On March 20, 2025 in EI “Vitebsk State Technological University” (VSTU) in the framework of the project “Become a student of VSTU for one day” a career guidance meeting between students and teachers of the university and students of the SEI “Gymnasium № 3 of Vitebsk named after A.S.Pushkin” was held.
More than 80 high school students participated in the event.
The meeting began with a presentation of the university’s educational opportunities and the pilot initiative “Educational program for mastering ESG practices and tools based on online learning technologies”, in which students were particularly interested.
The initiative is implemented by VSTU with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Belarus within the framework of the Joint Project “Support to the Efforts of the Republic of Belarus in Nationalization and Localization of SDGs” funded by the Russian Federation.
Its main idea is to promote through online learning a positive image of the sustainability concept and ESG practices and tools. For this purpose, a specialized platform “ESG-education” will be developed and implemented in the educational program. It will contain educational courses for students, professional development programs for teachers, and a variety of online ESG-themed events.
The children also had a fascinating quest on the theme “Digital Literacy”, during which they immersed themselves in the world of modern technologies, solved problems and learned new things about digital tools, areas of their application in everyday life, ways to ensure safety on the Internet.
The meeting ended with an eco-game “Give a second life to plastic”. This interactive activity reminded all participants of the importance of caring for the environment and supporting the Sustainable Development Goals. The students enthusiastically got involved in the game, offering creative ideas for recycling and reusing the material.
The meeting was held in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Students learned about the educational opportunities and initiatives of the university, had the opportunity to obtain new knowledge in the field of sustainable development, SDGs, information technology, environmental protection, as well as to ask questions and interact with students and teachers.
On March 20, 2025, within the framework of the pilot initiative “Inclusive Animation”, the training “Creating social videos” was held in Grodno.
The training was a unique opportunity for young persons with disabilities not only to learn video production skills, but also to learn how to tell their stories, share their experiences and raise important social issues. The training participants gained valuable knowledge about scriptwriting, shooting and editing, and how to effectively communicate their ideas to a wide audience.
The pilot initiative “Inclusive Animation” is implemented by the Grodno Regional Organization of the Republican Public Association “Belarusian Red Cross Society” with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Republic of Belarus within the framework of the Joint Project “Support to the Efforts of the Republic of Belarus in Nationalization and Localization of SDGs” funded by the Russian Federation.
Implementation of the initiative’s activities contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 4, 9, 10 and the other SDGs by the Republic of Belarus.
On March 18, 2025, the off-site meeting of the expert consultative council of the Presidium of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus was held in Minsk on the topic: “Demographic Security in the Republic of Belarus: Trends, Challenges, Prospects”. The focus was on strengthening the status of the family, increasing the birth rate, preserving public health and traditional family values.
During the meeting speakers noted that ensuring demographic security, including the development of human capital, family support, protection of motherhood, fatherhood and childhood, is one of the most important components of effective socio-economic development of any state, including Belarus.
Today, a large-scale set of measures to support families is being implemented in the country, including various benefits and paid leave to care for a child under 3 years of age, family capital assignment, benefits and guarantees in the field of labor relations, retirement benefits, provision of housing to large families on a priority basis, reduced-price or free meals in schools, benefits in paying for the use of textbooks and teaching materials, priority accommodation in university dormitories, tax and other benefits.
In 2024, in order to improve legislation regulating marriage and family relations, state protection of children and families in socially vulnerable situations, the Laws of Belarus “On the change of the Laws on the Regulation of Marriage and Family Relations” and “On the change of the Laws on State Benefits for Families Raising Children” were adopted, as well as decrees of the President of Belarus aimed at extending the family capital program until 2030 and expanding opportunities for early use of family capital funds.
Strengthening the status of the family and promoting traditional family values is a national priority for our country. Due to an effective state policy, Belarus is characterized by a high level of informed family planning and childbirth. According to the sociological research on the issues of family formation, stability of family relations and birth rate in changing socio-economic conditions, the majority of our country’s residents believe that there is nothing more important than motherhood and fatherhood, and the average Belarusian dreams of a family with two or three children. This is confirmed by the latest census: there are more large families in the country by 70% – more than 123 thousand, 80% of them with three children.
However, despite the high level of large families, approximately one third of Belarusian families do not realize their reproductive potential to the fullest extent. Firstly, it is connected with the change of life priorities of young people in favor of career and self-realization. Secondly, the average age of maternity and paternity in the republic is constantly increasing. In 2024, the age of a mother at the birth of her first child exceeded 27 years and has increased by more than three years in the last ten years.
At the same time, trends in recent years point to other persistent demographic risks, which are typical not only for Belarus, but also for other developing countries. These include both declining birth rates and aging of the population, migration processes, increasing numbers of injuries and accidental deaths, and changes in the structure of value orientations.
In this regard, the issue of ensuring demographic security continues to remain in the zone of increased attention and requires constant development of new solutions aimed at stabilizing and improving the demographic situation, increasing the birth rate, strengthening the institution of family and marriage. First of all, attention is needed to the coherence of actions to ensure demographic security of all participants involved in this task.
The development of human capital, strengthening the status of the family, and promoting of traditional family values are indispensable conditions for ensuring further sustainable development and prosperity of the Republic of Belarus, as well as for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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Sources of information: sd.by, belta.by
Contest of creative works “Creativity for Climate, for a Sustainable World” is being held in Belarus to draw the attention of children and youth to the Sustainable Development Goals and the topic of climate change.
Students aged 6-17 who study the content of the educational program of general secondary education, as well as additional education of children and youth may participate in the contest.
Contest entries will be accepted until March 31, 2025 in the following nominations:
More details on the terms and conditions of the contest can be found at the link.
Contest is organized by the United Nations Development Programme in Belarus (UNDP) and EI “Republican Center for Ecology and Local History” with the support of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus within the framework of the project “Climate Education to Promote the SDGs and Advance the Climate Agenda (Climate Box)” funded by the Government of the Russian Federation.
In order to form a long-term basis for sustainable economic growth, as well as to improve the well-being and quality of life of the population, the Development Program of the Pripyat Polesie Districts for 2025-2030 has been approved and is being implemented in Belarus.
The Program covers 9 districts of Brest and Gomel regions of the country (Gantsevichi, Luninets, Stolin, Pinsk, Yelsk, Zhitkovichi, Kalinkovichi, Lelchitsky, Petrikov), 7 of which are agrarian and agrarian-industrial districts. Accordingly, the document emphasizes the development of agriculture and the creation of a modern agro-industrial complex (AIC). For this purpose, 9 base farms have been identified, which will implement advanced technologies and best practices of OJSC “Parohonskoye”.
At the same time, attention is also paid to the implementation of projects for the development of the industrial sector. For example, in Gantsevichy district, production of medicines based on blood plasma processing will be launched. OJSC “Luninetsky Dairy Plant” will launch a facility for the production of dry dairy products. LLC “Belsyr” will expand production of cheese and sour-milk products. JSC “Zhitkovichi Motor-Building Plant” and JSC “David-Horodoksky Electromechanical Plant” will expand the range of goods. New modern woodworking enterprises will be established in Rechitsa and Yelsk districts. Some of these projects are already at the completion stage.
It is expected that the implementation of the planned projects and activities within the framework of the Program of Development of Districts of Pripyat Polessye for 2025-2030 will allow to ensure the growth of wages in the region and reach the mark of 3 thousand rubles by 2030, as well as contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 8, 11, 12 and the other SDGs by the Republic of Belarus.
Source of information
By the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus No. 144 of March 7, 2025 the Concept of the State Housing Policy of the Republic of Belarus up to 2030 was approved.
The document defines the main directions and ways of realization of the state housing policy of Belarus until 2030.
As stated in the document, the main objectives of the state housing policy in the field of providing citizens with housing for the period up to 2030 are increase of the availability and improvement of housing for the population. In order to achieve them, it is planned to solve the following tasks:
The plan of measures to implement the provisions of the Concept will be developed by the Ministry of Architecture and Construction of the Republic of Belarus together with the republican state administration bodies, regional executive committees and Minsk City Executive Committee by the end of May 2025.
The implementation of the Concept of State Housing Policy of the Republic of Belarus until 2030 will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 11 and the other SDGs by the Republic of Belarus.
From March 10 to April 23, 2025, Belarus is hosting the Youth Media Festival “Young Voices for Sustainable Development – 2025” – annual meeting of authors of media projects dedicated to popularizing the ideas and values of sustainable development among various groups of the population.
Students of all types of educational institutions, undergraduate and graduate students, pedagogical staff, initiative young people may participate in the Media Festival by presenting youth media products (video, poster, infographics, photography) in one of the following nominations:
More details on the Media Festival procedure and application can be found in the Regulations.
The Media Festival is organized by the Coordination Center “Education for Sustainable Development” of BSPU with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Belarus and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus within the framework of the Joint Project “Support to the Efforts of the Republic of Belarus in Nationalization and Localization of SDGs” funded by the Russian Federation.
The Youth Media Festival “Young Voices for Sustainable Development” makes an important contribution to the popularization of the Sustainable Development Goals in the Republic of Belarus.
On April 1, 2025 the National Contest “Entrepreneur of the Year” will start in Belarus. The contest is organized by the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Belarus with the aim to popularize entrepreneurship and stimulate business activity of citizens.
The contest is held among small and medium-sized businesses and individual entrepreneurs in the following nominations:
Applications will be accepted until June 1, 2025.
The National Contest “Entrepreneur of the Year” makes an important contribution to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 1, 8, 9 and the other SDGs by the Republic of Belarus.
On March 4-7, 2025, the 56th session of the UN Statistical Commission was held in New York. The Republic of Belarus was represented in the event by Mr. Timofei Zhigarev, Deputy Chairperson of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus (Belstat).
In the session on the data and indicators of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Deputy Chairperson of the Belstat highlighted the key achievements of Belarusian statistics in monitoring the SDGs.
“Currently, the national list of SDG indicators in the Republic of Belarus includes 246 indicators, with 70% harmonization of global and national SDG lists. The level of data availability has reached 94%. Belstat annually assesses the country’s progress towards achieving the SDGs and the latest assessment (2024) shows that more than 80% of the indicators demonstrate progress towards the targets. Such result confirms the high degree of commitment of the Republic of Belarus to its obligations within the framework of the global initiative and the intention to fulfill the 2030 Agenda,” informed Timofei Zhigarev.
During the System of National Accounts (SNA) session, SNA 2025 was adopted as the updated international statistical standard for the compilation of national accounts statistics and its implementation strategy was approved.
The Deputy Chairperson of the Belstat noted that the update of the SNA and the IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual will contribute to the maximum harmonization of macroeconomic statistics. He also informed that in 2025 the stages of implementation of the new SNA in the Republic of Belarus will be included in the State Statistics Development Strategy for the period up to 2030.
During the consideration of “Population and Housing Censuses”, the resolution on the 2030 World Population and Housing Census Program and the fourth revised edition “Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses” were approved.
Belarus became the first country in the CIS where a digital census was conducted. Sharing the national experience, Timofey Zhigarev noted that the 2020 census was the most innovative of all previously conducted: “Data were collected using a combination of administrative data, face-to-face interviews using tablet computers, and through respondents’ self-completion of questionnaires via the Internet. The use of GIS-technologies at the stage of preparation for the population census allowed to obtain data that are geo-referenced and can be aggregated in any territorial section”.
The Deputy Chairperson also shared plans for the 2030 census, which will emphasize the use of administrative data and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.
During the session dedicated to the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, Timofey Zhigarev emphasized that the statistical legislation of the Republic of Belarus is harmonized with the Model Law on Official Statistics and complies with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, which is confirmed by international experts. He also informed that in the updated Law of the Republic of Belarus on State Statistics the content of the basic principles of statistics is disclosed, the work with administrative data is systematized, the access of statisticians, including remote access, to all information systems and resources of state bodies and private data owners is fixed at the institutional level.
“Today Belstat receives more than 600 administrative datasets, which are used in all branches of statistics. More than 40% of the indicators of the national SDG list are calculated based on data from alternative sources. This approach ensures resource savings, reduces the reporting burden on business and eliminates the duplication of data requests in the country,” explained the representative of Belstat.
Support for the participation of Timofei Zhigarev, Deputy Chairperson of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, in the 56th session of the UN Statistical Commission was provided by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) within the framework of the Joint Project “Support to the Efforts of the Republic of Belarus in Nationalization and Localization of SDGs” funded by the Government of the Russian Federation.
Providing relevant and reliable statistical information makes an important contribution to the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Source of information: official website of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus
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