ISAR | About the Organization

ISAR has been working in the countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU) since 1983. Throughout our twenty-year history, ISAR has adapted our work in response to the changing needs of civil society in the region. Begun as a group of concerned citizens working to break down Cold War animosity through cross-cultural friendships, our mission has developed into a needs-based and results-oriented approach aimed at increasing the scope and capacity of environmental work at all levels.

ISAR's first decade was about forging relationships and facilitating exchange between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Our founders believed in the power of personal connection as an antidote to the fear of the Cold War era. In the early 1990s, ISAR's shifted its efforts to provide targeted financial and informational support to an emerging civil society in the countries of the FSU. Through a range of small and medium-sized grant programs and NGO trainings in nearly all the countries of the FSU, ISAR sought to empower individuals and communities to be informed and active citizens. During this second decade, ISAR opened locally staffed offices in Baku, Azerbaijan Moscow; Minsk Belarus; Tbilisi, Georgia; Almaty and Atyrau, Kazakhstan; Novosibirsk and Vladivostok, Russia; and Kyiv, Ukraine. ISAR's offices in Georgia and Ukraine went on to become independent, indigenous organizations, while remaining part of the ISAR network.

As ISAR entered its third decade, the organization and many of its partners and colleagues in the FSU and the US faced a significant shrinkage in funding. For ISAR, the cuts in funding led to the closure of ISAR offices in Almaty, Atyrau and Baku. At the same time, the needs of our FSU colleagues had changed; they required more specific resources and tools to address the many issues affecting the environment and their communities. ISAR's staff in Washington, along with ISAR partners and the remaining ISAR offices once again adapted, this time by focusing efforts on environmental advocacy. Under its new environmental advocacy mandate, ISAR facilitated 18 Open World exchanges in 2004 and 2005, initiated a program for environmental journalists from Kazakhstan, published a radiation monitoring guide for citizens, supported a variety of specific regional training programs in Russia and provided small grants to organizations in the Russian Far East and Belarus.

These programs were very successful, but project funding was not enough to maintain a staff and office in Washington and ISAR's US-based board and staff made the difficult decision to close ISAR's Washington office in December 2005. By April 2006, the majority of ISAR's US-based activities were completed, with the exception of US-based support for the ISAR office in Minsk, Belarus.

Today, ISAR's offices in Russia continue to operate as indigenous organizations, much like ISAR-initiated programs in Kyiv and Tbilisi. ISAR's work in Belarus also continues, thanks to the generous support of the C.S. Mott Foundation and ISAR's volunteer board, staff and advisors help to maintain ISAR's legacy.

Past Successes