WYG International led this major DFID social partnership project in the Urals Region, working with three key stakeholders: regional and municipal government; civil society (NGOs, etc); and business. The principal focus of the work was to enhance collaboration between the first two groups of stakeholders, with a progressive expansion in the participation of the business community. Implementation required a perceptive and sensitive understanding of the relationships between the three stakeholders and for this WYG International relied on its experience gained over more than a decade of work in the CIS with regional and local government, business and NGOs in more than 25 different regions of Russia, in Central Asia, the Caucasus and all other countries of the Former Soviet Union.

Work included capacity building in government and NGOs, training in relevant skills, awareness raising and dissemination of European best practice. Activities included workshops, conferences, study tours, networking, publications and other activities underpinning social partnership. As well as building relationships with regional and local government and with civil society, the project established close links with the Sverdlovsk branch of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs – the most important body representing the interests of business and industry in the region.

The project also had an extensive training component. Needs analyses were undertaken by the project team, training courses were designed in collaboration with stakeholders and delivered by local and Moscow-based trainers and training institutions. During the project more than 300 people received custom designed training programmes and many more participated in one-day seminars and workshops. Geographically the project reached all parts of Sverdlovsk Oblast, which is one of the largest in the Russian Federation.