| The conference was held at the Bank’s office in Moscow on March 24 and 25- 2005. The main objective of this event was to foster the sharing of experiences among Russian regions on the challenges brought by the recent reforms on intergovernmental relations (regional-local) that affect service delivery at the local level. The targeted participants, regional officials, engaged in a discussion with each other, federal officials, Bank, and local experts. The high level of the participants and speakers, that among others included --- Mr. Alexei Lavrov Director of Budget Policy - Ministry of Finance, Mr Sergey Miroshnikov- Director of Federal Relations and Local Governments, Mrs. Elena Stolyrova- Deputy Governor-Penza Oblast, and Mrs. Irina Maximenkova –Regional Deputy Minister of Finance-Tverskaya Oblast-- fostered a rich and timely sharing of experiences as regions move forward with reforms in financing and monitoring performance of local governments’ service delivery. |  |
Participants: The conference was attended by 64 participants from 12 different regions, the Federal government, research institutions, and donors. The regions that participated in the conference were: Samara, Vologda, Komi, Kostroma, Tver, Stavropol Krai, Moscow Oblast, Novosibirsk, Penza, Adygeya, Chelyabinsk, Chuvashia, Kerelia, and Perm. The delegation of each region was mainly composed by regional ministers or deputy ministers of finance, education, and health, local officials, and in some cases deputy governors. The participants’ diverse background and regional experience were key ingredients to fulfill the purpose of knowledge and experience sharing among regions pursed by the conference. Regional officials had the chance to interact with each other and share their lessons on the latest reforms they are implementing. Moreover, they had the chance to interact with local experts from research institutions that had worked in reforms in this area in other regions that were not present at the conference. Attachments: List of Participants - in English; in Russian Panelists: The conference was opened by Mr. John Litwack- Lead Economist and acting Country Director of the World Bank in Moscow, Mr. Sergey Miroshnikov- Director of Federal Relations and Local Governments, and Mrs. Tatiana Popova from the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly (upper house of the Parliament). On the second day of the conference we had a presentation by Mr. Alexei Lavrov Director of Budget Policy - Ministry of Finance. Throughout the two days we had Regional officials addressing their own experiences in these topics including Mrs. Irina Maximenkova –Regional Deputy Minister of Finance-Tverskaya Oblast, and Mrs. Elena Stolyrova- Deputy Governor-Penza Oblast. We also had Bank, international, and local experts addressing the topics in the agenda including Ritva Reinikka, WB- co-director of the WDR 2004 and SA Country Director (through VC), Jorge Martinez-Vazquez -Georgia State University (through VC), and Galina Kurlyandskaya, Director, Center for Fiscal Policy. John Litwack (World Bank), Stepan Titov (WB), Alexander Morozov (WB), Isak Froumin (WB), Andrei Markov (WB), Dana Weist (WB), Kai Kaiser (WB), Fernando Blanco (WB), were also panelists/chairs in different sessions of this event engaging the participants in stimulating discussions. Attachments: Conference Agenda - in English; in Russian |
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