Ural Federal University’s Associate Professor Participated in BRICS Civil Forum
The BRICS Civil Forum 2020 was held in Moscow on September 25. Over three days, more than 450 civic activists, representatives of non-profit organizations, foundations, authorities, socially responsible business, the media and the expert community from Brazil, China, India, Russia, and South Africa have become guests of the Forum on the digital and face-to-face platforms.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov attended the opening ceremony of the Forum on September 23.
“We are convinced that only through collective efforts and national measures, as well as by using our potentials, we can effectively counter the present-day challenges”, – stressed Sergey Ryabkov.
During his speech, Deputy Minister Ryabkov thanked the BRICS. World of Traditions NGO for the successful relay race of cultural and research expeditions “Great Teachers of the BRICS” in BRICS countries. The project was implemented with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the Ministry of Culture of Russia, Rossotrudnichestvo, the embassies of the BRICS countries in the Russian Federation.
Civil BRICS Forum participants divided experts into specialty working groups:
Food and Healthcare Civil BRICS Working group
Education and Science Civil BRICS Working group
Economic Development in the Digital Era Civil BRICS Working group
Information Strategies and Society Civil BRICS Working group
Sustainable cities and rural development Civil BRICS Working group
Environment, Climate and Energy Civil BRICS Working group
Women and Girls Civil BRICS Working group
People-to-people Exchanges Civil BRICS Working group
Each group came out with commanding outlines for its field of expertise and developed resoluting points for further coherent cooperation.
Anna Kurumchina, Ph.D., Associate Professor represented Ural Federal University, an expert on cultural and scientific diplomacy of BRICS, director of the ANO ‘Agency for Cultural and Scientific Diplomacy’.
Concluding the BRICS Civil Forum 2020, the session moderator Victoria Panova expressed the general opinion of its participants.
“The result of the Forum’s work was a set of recommendations of the BRICS Civil Society to the governments of the participating countries, as well as the Final Document“ Appeal of the Civil Society of the BRICS Countries to the Leaders of the Countries ”. Today we are transmitting the recommendations of the Civic Forum to the offices of Russian Sherpas in the BRICS and the G20. These recommendations will help us not only to successfully complete the Russian chairmanship in 2020, but also to the five countries to make a confident step into the new five-year cycle,” Victoria Panova said.
Civil BRICS Forum participants drafted a resolution outlining recommendations for BRICS countries leaders on common ways of cooperation in business and non-governmental organizations. For past experience, the participants praised the way BRICS countries exchanged information on COVID-19:
‘The COVID-19 pandemic has proved that civil society participation becomes critically important in enabling states to quickly and effectively address new challenges. In the BRICS countries, CSOs, NGOs and individual activists have been highly engaged in programmes to help the most vulnerable groups, in assisting medical volunteers to support patients and health workers in hospitals, in research and testing of vaccines and in supporting citizens in other countries who remained abroad during the border closure. Nonprofit organisations, media and scientists participated in information and prevention campaigns and timely information notification. Under the most challenging conditions, these combined efforts of the civil society helped to slow down the spread of the virus in the BRICS countries and significantly consolidate government measures to combat the pandemic and its consequences’ – states the Forum resolution.