PROPOSALS AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE COORDINATION COUNCIL

All proposals from the Coordination Council were considered and studied by the state authorities. The conclusions of the Coordination Council, set out further in the Civic Chamber’s report, were supported by the President of Russia, and the relevant departments were instructed on the action-oriented review of the prepared proposals.64

In order to fulfill the instructions of the President, on behalf of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin, 27 representatives of the Coordination Council were sent as delegates to public expert councils under the project committees of national projects.

As for individual decisions of the Coordination Council, the responsible ministries and departments received eight instructions from the Government of the Russian Federation65 and three instructions from the Government Executive Office.

As part of implementing the list of instructions given by the President of the Russian Federation in his address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of April 21, 2021, the Civic Chamber also presented its proposals for making an extensive list of new initiatives for the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation aimed at achieving national development goals.66

In 2021, demographic policy issues became a hotly discussed topic in Russia. The forecasts of the Federal State Statistics Service and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation indicate that a continuous decline in the population is expected in the country over the next three years and that the positive growth rates are expected only in 2030.68 According to forecasts, the total population of the country will decrease by more than 1.2 million people in 2020−2024.

The Russian President emphasized that the state’s strategy should be aimed at achieving sustainable population growth and increasing the average life expectancy of Russians to 78 years by 2030.69

In recent years, the demographic agenda has been one of the main threads of discussion at the Civic Chamber.70

The main problems that the Chamber notes in the field of demography are a significant decline in the population, low fertility, a massive spread of families with an only child, the continuing general aging of the nation, a change in the ratio between working citizens and pensioners, aggravating pension problems, a family crisis, and a high divorce rate.

The spread of the novel coronavirus infection put many Russian families with children in a difficult life situation. In this regard, the Head of State made decisions on special payments for children during the pandemic. These payments were made without applying the need criteria, and parents were only required to submit an application.

As part of implementing the instructions given by the President of the Russian Federation in his address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of January 15, 2020,71 important measures were continued to support families with children, which increased the volume of support provided for in the previously adopted set of measures, their further differentiation, as well as the introduction of new measures, including non-recurrent ones. The Civic Chamber notes that the state sent an important signal to the whole society about the priority of families with children with the introduction of the above social measures in 2020−2021.

At the same time, the Civic Chamber stressed that the measures taken so far are not enough for sustainable population growth in the country. This is confirmed, among other things, by the draft Unified Plan to achieve the national development goals of the Russian Federation for the period until 2024 and for the planning period until 2030 prepared by the Government of the Russian Federation,72 according to which the natural decline of the population will continue as a steady trend (in 2021−2024, losses will amount to 2.5 million people).

In 2021, the Civic Chamber, as part of monitoring the implementation of national projects, drew attention to the need to update the “Demography” national project, developed to ensure sustainable population growth in the country, and prepared relevant proposals, which were submitted to Tatyana Golikova, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. As a result of their consideration, the responsible departments were instructed to study the proposals submitted by the Civic Chamber.73

PROPOSALS OF THE CIVIC CHAMBER ON IMPROVING THE DEMOGRAPHY NATIONAL PROJECT

An important step in consolidating the priority of the problem of population decline in the implementation of the state policy in 2021 was updating the National Security Strategy74 and changing its doctrinal priority. Against the background of the success achieved in ensuring the country’s defense capability, a group of goals related to the human-centered approach and population preservation came to the fore:

• Sustainable natural population growth, strengthening the health of citizens;
• Sustainable improvement of the quality of life, reduction of poverty, reduction of social and property inequality;
• Raising the level of education, bringing up a harmoniously developed and socially responsible citizen.

The most fundamental and, given the emerging trends, the most difficult is the goal of reaching the expanded natural reproduction of the population.

The Government is taking a variety of measures to support families with children and stimulate the birth rate. However, in order to achieve the main goal of population preservation, it is already necessary to strengthen the analysis of all factors that truly affect both the reproductive behavior and the quality of life of Russian families, and make appropriate decisions. Having many children should become a truly socially approved life model in society. And this is an issue not only of social but also of cultural and youth policies.

At the state level, the “Demography” national project includes measures aimed at increasing the proportion of citizens leading a healthy lifestyle. Recording a significant increase in public interest in this topic, the Civic Chamber holds an annual competition to find the best practices for promoting a healthy lifestyle in Russia75 in order to further scale the same. According to the project evaluation results, with the support of the competition partners, the winners receive various gifts, including certificates for advanced training, additional education, as well as for technical equipment for sports facilities.

It should also be noted that the Civic Chamber considers the work of educating the younger generation, including in one of its most difficult parts — preventive work with troubled adolescents, as the most important direction in achieving the goal of bringing up a harmoniously developed and socially responsible citizen.

The Civic Chamber identified and recommended successful federal and regional practices in this area for further replication by the Ministry of Education of Russia. At the same time, it was proposed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation to revise and expand the potential of temporary detention centers for juvenile offenders in order to expand the coverage of prevention programs for more adolescents, endow these centers with new rehabilitation and preventive functions, as well as expand the categories of troubled juvenile offenders for temporary placement in these centers.

In this regard, the Civic Chamber proposes to introduce a new federal project titled “Multi-Child Country” as part of the “Demography” national project. The concept of the “Multi-Child Country” project has been developed by the Civic Chamber with the meaningful participation of the expert community and civil society organizations. This project is designed to eliminate the imbalance currently observed in the “Demography” national project, where less than 8% of the total funds are allocated to support large families. According to the Civic Chamber, it is necessary to increase the level of investment to 40%, which in the future will ensure a steady increase in the population.

A key measure within the framework of the proposed project is the introduction of large family (paternal) capital to be provided at the birth of three or more children into one family. The Civic Chamber notes that it is necessary to pay special attention to the father’s role in a large family and thus not only form gender parity but also support responsible fatherhood. The introduction of paternal capital, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center’s survey conducted in 2020, is supported by more than 86% of respondents.