Throughout Europe and Eurasia, CIPE helped business organizations to develop important skills in advocacy and build networks to promote crucial reforms. CIPE continued to partner with several regional coalitions in Russia to enable businesses to resist extortion and create a legislative framework to reduce opportunities for corruption. CIPE worked with local think tanks to increase citizens’ understanding of issues such as rule of law, transparency, and corporate governance and to counter authoritarian trends in Eurasia by empowering the business community to lead economic and political reform efforts. CIPE also developed a core group of local experts in the Balkans and Caucasus who support business organizations in improving their ability to participate in the policy process.

In 2011, CIPE will support private sector participation in strengthening democratic processes in Europe and Eurasia by partnering with business organizations and think tanks to promote economic reform, strengthen the business environment, and fight corruption. CIPE will work with regional partners to strengthen the advocacy and organizational capacities of local business support organizations, improve the quality of debate and build stronger consensus among civil society groups, and promote democratic ideals and entrepreneurship among youth.

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In 2010 the Belarusian business community galvanized quickly in a challenging business environment to advocate for market-oriented economic reform and improvement in the entrepreneurial climate. One of the main drivers of advocacy in the country, the Belarusian Confederation of Entrepreneurship, which was founded as a coalition of pro-reform business organizations, expanded its membership by nearly 70 percent in 2010. Additionally, more than 20,000 owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) united for the fifth consecutive year to adopt a National Business Platform (NBP) representing the business community’s unified vision for reform. The NBP-2010 outlined 117 concrete recommendations in five key areas: strengthening property rights, reducing red tape for entrepreneurship, simplifying taxation and licensing procedures, improving competitiveness, and increasing transparency in governance. These areas reflect the priorities of the independent business community in steering Belarus toward economic reform and democratic governance.

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Preventing corruption begins with improving legislation. Poorly drafted or inconsistent laws are subject to interpretation by officials; such bureaucratic discretion often gives rise to corruption. This issue is particularly important in Russia, with overlapping layers of federal, regional, and local laws. In 2010, the Saratov Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) and CIPE developed an innovative approach to anti-corruption by improving implementation of Russian federal law at the local and regional levels. This approach reinforces the private sector’s importance in reducing corruption. The effort is part of the eight-year “Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Policy Advocacy” project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has helped build 17 regional coalitions consisting of 230 business associations and other professional organizations, representing more than 20,000 firms throughout Russia.

The Saratov CCI taught seven other regional coalitions to use this approach and CIPE supported the analysis of laws and development of recommendations to reduce corruption. The coalitions unveiled the results of their work in September 2010 at a Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry conference in Moscow, attended by 65 government officials, academics, and legal experts. The Saratov CCI built this methodology on the basis of its previous efforts, endorsed by the Russian Federation Chamber, to evaluate individual draft laws for their “corruption potential.” Sixteen local chambers have already been officially accredited to use that earlier approach to conduct such expert examinations.

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