Director of the Yugra Center for Civic and Social Initiatives Foundation commented on how UPAA works.

“The unified personal account is a system that motivates people to talk about and reflect on what they do. We aggregate all available information from open sources, collect and segment it according to certain areas and derive a certain rating value. In the competitions that we run as the operator of the governor's grants, we make sure that some things that are checked by the competition experts cannot be rated lower than on the platform, for example, the value of the experience of the organization, the team. And this motivates people: we noticed that they add information about themselves, some data is verified. All of this is of value to the public sector, the journalistic community, and active residents of the region. The system is largely self-developing. We set the rules, and the system is filled with data,” says Yakov Samokhvalov.

He also notes that in 2022, interest in evaluation is growing beyond the expert community itself: such approaches are becoming in demand in the federal and regional authorities, and in business. “2022 was a watershed year – we are approaching the topic of the first state-accepted evaluation. We need to understand how public investments – subsidies, budget funds, grants for NPOs – are converted and what value they represent to society, beyond stories like “we helped…” This is a conversation in a language of figures, verifiable facts, which the sector lacked. And the second thing is that the evaluation is needed first and foremost by the organizations themselves. Many organizations seek “long” cooperation with donor organizations, large and medium-sized businesses, and government agencies. But without a fair internal evaluation of its activities, an organization can have neither a strategy nor long-term plans. If there are no long-term plans, it is difficult to attract partners and develop,” says the expert.

Theory of change, open data, evidence-based approach, reporting standard, development of a guide for creating and evaluating impact projects, discussion of approaches to social impact assessment, development of communities of practitioners, great progress in the development of tools and methodology for impact assessment, growth of interest in evaluation as a professional activity – these are the trends the award winners see in 2022.

The award by Positive Changes Journal, a popular science journal about impact investments and social impact assessment, is an annual award. At the end of 2023, we will know the names of new laureates – people and organizations who are making a positive contribution to the development of the impact theme.

Сделать освещение и проложить дорогу к дому, поставить памятник или организовать тропу здоровья, или сделать дизайнерский ремонт в подъезде – эти и другие вопросы вправе решать и получать финансирование на воплощение своих идей сами граждане. Проекты, предложенные жителями территорий, сегодня реализуются большинством субъектов Российской Федерации в формате так называемого инициативного бюджетирования. Как это работает, а также каким территориям и при каких условиях необходимо – в нашем материале.

Ирина Лактюшина

Журналист, координатор программ Impact Hub Moscow

В 1989 году треть населения бразильского города Порту-Алегри жила в трущобах, люди практически не имели доступа к чистой воде, канализации, больницам и школам. Это была не исключительная ситуация для городов Бразилии того времени, однако сочетание двух факторов – активного местного гражданского общества и нового левого крыла городского правительства – сделали именно Порту-Алегри родоначальником такого инструмента как партисипаторное бюджетирование.