The overall objective of the project is to build the capacity for local authorities and NSA cooperation in meeting the needs of vulnerable groups of young people and their social inclusion in 2 rural and 9 urban Belarus communities. The project is aimed at facilitation of equal participation of non-state actors and local authorities in policy dialogue and partnership in policy formulation processes; capacity-building of non-state actors to represent their target groups; capacity-building of local authorities for cross-sectorial cooperation and social inclusion of disadvantaged groups of young people; changing attitudes of citizens towards vulnerable youth groups.

Target group: unemployed, people with disabilities, orphans, ethnic minorities

Social rights addressed: The project addresses the social rights in general, highlighting the right to social inclusion, the right to education, to social, legal and economic protection, the right to equal opportunities.

Local authorities involved:

Our local authorities’ partners in Belarus are the Minsk City Institute for Education Development, Minsk City Executive Council, local authorities in 9 urban (Minsk) and 2 rural (Golshany and Babinichi) districts of Belarus. They are all our official partners approved by the European Commission and they are very supportive to our project.

Results/Plans:

• 12 Belarusian experts will be trained by the Finnish counterparts on the EU approaches and best practices of capacity-building for local authorities and NSA cooperation in meeting the needs of vulnerable groups and their social inclusion;
• Guidelines for NSA and local authorities Cooperation in Belarus will be developed and printed (300 pages, 150 copies);
• Curriculum for training of local authorities, NSA and 5 beneficiary groups will be developed and published;
• 110 representatives of local authorities and NSA from 11 pilot urban and remote rural communities will be trained on cross-sectorial cooperation, social inclusion of disadvantaged groups, civil society organizations (SCOs) leadership, management, campaigning, lobbying, fundraising issues;
• 55 representatives of disadvantaged groups will be trained for employment and sustainable development and on how to promote their interests through participation in civil society organizations and initiatives;
• Distance learning programs for the target groups and beneficiaries will be launched and sustained; Web resources and databases in support of local authorities and NSA cooperation for social inclusion of disadvantages groups of population will be developed;
• Advocacy resources will be developed (video, audio, printed and electronic materials) and a public campaign will be conducted through mass-media to promote inclusive agenda in Belarus society;
• The instrument will be developed and monitoring of public opinion regarding social inclusion and empowerment of disadvantaged groups of population will be launched;
• Local authorities and NSA Councils will be established in 11 rural and urban communities and agenda for their cooperation in meeting the needs of disadvantaged population will be agreed;
• The strategy and model of capacity building for local authorities and NSA cooperation will be published and disseminated;
• The national dissemination conference will involve 100 central, regional and local decision makers, educators, social workers and civil society representatives;
• Training-the-trainers program will build the capacity for multiplication of the developed model involving 30 trainers from Brest, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev and Vitebsk Regional Institutes for Education Development;
• Equal, transparent and long-term partnership between Belarusian and Finnish local authorities and NSA partner organisations will be developed.

Sustainability/Follow-up

We believe that our project strategy and methodology could be used by other organisations in promoting local authorities and NSA cooperation in meeting the needs of disadvantaged youth groups in Belarus. The proposed methods include study visits, guidelines and curriculum development, training of target and beneficiary groups, distance education, development of web resources and databases, advocacy campaign through mass-media, monitoring of public opinion, dissemination conference and training-the-trainers seminars.

The project is based on a step-by-step approach and includes the development, implementation and dissemination phases so that at each stage capacity is built for the next one. It is important that through the project activities the capacity for local authorities and NSA cooperation is gradually built and strengthened: first the capacity of the Belarus local authorities and NSA partners to successfully implement the project is strengthened by the Finnish counterparts, then the Belarus partners in cooperation with the Finnish counterparts build the capacity of local authorities and NSA in the participating communities, further on the beneficiary groups are empowered through training and development while social environment is positively impacted in favour of social inclusion of disadvantaged youth.

The current stage of the project: Being implemented at the moment (completion date: February 2013)