|
|
|||||||||
|
Corruption Reduction Events, March 2004Several major events took place as part of CCI's Next Steps: Transition to Transparency Program. One hundred Russian entrepreneurs, graduates of past and present CCI programs, joined together to participate in a series of activities in Washington, D.C. and Moscow.
Leadership Conference for Russia's Regional Entrepreneurs
John Pepper, recently retired CEO of Procter & Gamble, was the keynote speaker for the conference. Mr. Pepper's personal examples of becoming a leader and the need for businessmen and women to become leaders in the larger community resonated with conferees' deepest aspirations. CCI Board of Directors Chairman Arlie Schardt gave an impassioned plea for business people to address corruption at all levels, particularly governmental levels. Rotarian Douglas Patterson presented Rotary membership as a profound way to develop leadership in one's own community and the world.
Symposium on Corruption Reduction
Fifty-five meetings and seminars, most of them concurrent, were held over a four-day period. The Norwegian Embassy flew their famed Madame Eva Joly to Washington to deliver the keynote address. Madame Joly charged the participants with energy for the battles ahead. OECD provided live, interactive telecommunications with Paris experts to discuss the state of global efforts to curb corruption. World Bank experts spoke about the latest data on corruption practices. Transparency International provided perspective through data that indexes nations according to levels of corruption. The participants broke into small groups for embassy meetings to ensure intensive dialogue between experts and entrepreneurs. A wide range of monitoring organizations, state departments, specialists, experts and ethicists provided a 360-degree vantage point for the Russians. Meetings addressed practical strategies the Russians could take home to adapt to Russia's reality. Brainstorm sessions were held each evening at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). These provided a format to discuss concurrent group inputs and determine what points should be included in the Recommendations To The President, which would ultimately be delivered to President Putin. The sessions were full of passion, conviction, risk-taking and hope. The symposium effort stimulated ideas never before entertained and knowledge heretofore unattainable.
Nationwide TV Appearance CCI alumni were featured on the weekly, nationwide, primetime TV talk show with Vladimir Pozner, Russia's top television journalist. In a dramatic roundtable setting, four symposium participants were selected to answer questions on corruption and the world's experience in corruption reduction, while other delegates sat in bleachers surrounding the table. Occasionally the latter were polled electronically to determine their input. It was the first time Russian entrepreneurs had spoken on television regarding their personal experience with corruption, including naming cities and accusing positions. Following the show, telephone calls came in from all parts of the former USSR, saying what courage it took for CCI alumni to speak out, and how necessary it is for all of Russia that shows like this one be aired.
Press Conference The delegates held a press conference at the Moscow Independent Press Center. Twenty participants spoke openly about all aspects of corruption across Russia and said they are ready to speak in the Kremlin about what should be done to root out Russia's endemic corruption left by 75 years of communism and the Yeltsin years in the 90s. The alumni seemed further empowered by this experience.
Meeting in the Kremlin
Delegates had worked half the previous night to perfect the Recommendations To The President. Leaving the Rossiya Hotel across from the Kremlin, they trekked solemnly across the cobblestones. Guards at the ancient Spassky Gate ushered the group inside where President Putin's presidential economic advisor, Dr. Andei Illarionov, was waiting. He dove into questions about the international experience in corruption fighting and information from the entrepreneurs. He listened intently, taking notes as each entrepreneur spoke. Two hours later, he began addressing their points and questions, agreeing with their analyses and their recommendations. The meeting ended by Illarionov inviting the alumni to return to Moscow the next week to participate in a conference he was holding with specialists regarding how to attack corruption across Russia. He urged them to "Be bold! Don't be anonymous. It will be difficult, but you are strong, you must do this. What we all want for our country is the same, we want a moral and ethical environment in which to grow our children." The participants understood that it will take them working from the bottom and support from President Putin and his administration from the top for changes to occur. Neither the top, nor the bottom, in isolation can accomplish this task.
Follow-On Events Events across Russia broke out as delegates went back to their cities and created press conferences to explain what they had learned and experienced in Washington and Moscow. Newspaper articles began appearing; television covered the citizen investigators; focus groups were organized; and determination was galvanized in the hearts and minds of the participants and those with whom they spoke.
The long-term influence and impact of these CCI-sponsored events are unknown. CCI leadership believes that the collective sum of inputs from Washington and Moscow and their resulting work across Russia will soon show that seeds of change were implanted in these 100 alumni, who will sprout, replicate and spawn new ideas and concepts with each new recipient of this information. A website is making these events and their details available to entrepreneurs across Russia. In June 2004, a conference is scheduled in Moscow wherein the same 100 delegates will meet with Russia's top proponents for attacking corruption immediately. Delegates also will have a three-hour informal meeting with Vladimir Pozner to prepare for their next prime-time television program in autumn of 2004. Mini-regional conferences are planned as the next stages of Next Steps: Transition to Transparency Program gets propelled into action. |
Major Events
