high-level former Cochran participants have publicly stated that agricultural reform is essential to the future well-being of Russian agriculture. Similarly, our embassy in Kyrgyzstan reported that Cochran training for the acting minister of agriculture facilitated agricultural reform and privatization in that country, while an FY 1994 Cochran participant from Tajikistan was the first-ever entrepreneur to be elected to the Tajik Parliament.
Established in FY 1995, USDA's Faculty Exchange Program (FEP) has enabled qualified NIS agricultural educators to participate in intensive five-month training programs in the United States. In FY 1995, the Faculty Exchange Program provided training to 21 participants from Kazakstan, Russia and Ukraine in the areas of agricultural economics and marketing, agribusiness and agrarian law. FEP is designed to facilitate the transition of the agricultural sectors in these countries to a market-based system: the program's objectives are (1) to promote the development of sound agricultural policy and of effective and competitive agribusinesses and agricultural marketing systems, (2) to increase the number of people in the NIS who understand the principles of a market economy, by improving the quantity and quality of undergraduate and adult education programs in agricultural economics and marketing, agribusiness and agrarian law, and (3) to develop the ability and confidence of participating faculty members to evaluate and revise their course curricula through the application of modern curriculum development methods.
The FEP exchanges are conducted in collaboration with U.S. state agricultural universities and land-grant colleges, as well as with the private sector. Individual programs are tailored to meet the educational objectives of each participant. To this end, participants are divided into clusters by subject areas: agrarian law, agricultural enterprise management, the economics of agricultural machinery, the economics of food processing, and agribusiness enterprise analysis. Visiting professors have an opportunity to observe and study U.S. adult education programs in order to learn about U.S. principles and practices of adult education, including program development, course design and effective adult teaching methods. While in the United States, FEP participants also visit private agribusinesses and markets, and take part in a short internship to help them understand the applications of the concepts presented in the classroom. This past August, FEP participants also attended an annual meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association, where they held a symposium on building agricultural economics teaching capacity in the NIS.
In collaboration with USDA's Cochran Fellowship Program (see above), the Faculty Exchange Program designed a three-week study tour for rectors from the Kazakstani, Russian and Ukrainian universities of the first group of FEP participants. In November, ten rectors came to the United States and observed the day-to-day functioning of the U.S. economy, met with U.S. educational leaders and conferred with the FEP participants from their own institutions. This special initiative was designed to enhance collaboration and increase the support of rectors for implementing reforms in their agricultural economics curricula.
In addition to being praised by the participants themselves, the Faculty Exchange Program has been praised by the participants' home-country embassies, which have been very supportive and would like to make such an experience available to a larger number of their countries' agricultural educators.
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