CSIPN/RITC Training Course Agenda
INRIPP-2 Newsletter
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Photo: Harold Finkler
Another busy year in the life of the Institution Building for Northern Russian Indigenous Peoples Project has resulted in many great strides being made toward strengthening the Aboriginal economic development capacity in the Russian North. This required significant efforts, commitment and dedications on the part of all the Project partners: ICC (Canada), the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada (DIAND), the Government of Northwest Territories (GNWT), the Russian Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON), the Russian Indigenous Training Centre (RITC) and the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT). A very important accomplishment under INRIPP this year was the beginning of the formal regionalization of RITC: the Administration of Taimyr, one of the Northern-most areas of the Russian Federation, requested that a branch of RITC be opened in the city of Dudinka, its regional centre. In so doing, the Administration absorbed all costs associated with the opening of the new training centre and the payroll of its regional director. Similar arrangements are currently being negotiated with the Administrations of Khanty‑Mansyisk, Yamalo-Nenets and Evenkyia.
RITCs course curricula and programmes for workshops and seminars such as co‑management, land and natural resources use, for example, have been expanding steadily throughout 2002 and now incorporate a great many topics of interest and importance to Russias Aboriginal peoples. First and foremost, these programmes aim to prepare Aboriginal communities for the challenges they face in making a transition to a market economy in Russia. Furthermore, to stimulate community-based economic development RITC continues to deliver courses for Community Economic Development Officers (CEDO) and Regional Economic Development Officers (REDO).In November 2002, a joint training of Russian government officials and Aboriginal community representatives was held in Canada and Russia. It was organized by ICC (Canada) with generous assistance and support from the GNWT and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Canadian Inuit entrepreneurs take an active part in both these courses as instructors sharing their first-hand experience, knowledge and skills in the area of small business development. In particular, it is worth noting a very valuable contribution by Mr. Paul Sammurtok of the Arctic Co-operative Ltd. in Winnipeg and Sammy Duncan of Kuujjuaq, Quebec in the training of Russian Northern community representatives at the CEDO training course held in Moscow in March-April 2003.
Under the Government Component, a regional pilot project has been initiated in the field of setting up a Community Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) in Yamalo-Nenets. This work draws on the Northern Canadian experience of such organizations as the Makivik Corporation and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. It is expected that the CEDC will become functional in the Russian North as early as September 2003. Under the Project component dealing with the marketing and processing of wild meats a Canada-Russia Technical Working group, comprising experts and private sector representatives, was set up to guide DIANDs activities in improving the existing industrial infrastructure for the processing of reindeer meats in the Russian North. These activities included training courses being delivered in Taimyr and Evenkyia. In November 2002, three government officials from Russia participated in a study tour in Canada during which they had been exposed to the Canadian Aboriginal industrial techniques in the area of wild meat processing, production and marketing.
Another important deliverable under the Government component was a workshop on Connecting Cultures, held in the city of Tyumen in summer 2002. This event allowed Canadian and Russian participants to share their knowledge and best practices in the field of Aboriginal Arts and Crafts support services. INRIPP-2 also took part in two Trade shows in Novosibirsk in April and September 2003. The first, entitled the Northern Supply Fair, offered great business opportunities for Canadas Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Northern companies. About 20 such companies from NWT, Yukon, Nunavut, Alberta and Quebec chose to take part in this trade show where they presented their products and services to a specialized audience of the Siberian Federal District.The second, entitled the Sibir Arts and Crafts Fair, offered an opportunity to northern Canadian businesses involved in the marketing of indigenous arts and crafts to showcase their products, offered an opportunity to Canadian indigenous artists to demonstrate their talents, and offered an opportunity to the Russian Indigenous Training Center to distribute information of its activities, again to a specialized Russian audience.
The first workshop on co-management was held in Moscow in November 2002 under INRIPP-2. First workshop dealing with participatory management of lands and natural resources ever in the Russian context, it was delivered by Canadian experts in co‑management, particularly co-management in Canadas North. The workshop was attended by about 80 people representing the Russian federal and the regional governments, the Indigenous communities and the oil and gas sector. It was received with much enthusiasm by all participants who, at the end of a 2-day session, came to a conclusion that the concept of participatory management, in which Indigenous peoples can partake as equal partners, is the direction that ought to be pursued inRussia. The success of the workshop is further reflected in the subsequent interest exhibited by a number of Russian regional government officials to co-host similar workshops in their areas. A number of them even expressed a desire to implement on a pilot basis a co‑management regime that would reflect and build upon local conditions and needs. As a result, the next co-management workshop will be held this fall in Khanty-Mansyisk.
Over the next two years, efforts under INRIPP-2 will continue to be applied toward ensuring that the economic and social self-sustainability of the Indigenous peoples in the Russian North and the Far East gradually become a daily reality.