The Annual Report on the state of civil society reflects the results of discussions and expert work of members of the current composition of the Civic Chamber. Considering that the Civic Chamber is a collective public body, composed of 168 members working on equal terms, with their own experience in public activities and understanding of the tasks in the development of civil society, various matters and positions are often viewed differently or even oppositely.

The Civic Chamber, as the central institution of organized national society is eager to give a quick response to the current public agenda, and conduct long-term systemic projects in the field of public control.

The most important component of “feedback” with society is citizens’ petitions. Annually the Chamber receives up to 30,000 petitions, and all of them are taken into consideration in relevant commissions. In some cases, results are achieved immediately by sending a request to the authority and indicating the level of public attention to the problem, in others it's necessary to carry out additional monitoring and discussions.

Public hearings on the country's most significant matters and expertise of the most important bills held by the Chamber are practical and action-oriented. Such public events, being a form of public control by law, are aimed at preparing recommendations for the responsible authorities; and a systematic approach of issues at the legislative or law enforcement level. A systematic solution is always the result of efforts of many people and organizations, and painstaking work with regulatory documents. The results of these discussions strongly reflect the current state of civil society, estimate the most acute social problems, and ways to solve them.

"Community" forums held annually by the Civic Chamber have proven themselves to be one of the leading sites for discussing such problems, as well as the most important matters of national socio-economic development. The main participants in forums are representatives of non-profit organizations, civic chambers and councils, experts, and representatives of federal and regional authorities. In 2019, forums were held in the North Caucasus, Far East, North-West, and Central Federal Districts. Each of these forums was dedicated to considerating one relevant topic in the development of civil society.

The final forum in Moscow attracted more than 3,000 people, and made it possible to examine the entire field of civil activities and go through in detail new priorities for a dialog between society, government, and business in 2020:

• public control of the implementation of national projects and programs;
• improvement of legislation and law enforcement practice in the field of regulating non-profit organizations;
• breaking down administrative and regulatory barriers for socially-oriented NPOs to participate in socially useful activities;
• improving the procedure for conducting public discussions and public hearings in implementing urban planning;
• monitoring of regional legislation that determines the formation of procedures and principles of organizing activities of public councils in government bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, civic chambers (councils) of municipalities;
• monitoring the level and quality of the non-profit sector's development in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation;
• search for new mechanisms to support socially significant initiatives and projects within corporate programs of social responsibility;
• improvement of the procedure for forming and ensuring public monitoring commissions in places of detention.

The listed field of works was discussed and supported at a meeting of members of the Civic Chamber and civil society activists with the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office S.V. Kirienko, held on November 1; the final day of the "Community" forum in Moscow.

It should be noted that the formation of an expert position on these issues and its promotion would have been much more difficult without the active, dynamic contribution to the discussion by the projects' authors, i.e. winners of the annual contest for socially significant projects “My project is for my country!”.

In addition, one cannot but note the contribution to the results achieved in the new work format successfully launched by the Chamber in 2019. What is involved here is the preparation of special reports on the analysis of various problems and matters of social and economic policies: “Ten years of activity by public monitoring commissions in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation”1; "Demography-2024: how to ensure sustainable natural growth in the population of the Russian Federation”2; “Participation of NPOs in the implementation of social services”3; “Russian breakthrough” and the tasks of civil society”4; “Family policy: support measures as viewed by families”5; “How to save the village: employment issues".6

Materials for special reports and public discussions at the Civic Chamber, or during field sessions and "Community" forums, monitoring, expert surveys, and public expertise constitute the problematic basis of this Annual Report.