Social Innovations in Post-Soviet Countries

Bakhrom Radjabov

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000597837
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Subtopic: Russische Politik

This book evaluates the evolution of social innovation in post-Soviet Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Caucasus.

Following the dissolution of the USSR, organisations such as the UNDP have encouraged local communities and governments to innovate in order to find solutions to existing social problems. This book demonstrates that progress with social innovations has varied, with countries with low government support such as Uzbekistan struggling, whereas countries with better government support and a more active civil society, such as Armenia and Ukraine, have seen more positive results. Covering the period 2012-2020 and a broad range of countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, this book provides an impressively broad-ranging critical analysis of post-Soviet social innovation.

Including social innovations emerging as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak, this will be an important comparative study for researchers and practitioners working on social innovation, and to those with an interest in post-Soviet development.

1 Background

DOI: 10.4324/9781003165804-2

Social Innovations in Post-Soviet Countries aims to evaluate ‘social innovation’ projects (SIPs) and uncover their particular features in order to discuss the evolution of the social innovation concept in post-Soviet countries, namely in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), in the Eastern Europe (Moldova, Ukraine) and in the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia). It focuses on SIPs that have been undertaken in those countries by government, private and civil society organizations (CSOs)/volunteers with development assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), European Union (EU), Civil Society Development Association (ARGO) and Internews. This book covers the period from 2012 to 2020 and contributes to knowledge on social innovation through the yet lacking critical analysis of social innovations in post-Soviet countries. Table 1.1 presents the list of umbrella organizations supporting social innovations in post-Soviet countries.

Table 1.1 List of organizations supporting ‘social innovation’ projects

Country/organization	When ‘social innovation’ projects were launched (year)
Kazakhstan
AstanaHub^a and UNICEF	2019
Partnership for Innovations (P4I)/Civil Society Development Association (ARGO)^b	2015
USAID Civil Society Support Program in Central Asia (later USAID Social Innovation in Central Asia)^c	2019
Eurasian Foundation of Central Asia^d	2016
Kyrgyzstan
Social Innovation Lab Kyrgyzstan (SILK)^e	2021
Tajikistan
Internews^f	2017
Country/organization	When ‘social innovation’ projects were launched (year)
Uzbekistan
UNDP/UNV “Social innovations and volunteerism” Project^g	2012
“Yuksalish” Nationwide movement, Partnership For Innovations (P4I) project^h	2019
Azerbaijan
Social Innovation Lab (SIL)^i	2016
The State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (ASAN)^j	2012
Accelerator Labs^k	2019
Georgia
Service Lab Public Service Development Agency^l	2014
Armenia
Kolba Lab^m	2013
Eurasia Partnership Foundation^n	2014
Ukraine
Close to You Foundation (ADV)^o	2019
SocialBoost^p	2012
TAPAS^q	2016
Eidos^r	2012
Moldova
UNDP MILab^s	2014
Close to You Foundation (ADV)^t	2020

Source: own table

^a See https://astanahub.com/.

^b See http://cso-central.asia/.

^c See https://www.usaid.gov/central-asia-regional/fact-sheets/civil-society-support-program-central-asia.

^d See www.ef-ca.kz.

^e See https://www.auca.kg/en/dss_silk/.

^f See https://media.tj/.

^g See https://undp.akvoapp.org/en/project/918/#summary.

^h See https://www.yumh.uz/?lang=en.

ⁱ See https://sil.vc/.

^j See https://www.asan.gov.az/en.

^k See https://acceleratorlabs.undp.org/.

^l See http://servicelab.sda.gov.ge/en/tag/service-lab/.

^m See http://kolba.am/.

ⁿ See https://epfarmenia.am/.

^o See https://alaturidevoi.ro/en/.

^p See https://socialboost.com.ua/.

^q See https://tapas.org.ua/en/.

^r See http://eidos.org.ua/#all.

^s See https://www.md.undp.org/content/moldova/en/home/projects/moldova-social-innovation-hub-2.html.

^t See https://alaturidevoi.ro/en/.

1.1 Selection of case studies

The nine selected post-Soviet countries vary in their ethnic, demographic, historical, political and economic background. These differences are acknowledged; however, the differences between the countries do not entail crucial implications on the social innovations implemented. Concurrently, the following similarities make the social innovations supported by the selected umbrella organizations fully comparable: (a) they have been operating with the support from the government, private and CSOs in post-Soviet countries; (b) they have been supported by donor organizations such as UNDP, USAID, UNICEF, EU and Internews; (c) they have been operating in countries with similar Soviet governance history and traditions. Since SIPs supported by the umbrella organizations had been launched not long ago, the study did not expect them to be able to make a social change. However, the study considered social innovations in post-Soviet countries as having the potential of progressing towards this level over time. Table 1.2 demonstrates the sectors to which organizations supporting SIPs belong.

Table 1.2 ‘Social innovation’ projects driven by actors in distinct sectors

Countries	International Donor/ICSO	Government	Local CSO, academic institution
Kazakhstan	UNICEF and Astana Hub USAID		EF ARGO
Kyrgyzstan	OSF		American University of Central Asia
Tajikistan	Internews		ARGO
Uzbekistan	UNDP/UNV	“Yuksalish” Nationwide movement
Azerbaijan	UNDP	ASAN
Georgia	UNDP through ServiceLab under MoJ
Armenia	UNDP, EU, EF
Ukraine	UNDP, EU, EF, ADV		Youth Public Organization “New European Generation”
Moldova	UNDP, EU, ADV	Academy of Public Administration	Ecoul Cernobilului Foundation; Association of Cross-border Cooperation “Lower Danube Euroregion” /Romania; Ecoul Cernobilului Foundation; Cross-Border Cooperation and European Integration Agency.

Source: own table

1.1.1 Central Asia

Kazakhstan showcased good examples of SIPs supported by the government, international donors and CSOs in Central Asia. For instance, government-affiliated Astana Hub in collaboration with UNICEF in Kazakhstan launched the Social Innovation Lab (SIL)¹ in 2019 to solve children’s social problems. Earlier in 2015–2016, the Partnership for Innovations (P4I) Program of the ARGO and Eurasian Foundation of Central Asia had been supporting social innovations in the civic sector that were subsequently funded also by the USAID Civil Society Support Program in Central Asia (now USAID Social Innovation in Central Asia). Hence, SIPs were spread across governmental and civic sectors in Kazakhstan, serving different needs of those domains.

For instance, one of the projects of the SIL was ‘Accessible Kazakhstan’ aimed at making information about the accessibility of urban facilities and services available to the public. By using open-source data, this service allows people with limited mobility to navigate in urban space. In case the object is missing on the map, it is possible to share information about it with everyone.² Another project that has been supported by the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia is Impact Hub Almaty, a platform for cooperation and innovations in entrepreneurship –being the first such platform in Central Asia. The platform helped to develop social and creative entrepreneurship, carried out mentoring programs and offered networking opportunities.

In Kyrgyzstan, social innovations have received their momentum quite recently, after a Social Innovation Lab Kyrgyzstan (SILK) within the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) was established on an initiative of its Division of Social Sciences faculty. SILK’s aim is to focus on the socially significant projects in Kyrgyzstan, generating solutions to the existing social problems. SILK applies a purely research and civic approach and is open to researchers from Central Asia interested to contribute to the solution of regional social problems.

In Tajikistan, social innovations have been launched in 2017 through the Media and SIL event held in Dushanbe. The Lab was organized in the framework of ARGO’s ‘Partnership for Innovations – P4I’ and Internews’ ‘Access to Information’ Programs with the support of the USAID and Innovation for Change.³ The event has gathered 80 experts, representatives of media, CSOs and IT specialists from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.⁴

In Uzbekistan, the UNDP/UNV ‘Social Innovation and Volunteerism in Uzbekistan’ Project led by the UNDP and by the UNV was the first ‘social innovation’ supporting umbrella project. The UNDP applied two modalities for the implementation of development projects: Direct Implementation Modality (DIM) and National Implementation Modality (NIM). The UNDP/UNV ‘Social Innovation and Volunteerism in Uzbekistan’ Project fell under the modality of Direct Implementation, meaning that it was implemented by the UNDP alone, without involving a national partner (ministry or local organization in Uzbekistan): the Project was implemented by the UNDP Good Governance Unit jointly with the UNV Program in Uzbekistan while cooperation with national partner organizations was based on memorandums of understanding. The project managed 33 small-scale SIPs implemented locally.

Among them was, for example, a SIP ‘Infobox’, a mobile app containing the information about Bukhara City, available for both tourists and locals. The primary goal of the project was to offer assistance to local residents to map Bukhara’s tourist destinations and provide information on how local authorities and agencies can be accessed by tourists and locals. The project was designed by a team of individuals from Bukhara’s local community, introducing a new interaction opportunity between citizens and government authorities, as well as developing user-friendly services through crowdsourcing and mapping.

Other small-scale SIPs supported by the UNDP and the UNDP/UNV projects in Uzbekistan included information and communications technology (ICT) projects, engineering/infrastructure projects, education/training and workshops, filming and other art projects.

In 2019, “Yuksalish” Nationwide Movement and the ARGO agreed to launch a P4I Program supporting CSOs in Uzbekistan to encourage cooperation between them, the private sector and the government to enhance the role of civil society. The Program focused on the areas of human rights, gender issues, youth affairs, rights of the people with disabilities and environment.⁵ Due to the launch of the P4I Program, SIPs have been again prioritized in Uzbekistan after a five-year break: for instance, within the P4I Program local civic councils throughout Uzbekistan were supported and CSO ‘Nihol’ launched a Chat bot to provide psychological support to people amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

1.1.2 Caucasus

In Azerbaijan, the government and private sectors support social innovations. In 2021, the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (ASAN) was created⁶ to facilitate an efficient delivery of public electronic services to the citizens through ASAN service centers.⁷

An SIL was set up as a startup generating studio with a goal to reach an annual capacity of 50 tech startups by 2025.⁸ SIL has a clear business-oriented approach aimed at nurturing tech entrepreneurs and serving as a pipeline for startups. The Lab offers mentoring services and encourages its mentees to participate in a variety of events⁹ and accelerators.¹⁰

In 2019, the UNDP with its partners initiated a network on sustainable development that now has expanded to 91 Acceleration Labs across 115 countries.¹¹ The Labs are designed to run UNDP’s vision on innovations within the wider UNDP’s d...