Press Releases for this area

POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY
Compared to many transition countries, Belarus has one of the lowest poverty rates. Less than 1% of the population is living in extreme poverty, as defined by an income of less than $2 a day. At the same time, a significant number of Belarusian people fall into the low-income category: according to official statistics, in the middle 2000s, the number of people living on less than the minimum subsistence budget is still considerable, exceeding 1.7 million or 17.8% of total population. As in other CIS countries, in Belarus the rural population, children, and single-parent households run the highest risk of poverty.

The challenge is how to turn the nation’s high rate of economic growth into a sustainable reality while lifting the low-income category of people into middle-high income categories. This is particularly significant in view of the upcoming industrial and agricultural reforms.

UNDP in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare launched the first poverty-related project as a first stage in the development of a National Strategy for Poverty Prevention and Reduction. To date, the project, in cooperation with a World Bank team of experts, has produced a comprehensive analysis of poverty, identified target groups, and proposed measures for pro-poor policy adjustments.

The project also facilitates dialogue and partnerships among government agencies, NGOs, the parliament, research institutions, and the general public in addressing the project’s findings and recommendations.

REDUCING THE IMPACT OF RESTRUCTURING ON POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT
Industry location policies in the former Soviet Union have generated the phenomenon known as mono-industry towns. The economy of these towns depends entirely on large enterprises that provide most of the employment within the community and generate the lion’s share of local revenues. The link between core enterprises and the socio-economic development of a city is most apparent in small mono-industry towns, 44 of which are present in Belarus.

UNDP and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare have piloted a project in a core enterprise of a small town (the Glass Factory ‘Neman’, in Berezovka in the Grodno region) which facilitated social dialogue and helped elaborate a joint action programme involving major stakeholders. New project initiatives in this area focus on preventive measures, encouraging self-employment, and promoting micro and small businesses development in both urban and rural areas.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
UNDP in Belarus has been promoting the development of Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) since 1997. Initial UNDP efforts succeeded in the creation of the first business incubators and credit unions, as well as in introducing microfinance as a new mechanism to support micro-business and individual entrepreneurs. A second generation of SME-support activities (2002-2007) sought to facilitate public-private dialogue and partnerships by bringing together government, business associations, and international organizations, including the World Bank and the IFC, to promote an environment conducive to the development of the private sector.

A hot line on rural business issues was set up in Minsk under the framework of the project “Promoting Enterprise Activity through Public-Private Partnership”. In the village of Komarovo (Minsk region), a Rural Business Development Center was opened. The object of the Center is to provide legal support for preparing a package of documents required for registration of small enterprises, to conduct market surveys, to facilitate job creation and to disseminate best practices in other regions. One of the top priorities is to attract investments for a number of farms which were set up after the «Konstantinovo» collective farm had been closed down.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS

Through its flagship publication, the Human Development Report, which is widely disseminated and discussed in Belarus, UNDP spurs policy debates on pressing development issues, such as democracy (2002), the Millennium Development Goals (2003), cultural liberty (2004), and international cooperation (2005).

Since 1995 the UNDP has supported the preparation of National Human Development Reports (NHDRs) in Belarus, which review and analyze the nation’s development policies and highlight the key problem areas that need to be addressed. The NHDRs are broadly publicized and distributed to policy makers, the academia, aid agencies. The most recent NHDR for 2004/2005, launched in August 2005, focused on development imbalances.

Additional information about “Preparation of National Human Development Reports” project as well as NHDRs can be found at http://un.by/en/undp/pub/nhdr. The text of the Global HDR is available at http://hdr.undp.org.

CIVIL SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT

There are more than 2,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Belarus, which enable people to play a greater role in making decisions and taking actions that affect their daily lives. UNDP is working to increase the buoyancy of the “third sector”, by helping NGOs establish and expand their international contacts, exchange information, to train staff and train others – in short to build their capacities furthermore. NGOs are involved to varying degrees in the implementation of UNDP projects in virtually all areas – either as an implementing agency or a cooperating partner.

The Information Portal of the Belarusian Non-Governmental Associations WWW.NGO.BY is one of the main achievements of the UNDP project on civil society development. The Portal provides information services to non-governmental associations through Internet.

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