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Belarus
FY 2001 Program Description and Activity Data Sheets
>> Regional Overview >> Colombia Overview FY 2001 Program
USAID will continue support for developing small-scale private enterprises, and privatization of municipally owned enterprises. The categories of businesses assisted will include agribusiness, small industry, construction and housing services. The need to support female entrepreneurs and increase agribusiness opportunities will receive special attention as a means to reach populations whose support can further reform.
USAID will support legal advocacy and defense of citizen rights, and continue to support professional, objective journalism and independent press and broadcast media wherever possible in Belarus. Support to the International Research and Exchanges Board will continue to provide legal assistance to journalists to assert or defend their rights to freely publish and disseminate information. Additionally, within the ProMedia project, Internews will support independent television in Belarus. Support for developing the capabilities of non-governmental organizations will continue.
USAID will continue to support the Eurasia Foundation’s program of grants that address needs across a number of areas, including economics education, democracy building initiatives, civic education, and independent media. The Eurasia Foundation provides ongoing support to non-governmental organizations in multiple sectors including business development, education, and management training; economic education and research; electronic communications; independent media; rule of law; and civic education.
A model, community health services project is being developed in Gomel City. It is intended to demonstrate how to promote primary and preventive care as a basis for more efficient, cost-effective health practices and health care services to improve health status of the Belarus population.
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ACTIVITY DATA SHEET
PROGRAM: BELARUS
TITLE: Increased, Better-informed Citizen's Participation in Political and Economic Decision-Making at theLocal Level, 113-021
PLANNED FY 2000 OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: $3,300,000 FSA
PROPOSED FY 2001 OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: $3,500,000 FSA
STATUS: Continuing
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1999 ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY2005Summary: The citizens of Belarus are not equipped to support reforms needed to establish a democratic society and a free market economy. Despite national policies, which discourage private initiative, USAID-supported projects continue to find individuals and groups eager for contact with the West, courageous about espousing reform, and determined to work toward a Western-oriented future for their country. The leadership for effective change is coming from small business owners and entrepreneurs, non-governmental organization(NGO) organizers, legal professionals, independent journalists and media, environmental activists and community health providers, often working with local officials. The substantial NGO network in Belarus is receiving USAID support for civic action in communities, through national programs, which are being extended to the regions. Small private enterprises and groups of individual entrepreneurs are being supported to enlarge their role in the economy. Growth in the role of NGOs supported by communities and in the role of private entrepreneurs will develop a consensus for reform.
Key Results: USAID’s aim is to build consensus at the community level for democratic reform and free markets, through the experience of citizens working together in the private sector to solve priority community problems and to expand their roles in the private economy. Achievement of greater civic participation will be evident in growth among NGOs working at the community level, and in growth in the role and numbers of small enterprises and entrepreneurs in the private economy.
Performance and Prospects: Building democracy is an uphill struggle in Belarus, where the government is extremely hostile to anything that resembles independent political activity. The legacy of Soviet authoritarian political control and centralized management of the society constrains the will and ability of the citizenry to participate in an open democratic society. Authoritarian control extends to economic as well as political and civic activity. The three are linked since centralized economic decision-making encourages the continuing dependence of individuals on the state and reinforces authoritarian control over political and civic life. Because civil society development is at such an early stage, with limited understanding of its role, the first priority is to demonstrate the effectiveness of civil society in achieving common goals.
Concerned citizens have formed an increasingly broad range of private organizations with past support from the Soros Foundation, U.S. Information Service, the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID, and other donors. These indigenous groups have addressed many of the needs of people living in this politically repressed, socially under-served and economically deteriorating country. The purposes of these NGOs include: community action for human rights, public education, humanitarian assistance, environmental protection, social services and Belarusian culture; development of youth, women or religious communities; national organization through political parties, trade unions, think tanks for policy analysis; support for independent media and legal reform; and support to the network of NGOs through regional Resource Centers, umbrella organizations and access to Internet. NGOs are in all regions of the country and are diverse in their approaches to serving their constituencies, but they share the objective of improving peoples’ lives, understanding that the people themselves must take responsibility for doing so.
Centralized – and often unpredictable – economic decision-making undermines opportunities for growth of the economy, especially for the private sector. Nevertheless, a hardy, resilient private sector has emerged from small businesses and the efforts of individual entrepreneurs, who are the focus of USAID’s economic assistance. Small business involves many people – as owners, employees and customers -- in the commercial private economy throughout Belarus. The many individual actors involved in trade are independent decision-makers who understand clearly the problems created by the Belarusian government’s policies and actions that thwart a free market economy. New small businesses and entrepreneurs have less of a vested interest in products and trade relationships of the past; they are developing trading patterns with free market economies in Europe. Private entrepreneurs have a strong interest in a regime that regulates business in a consistent and transparent manner, with a commitment to a free market economy for the future. Through development of small businesses, USAID supports development of the middle class of Belarusians that will promote a free market economy and democratic government to further their own economic interests.
USAID has revised the program strategy for more effective citizens’ participation in Belarus to involve, increasing community level focus, and involving people who have not yet developed a strong stake in open democratic process and a free market economy. These people are mainly outside Minsk, in the regions/oblasts in urban and rural settings. USAID is coordinating programs in the oblasts and directing attention to communities for more effective civic participation, orienting programs to groups motivated to solve community problems that are important in their daily lives. USAID will promote (1) democracy through citizen participation in community action, and (2) the potential of private enterprise as an alternative to centralized economic authoritythrough support for small business and individual entrepreneurs. The strength of USAID's community-based approach lies in direct citizen experience in problem solving with tangible evidence that community concerns are being addressed more effectively through citizen participation. New programs designed to develop models for work at the community level, for community development and health services, are beginning in Gomel oblast.
The Eurasia Foundation plays a broad and important role in developing private institutions and leadership crucial for democracy, in economics education, democracy building initiatives, civic education, and independent media. USAID funding is supplemented by the Eurasia Foundation from other sources. The Eurasia Foundation provides continuing support to increase NGO capabilities, for example, financing electronic communications. Grants are provided in several sectors including business development, education, and management training; economics education and research; independent media; rule of law; and civic education.
Public support for legal reform is fundamental. Since 1995, the American Bar Association/CEELI program has fostered the development of the rule of law by working with the legal profession and community leaders. Its activities aim to enable Belarusians to value the rule of law and understand appropriate limits on government actions. ABA/CEELI will continue supporting professionalism through: seminars on new laws and procedures (such as the new Civil Code), support to legal associations (such as the Association of Women Lawyers), and special programs that address social problems like domestic violence. More support will be given to legal advocacy and defense of citizen rights. ABU/CELIA programs link Belarusian legal reform experts with colleagues in Poland, Lithuania, Finland, and Russia.
Informing citizens through fact-based journalism from independent media is essential for citizen participation. USAID’s grant to the International Research and Exchanges Board/ProMedia is offering moral, technical, and legal support to the independent media, especially in the regions, and media associations. Training in journalism is given high priority. Work with journalists continues to be closely associated with defense of journalists' rights, and therefore with monitoring the government’s restrictions on the free press. The International Research and Exchanges Board broadens the scope of news available in Belarus through access to foreign news services, a photo service and text archive via the Internet. Ideas and encouragement come from links with professionals in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia and Ukraine. Through the ProMedia project, Internews is developing the news reporting capability of more than twenty local independent television broadcasters in Belarus.
Many of the new NGOs formed after Belarus independence address the critical needs of families, disadvantaged people, orphans and the elderly. These highly motivated grassroots private initiatives best illustrate the self-reliant action so important for democracy. Counterpart Alliance for Partnership (CAP) in Belarus provides grants to community organizations to improve social services, along with training in management and project design, technical assistance, and conducting workshops for exchanging experience among NGOs. Since March 1997 CAP has awarded over 40 grants, trained over 600 people in different aspects of NGO management and technical skills, and consulted individually over 400 different organizations. Legal expertise is provided to ensure registration of NGOs in compliance with new government regulations. The purposes for grants to community NGOs are being expanded to include the environment and community health services. The ISAR Seeds of Democracy program is being re-initiated to provide small grants for fledgling environmental NGOs.
To promote participation of citizens in the private economy, USAID funds the International Finance Corporation (IFC) small-scale privatization program (SSP) which transfers municipally owned businesses to private owners. The privatization of over 2,000 small trade and services businesses in 23 towns throughout Belarus has helped to demonstrate the benefits of a market-driven economy. Activity is being extended to agribusiness, small industry, construction and housing services. IFC supports the development of condominiums, a rapidly spreading reversal of Soviet housing practices, transferring ownership and management of housing to tenants. Public opinion polls show that the majority of residents of SSP cities support privatization and favors private stores with their diverse assortments of goods, better service, and affordable prices. IFC trains business consultants in financial management, market research, human resources management, legal rights protection and new business start-up. Support from the small enterprise program is being extended to organizations representing the more than 100,000 individual entrepreneurs in the informal sector. These well-organized market vendors, mostly women, are the most rapidly developing entrepreneurial group in Belarus. Business associations, which promote ties within the small business sector, will receive support for presenting to the government the need for policies and regulations more favorable to business. The need to support women entrepreneurs and increase agri-business opportunities will receive special attention, as a means to reach population groups whose support is needed for reform.
Possible Adjustments to Plans: The further development of regional strategies and experience working at the community level may require some re-design. A change in government policy, to support democratic reform and free markets, should be followed by review, and possible revision of the USAID strategy and funding levels, in consultation with other donors.
Other Donors Programs: The United States is the major source of support for civil society organizations in Belarus, with small programs also funded by the Germans, British, Italians and UNDP. The European Union/TACIS has limited its programs to regional, cross-border activities. A number of organizations have grants from private foundations such as Soros, MacArthur and Pew. The Germans are the major source of support for the commercial programs in Belarus.
Principal Contractors, Grantees or Agencies: Counterpart Alliance for Partnership, International Finance Corporation, The Eurasia Foundation, The American Bar Association/CEELI, International Research and Exchanges Board, Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs, Winrock International.
Selected Performance Measures:
Baseline
1998
Actual
(1998)Target
(1999)Target
(2000)Target
(2001)Number of national, oblast and local civil society organizations
2000 2000 2000 2000 2200
Number of privately owned enterprises
In formal sector
4500 4500 4500 4500 4950 Number of privately owned enterprises
In informal sector
120,000
120,000 120,000 120,000 132,000 Note: USAID’s Country Strategic Plan for Belarus was approved in FY 1999. Before its approval, performance data were incomplete. Baseline values are the same as 1999 actual measures.
EXPLANATION FOR SPECIAL INITIATIVES and CROSS-CUTTING OBJECTIVES
Title: Special Initiatives, 113-041
Planned FY 2000 Obligation and Funding Source: $4,000,000 FSA
Proposed FY 2001 Obligation and Funding Source: $4,500,000 FSASummary: This objective includes all of the 632 allocations and transfers to other USG entities. The funding in this objective goes to the State Department for public diplomacy and humanitarian support programs.
USAID activities under this objective meet criteria outlined in Agency guidance for special objectives or interests. That is, they are of limited scope and/or duration and respond to particular windows of opportunity. For USAID/Belarus, these activities generally support emergency humanitarian assistance and program development and support activities.
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Last Updated on: February 01, 2001 |
