NGOs and the policy‐making process in Russia: The case of child welfare reform

Eleanor Bindman,Meri Kulmala,Elena Bogdanova

doi:10.1111/gove.12366

Eleanor Bindman, Meri Kulmala + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12366

Copy DOI

Abstract

This article explores the issue of the major reform of the child welfare sector that has been carried out in Russia in recent years. Focusing on deinstitutionalization and a child's right to a family, this reform moves Russia in the direction of international trends in this area and represents a break with previous state‐ and institution‐dominated approach to “problem families.” The article explores how and why this process has come about in a traditionally top‐down hybrid regime and applies the Multiple Streams Framework first developed by Kingdon to argue that Russian child welfare nongovernmental organizations have acted in concert with government officials to act as policy entrepreneurs in framing the policy problem and presenting solutions to it in a way that has influenced national priorities in this area. At the same time, the article acknowledges that major challenges remain in terms of implementing the reform at the regional level of government in Russia.

Highlights

From 2010 onward, the Russian government began to turn its attention toward the country’s disadvantaged families and vulnerable children, those living without parental care
Using the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) conceptualized by Kingdon (2014), we argue that a number of Russian child welfare nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have worked in this field for many years were able to use their expertise, credibility, and contacts with officials to act as policy entrepreneurs in the policy-making process
The final decision-making process clearly depended on governmental actors, as is typical for Russian-style network governance (Kropp & Aasland, 2018), we show later that NGOs played a crucial role in providing ideas on reform and had a formative role in writing key documents to change the child welfare system

Summary

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Funding information University of Helsinki; Kone Foundation; Research Council of Norway; Academy of Finland. This article explores the issue of the major reform of the child welfare sector that has been carried out in Russia in recent years. The article explores how and why this process has come about in a traditionally topdown hybrid regime and applies the Multiple Streams Framework first developed by Kingdon to argue that Russian child welfare nongovernmental organizations have acted in concert with government officials to act as policy entrepreneurs in framing the policy problem and presenting solutions to it in a way that has influenced national priorities in this area.

| INTRODUCTION

| CONCLUSIONS