This all-day conference will look at the constraints – political, legal, bureaucratic, financial – that face NGOs across our region, and consider how they are adapting to cope with, in some of our countries, rapidly changing circumstances.

Overviews will be provided by two keynote speakers:

Dr Armine Ishkanian, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Sciences

Kate Levine, lawyer, EHRAC, and until recently Sigrid Rausing Foundation

On our panels we shall have NGO leaders from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Central Asia, covering a wide range of health and welfare issues.

To book attendance, please click here.

Cost for each conference participant, including buffet lunch, tea and coffee:

Friends of BEARR                                     £30 per person

Full-time students                                      £20 per person

Others                                                         £45 per person

Speakers and panelists:

• Robert Brinkley, Chairman of The BEARR Trust (former UK Ambassador to Ukraine)
• Dr Armine Ishkanian, Department of Social Policy, LSE
• Kate Levine, European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), formerly Sigrid Rausing Trust
• Megan Bick, BEARR Trustee
• Charles Buxton, INTRAC, Bishkek
• Aisuluu Bolotbaeva, Executive Director, Central Asian AIDS Foundation (by Skype)
• Michael Rasell, BEARR Trustee
• Nikhil Roy, Programme Development Director, Prison Reform International (PRI)
• Gwen Burchell, United Aid for Azerbaijan (UAFA), Baku 
• Marcia Levy, BEARR Trustee (Judge)
• Evgeniya Alekseeva, Director, Public Health and Social Development Foundation FOCUS-MEDIA, Moscow
• Valentyna Diomkina, Chairman, Donetsk Youth Debate Centre, Ukraine 
• Nicola Ramsden, BEARR Trustee