PARTNERSHIP

"Friends and Partners" was designed to provide a framework of information and communications services. Therefore, the focus has been to help others develop and publish content material specific to their interests and areas of expertise. We enjoy active cooperation now with many organizations from the government sector, higher education, business and private industry, the 'third sector' and non-profit organizations, supra-governmental organizations (such as NATO) and private citizens. The challenge has been to help enable individuals from these groups become information providers and support them in their efforts - working across a wide variety of computer platforms, levels of network access, and computer/information literacy.

Whether dealing with such weighty topics as discussion of health care, environmental clean-up, telecommunications policy, and economic theory; facilitating pen pal exchange between children; helping individuals find long lost friends and relatives; or simply better understanding how people in other cultures live, play and work, the project has demonstrated how the global information infrastructure (arising from the Internet) can foster new human relationships and partnerships. The ability to transcend geographical, cultural and political boundaries, as well as barriers of race, gender, age and handicap, unleashes a potential for understanding and cooperation that perhaps has never been possible on this scale before. The ability to promote and nurture community which transcends such boundaries can yield enormous benefits.

Examples of these include the Center for Civil Society (a community of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)), Friends and Partners in Space (devoted to joint space activities), the FP Legal Server, the NIS Health Server, RASIN (building an economic model in Yoryevets), Global University, Alliance of Universities for Democracy, and several others. It is precisely by distributing such responsibility to these "experts" that the effort can systematically meet the needs of the various constituencies comprising the overall Friends and Partners community.

F&P URL: http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/friends/home.html

and: http://april.ibpm.serpukhov.su/friends/home.html

The Center for Civil Society International acts as an information clearinghouse for news and resources of interest to people engaged with civil society institution-building organizations in the NIS (Newly Independent States of the former USSR). CCSI disseminates information via a monthly newsletter, an electronic mailing list, and an on-line World Wide Web site.

The categories of files CCSI has uploaded to its site include:

• Profiles of U.S. organizations with projects in the NIS
• Profiles of NIS 3rd sector organizations
• NIS organizations seeking Western partners
• Volunteer and service opportunities in the NIS
• Catalogue of key resources in print
• Reviews of electronic mailing lists related to the NIS
• Important electronic files
• Lists and directories of email addresses

CCSI has also uploaded its 1992 publication "Civil Society - USA: A Guide for Citizens of the NIS to Select American Organizations," which explains, mostly be example, the large role that associations and private voluntary organizations play in America. "Civil Society - USA" contains an essay describing the third sector in America, followed by detailed profiles of over 140 organizations, selected for their range of functions as well as their possible interest to citizens of Russia and the other countries of the NIS.

The URL for CCSI's home page is: http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~ccsi/ccsihome.html

• American Red Cross, Washington, D.C., with Russian Red Cross, to support the RRC in its efforts to strengthen its Visiting Nurse Program, thereby enhancing its ability to provide important health services in a changing economic environment and providing a model for non-governmental health care provision at the national, sectoral level.
• American Road and Transportation Builders Association, Washington, D.C., with the Russian Association of Territorial Bodies of Highway Administrations (RADOR), Moscow, to create a transportation development trade association in Russia and to provide training in industry operations in a free-market economy.
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), New York, with the Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, to promote the application of environmental and energy-related technologies and to establish a more effective network of technology transfer between the RAS and ASME.
• Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA), Arlington, Virginia, with a similar association in Russia, to establish and develop a professional association and academic partnerships in health policy and administration education in Russia.
• Center for International Private Enterprise, Washington, D.C., with the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Moscow, to offer extensive training courses and establish an accreditation program so as to help the Russian Chamber develop into a nationwide, voluntary non-state business association.
• Iowa State University College of Business with Nizhny Novgorod State Agricultural Academy, to establish a continuing education center and produce a core of trained leaders who are able to influence economic restructuring and development in small business, financial services, and agribusiness.
• South Carolina Universities Research and Education Foundation (SCUREF) at the Strom Thurmond Institute, Clemson University with the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biology and Inland Waters (IBIW) in Borok, to transform the IBIW into a private environmental research organization capable of sustaining itself through environmental research contaminant assessment, and environmental cleanup contracts and competitive government grants.
• Texas A&M University's Agricultural Economics Department with the Ministry of Agriculture and Provisions of the Russian Federation, and the Tatar Institute of Retraining and Agribusiness, to enhance the management decision-making skills of professionals in the agribusiness sector through curriculum development, training seminars, internships, and teaching materials.
• University of Alaska-Anchorage American Russian Center with Yakutsk State University, Magadan International Pedagogical University, and the State Pedagogical Institute of Yuzhnosakhalinsk, to increase free-market economic competency and understanding by offering faculty exchanges and curriculum building in the fields of business, economics, and journalism.
• University of Iowa's Department of Family Practice with the Family Health Care Center of the St. Petersburg Academy of Post-Graduate Medical Studies, to establish a collaborative educational program to teach future teachers the principles and practice of family medicine through the development of jointly developed curriculum materials, educational texts, and a one-year residency/faculty development program for five Russian physicians.
• University of Massachusetts Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning with Pskov Polytechnical University, to aid in economic restructuring through an extensive program of professional training opportunities and the creation of a masters degree program and Department of Regional Planning and Development at Pskov Polytechnical University.
• University of Rochester's School of Medicine and Dentistry, New York, with the Urals State Medical Institute, Ekaterinburg, and eight other Russian medical institutions, coordinated by the International Biomedical Agency (IBA), Ekaterinburg, to help individual medical institutes transform their curriculum via institutional partnerships, technology transfer, and people-to-people programs, to introduce standardized assessment processes, and to develop relevant educational materials through workshops and seminars.
• Urban Homestead Assistance, Inc. (UHAB), New York City, with the Citizens Foundation and the All-Russia Fund for the Promotion of Individual Flats, both in Moscow, to aid in the creation of successful local community development and privatized resident-controlled housing projects so as to disseminate these models throughout Russia, and to develop the capacity of local housing and community development NGOs to provide training and technical assistance to community activists, leaders, and other NGO staff.
• U.S. Feed Grains Council, Washington, D.C., with Russian Grains Council, Moscow, and Intensivny Korm Ltd., Samara, to establish a prototype Russian-American Business Training Center for Feed Manufacturers and Livestock Producers where management and market-oriented skills and knowledge can be transferred to managers in the grain marketing, processing, and usage complex in Russia.
• World Institute on Disability (WID) of Oakland California with the All-Russia Society of the Disabled in Moscow, to contribute to social sector restructuring by helping develop the institutional capacity of the ARSD to provide in-service training in Moscow, Volgograd, and five Russian regions in support of the integration of disabled people into society. Marlow%irexmain@irex.org

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