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From the National Strategy for Sustainable Development to City-Twinning On 22–24 September a team of the Belarusian experts visited Poland to study foreign experience on sustainable development. The visit was organized within the framework of the UNDP Project "Assistance to the Belarusian Government in Formulation and Implementation of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development".
Among 20 participants were representatives of the National Commission for Sustainable Development, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, the National Academy of Sciences and other scientific and research institutions, educational establishments, non–governmental organizations, local councils and the Belarusian Economic Magazine. The group included experts elaborating the new version of Belarus' National Strategy for Sustainable Development until 2020. For the first time such a large group of the Belarusian specialists went abroad to study the progress achieved by the Polish and Baltic colleagues in the field of sustainable development, to see successes of the neighboring and to discuss current concerns. This study tour is already the second trip organized within the framework of the UNDP facilitated collaboration of the Belarusian and foreign experts in the filed of sustainable development. A year ago ten specialists from Belarus went to Estonia (the report about the trip was presented in the UN Bulletin at the end of 2002). The Belarusian team composed of specialists from Minsk,Vitebsk, Grodno and Fanipol (the Minsk Oblast) visited Poland upon invitation of the Vlotslav Research Society and the University named after Ni–kolay Kopernik (Torun). The work of the Belarusian experts' was organized mainly within the framework of one of the series of "Regional Development" Conferences held in the town of Cekhocinek. In response to the wishes of the Belarusian panel, a specialized section in the Russian language on sustainable development issues was organized within the framework of the conference. Two days of the conference were full of direct contacts, lively discussions, harsh questions and original answers. "We could study on site the specifics of social, economic and environmental problems facing our neighboring countries—Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland — and methods of addressing them", — said Aleksander Sykalo, Co–Chairman of the Belarusian Green Party, one of the members of the Belarusian team. — "The conference brought together representatives from these countries thus helping to establish contacts for further mutually beneficial collaboration". The contacts of the Belarusian experts with the heads of the local self–governance authorities (the Kuyavsko–Pomorskoye Voevodstvo and the Mayor Office of Cekhocinek) were also very fruitful. The experience of the Polish regions and towns in formulation and implementation of the local strategies for sustainable development (the so–called Local Agendas–21) has proved their high efficiency as instruments for solving local problems. "In this field we have much to learn from the experience of our foreign colleagues", — believes Viktor Karpievich, Chairman of the Town Council of Fanipol, a member of the Belarusian team. — "We were especially pleased that our Polish colleagues — senior officials of the Mayor Office of Cekhocinek (this town is of the same size as Fanipol) — got interested in our proposal to conclude collaboration agreement. Both sides can benefit from such twinning". By Oleg SIVOGRAKOV,
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