mottnow August 2000 - Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

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Partnerships between non-government organizations and communities such as Dubakova inrural Slovakia are important to the long-term success of environmental reforms inCentral/Eastern Europe.now that the consultations for the CAS are officiallyclosed, that it was all merely a public relations ploy,or at most the skeleton fulfillment of standard procedures,rather than a genuine public participationprocess.”Zamkovsky issued a press release condemningthe Bank’s failure to listen to local communities.The result was that the Bank postponed finalizingthe CAS. Zamkovsky is hoping that, if and when theBank issues its final strategy, it finally will take intoaccount the activists’ suggestions.Meanwhile, CEPA is investigating the threeother international financial institutions operatingin the region: the International Monetary Fund(IMF), the European Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment (EBRD), and the EuropeanInvestment Bank (EIB).For example, in 1999 CEPA published “AThorny Path of Aluminum Producers to Europe,”which investigated the environmentalimpact and the“corruption, lobbying, pseudo-democracy”involved inthe first large loan made byEBRD in Central Europe in1993 to the ZSNP aluminumplant in Ziar nad Hronom.With support fromCarol Welch at Friends of theEarth US, CEPA has begunthe challenge of making theIMF accountable. As a firststep, staff members had ameeting with the Slovakprime minister. They won apromise to get full documentationof the IMF’s work inthe country.Zamkovsky says that,sometimes, one of CEPA’sbiggest ongoing challenges isconvincing the local populationthat it is possible to winthese battles.“The local populationis skeptical of us because weoppose the government,” hesaid.But he firmly believes this will change whencommunities see the benefits of this work, such aswhen CEPA provided legal support for the village ofDubakova to overturn a ban on local developmentimposed by the government in order to allow theconstruction of a major dam.In June, CEPA worked with Friends of theEarth International to bring activists from all overCentral/Eastern Europe to the site of this local victoryto share skills on confronting the World Bank.Today CEPA is helping prepare a number ofdocuments for the participants at the Prague 2000meeting, such as a handbook on CAS strategies, anewly written analysis of the IMF’s role in Slovakia,and a case study on the International FinanceCorporation (the private-sector arm of the WorldBank) and its pulp mill project in Ruzomberok.8
Civil Society Program Director HiredRay Murphy of Dublin, Ireland, whohas extensive professional experiencein the nonprofit field internationally,has joined the Mott Foundation as CivilSociety Program Director. The program isone of the Foundation’s four main areas offocus.Murphy will be responsible for managingthe Civil Society program in theUnitedStates andabroad.Althoughhe will bebased inDublin,Murphywill spendtime inMott’shomeoffice inFlint andalso beRay Murphyresponsiblefor oversightof the Foundation’s Civil Societyregional offices in Johannesburg, SouthAfrica, and in Prague, Czech Republic.Murphy is replacing Jon Blyth, whoretired after serving 24 years with theFoundation, most recently as Civil SocietyProgram Director, stationed in theFoundation’s Prague regional office. (Seerelated article on page 10.)In a related development, ProgramOfficer Shannon Lawder has been promotedto Regional Director for Central/EasternEurope. She will manage the day-to-dayoperations of the Prague regional office andoversee the foundation’s grantmaking activitiesthroughout Central/Eastern Europe andRussia. Lawder has been a Foundationemployee in the Prague office since 1995,with her work focused on grantmaking inRussia and Ukraine.Before joining Mott, Murphy workedfor seven years for Tara Consultants, aninternational philanthropy that makesgrants to support programs in the fields ofeducation, rights and justice, and increasedvolunteerism and philanthropy. As a seniorconsultant at Tara, Murphy was responsiblefor three program areas, including grantmakingin Central/Eastern Europe. He alsoserved as the organization’s humanresources manager.Prior to joining Tara Consultants in1993, Murphy was deputy CEO of theNational Council for the Blind of Ireland, anonprofit organization, for almost threeyears. His responsibilities included managementof 26 county branches throughoutIreland. In addition, Murphy has worked asa human services rehabilitation consultantfor three organizations in Ireland and theUnited States. Early in his career, Murphyserved as a social worker for students withlearning disabilities in a residential vocationalhigh school in Ireland, as a communitydevelopment worker in Ireland, and as ayouth worker in Germany.Murphy received a bachelor’s degreein German and philosophy from UniversityCollege Cork, Ireland, and a master’s inbusiness administration from TrinityCollege in Dublin. He also holds a diplomain social administration from UniversityCollege Dublin and a certificate of qualificationin social work from the University ofEdinburgh in Scotland.9
Page 6 and 7: local communities in different coun
Page 10 and 11: Program Director Jon Blyth RetiresB
Page 12: strengthening and expanding philant

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