Perm authorities shared experience of TOS (territorial public self-governing) development with colleagues from Minsk

Photo by Veronika Platonova

Specialists from the Soviet District of the capital of Belarus presented their experience in organizing the work of territorial public self-government. The meeting was also attended by the chairmen of TOS of Motovilikhinskiy district of Perm.

The meeting was held as videoconference at the city administration. Sergey Troshkov, Deputy Head of the Perm City Administration noted that  up to date 110 TOS had been registered in Perm, involving over  65 per cent of the city’s population into the activities. The unique practice in interaction with public organizations in Perm  is  establishing  community centers. These  provide premises for  non-government organizations  free of charge. Another innovative form of support for the NGOs is the competition «The City is Us» being  held in Perm for 26 years now, the grant fund  equaling to 25 million rubles. In 2024, 13 TOSs won the competition. Similarly,   within the city  districts, a competition is held to support local initiatives of  NGOs in social sphere, the grant fund of which  doubled since 2024. Proactive budgeting allows the residents to participate directly in local issues, which contributes to improving the quality of the urban environment. This year, 19 initiatives will be implemented for a total of more than 33 million rubles.

The Chairmen of TOS Motovilikha presented their work and gave concrete examples of projects implemented. Belorussian colleagues, in turn, spoke about their system of organizing participatory  bodies of the TOS, which includes more than 100 people. They noted that the key goals and objectives of territorial public self-governments activity of the two cities are similar  - the involvement of residents in public activities, including the younger generation, as well as assistance in resolving a number of local issues, for example, with regard to the territory improvement.

In the end of the video-meeting, Alexander Molokovskikh, Head of the Mayor’s Office of Perm City Administration thanked his counterparts  for the interesting dialogue and invited the delegation of the Soviet district of Minsk to visit Perm again to get acquainted with the activities of the TOS, and discuss other cooperation issues.