By the Decision of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus No. 97 dated February 18, 2025, the Republican Action Plan for the Year of Improvement in 2025 was approved.
The plan includes 47 titles of activities, including:
To coordinate the work on the implementation of the activities of the Republican plan, the resolution provides for the creation of a temporary Republican headquarters for the Year of Improvement in 2025. The document also defines responsible state bodies and organizations for control and implementation of activities at the republican, regional, basic and primary levels.
The implementation of the Republican Action Plan for the Year of Improvement in 2025 will contribute to the improvement of the urban environment, the creation of comfortable and safe living conditions for the population, as well as the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the Republic of Belarus.
On February 24 – 25, 2025, the National Coordinator for Achieving the SDGs, Deputy Chairperson of the Council of the Republic Sergei Khomenko made a working visit to the Brest region. Together with the National Coordinator, the Brest region was visited by the representatives of the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The main purpose of the visit was to discuss the priority areas of sustainable development of the Brest region for the period until 2040.
During the two-day visit, the delegation headed by the National Coordinator for Achieving the SDGs visited objects of socio-economic, historical and cultural importance in the cities of Baranavichy, Kobrin, Brest, agro-towns “Bialowieza” and “Kamenyuki”.
The delegation visited the SEI “Secondary School No. 1 of Baranavichy named after S.I. Gritsevets”, EI “National Children’s Technopark”, Memorial complex “Brest Hero Fortress”, Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park, familiarized with the work of the “one window” service of the Kobrin District Executive Committee, social infrastructure on the example of a health center with the water-mud cure center “Aquapark of Kobrin”, as well as with the provision of medical care on the example of modular feldsher-midwife stations and the HI “Brest Children’s Regional Hospital”, etc.
“Those objects that we visited, I will not hesitate to say, are a sample, on the one hand, of the content, and on the other hand, of the heartfelt attitude of people to the work they do for the well-being of the Republic of Belarus,” said National Coordinator Sergei Khomenko.
The program of events also included a meeting at the EI “Brest State University named after A.S. Pushkin” to discuss the development of the sustainable development strategy of the Brest region for the period until 2040.
The sustainable development strategy of the Brest region until 2040 is the main document of long-term planning processes of strategic development of the Brest region. It includes principles and priority areas for improving the quality of life and achieving sustainable development of the region, approaches to developing the region’s potential and strengthening its competitive advantages, and other important aspects.
As part of the event, the National Coordinator for Achieving the SDGs Sergei Khomenko, made an excursion into the history of the Sustainable Development Goals. In his speech, he emphasized that Belarus is doing serious work to achieve the SDGs and that this aspiration was even embedded in the national anthem.
“The quintessence of sustainable development is concentrated in one phrase, in the last words of the refrain: the prosperity of our native country,” remarked Sergei Khomenko.
He also said that Belarus promotes the SDGs not in words, but by concrete actions. In particular, programs on poverty eradication, clean water, sanitation, reducing inequality, preserving ecosystems have been completed. The country does not abandon its commitments to the other SDGs either. Regions also contribute to their implementation.
The UN Resident Coordinator in Belarus Rasul Bagirov in his speech also drew attention to the fact that Belarus has already achieved the certain Sustainable Development Goals, while the implementation of the others is expected by 2030. He said that, at the moment, in order to achieve the priorities, goals and objectives set by the state, with the support of the UN system, the Cooperation Framework for 2026-2030 is being developed.
“This program will be a kind of agreement between the government and the UN system. Preliminarily, we have developed and proposed four priorities to the government,” noted Rasul Bagirov. “These priorities relate to human development and well-being for all, inclusion, environment, climate, and peace.”
Participants also noted the extensive experience of Belarus in developing sustainable development strategies, including at the local level. All strategies are characterized by a varying degree of detail, including the specifics of territorial development. For example, the regional development strategy until 2025 was developed in Brestchyna, at the district level – the sustainable development strategy of Gantsevichy district until 2025, Berezovsky district – until 2030, at the village council level – the sustainable strategy of Vygonoshchansky village council until 2025.
The meeting on the discussion of the sustainable development strategy of Brest region also included the signing ceremony of the agreement on the accession of the EI “Brest State University named after A.S. Pushkin” and the EI “Brest State Technical University” to the International Consortium “Human Well-Being in the Digital Environment of Smart Cities”. Currently, the consortium brings together eleven Belarusian and Russian universities that study the quality of people’s life in smart cities, taking into account many factors.
It is expected that the proposals and comments received during the working visit to the Brest region will contribute to the development of the sustainable development strategy of the Brest region for the period until 2040, elaboration of proposals for further interaction between Belarus and UN agencies within the framework of the preparation of the Cooperation Frameworks, as well as preparation of proposals for activities and implementation of new projects and pilot initiatives in the Brest region.
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Sources of photos and information: brsu.by, belta.by, brest-region.gov.by.
On February 24 – 26, 2025, the Belarusian delegation headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Maksim Ryzhenkov participated in the high-level segments of the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva (Switzerland).
At the opening of the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council and the High-Level Segment of the HRC, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Maxim Ryzhenkov gave concrete examples of the high level of observance of fundamental human rights and freedoms in Belarus and stated the absurdity of any claims that there are serious issues in the country in this sphere. The Minister also called on the UN states to conduct a global reset in the field of human rights, to recognize in practice the diversity of political systems, development paths and cultural values, and to return the constructive potential of international cooperation in the field of human rights. Full text of the speech.
During his speech at the high-level discussion on “The Thirtieth Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action”, Maxim Ryzhenkov noted the key role of the People’s Republic of China in agreeing on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which brought women’s rights to a qualitatively new level, and reaffirmed Belarus’ readiness to share its unique experience in promoting women in the political, economic and public spheres of life. Full text of the speech.
During the meeting of the heads of delegations of the member states of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nation, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus emphasized the importance of the mission of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nation to uphold the norms and principles of the UN and reaffirmed the value of the UN as an indispensable platform for promoting peace, sustainable development and human rights.
In addition, within the framework of the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and South-East Asia to discuss further strengthening of interstate cooperation.
Respecting and protecting the rights and freedoms of every human being is a key element in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Source of information
“The Government is now considering a strategy for sustainable development until 2040. And today I am proud to say that we are, for many of the Goals, a model for implementing these decisions.” This was announced in the interview by the National Coordinator for Achieving the SDGs in the Republic of Belarus, Deputy Chairperson of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, Sergei Khomenko. He also shared:
– What are the priorities in the decade of the 2030 Agenda for Belarus in sustainability?
– Balancing national interests with international interests: what is the effectiveness of this approach?
– Which prevails more strongly: the economy over the social sector, the social sector over the ecology, or the ecology over the economy?
– What directions does parliamentary diplomacy in the EEC set for itself this year?
On February 25, 2025 at the recreation center “Drivyaty” of the National Park “Braslav Lakes” a starting conference on the presentation of two pilot initiatives aimed at the organization of accessible tourism in the Braslav region was held: pilot initiative “Accessible Tourism in Braslav” by Euroregion Lake Land (Braslav Regional NGO for Cross-Border Cooperation)and pilot initiative ‘Inclusive Beach’ by the Territorial Social Service Center of Braslav District.
About 40 people participated in the event in offline and online formats. Among them were residents of the Braslav region, representatives of public administration authorities, tourism specialists, and representatives of other pilot initiatives.
During the conference, the participants were presented with the main ideas and goals of the implementation of the pilot initiatives “Accessible Tourism in Braslav” and “Inclusive Beach”, as well as their tasks and expected results.
The main idea of the pilot initiative “Accessible Tourism in Braslav” is to develop accessible tourism by developing adapted inclusive tourism products and training specialists of tourism sphere, as well as adapting the acquired knowledge on the territory of Braslav region.
Among the planned activities of this pilot initiative is to conduct an online course “Accessible Tourism” to build the capacity of specialists of the tourism sphere and develop their skills and competencies in developing tourism products for persons with disabilities. Training on this course is already underway. The participants of the course are deepening into the problem of inclusive tourism, sharing effective examples of joint work in organizing recreation for people with disabilities, listening to lectures, doing homework. It is planned that at least 20 specialists of the tourism sphere will undergo online training.
Also, as part of the pilot initiative “Accessible Tourism in Braslav” it is envisaged to equip the recreation center “Drivyaty” with elements of barrier-free environment. In particular, it is planned to remodel several rooms for persons in wheelchairs, equip the swimming pool complex with two electric elevators and purchase three electric scooters for persons with mobility difficulties to visit hiking trails. These upgrades will provide year-round recreation for persons with disabilities and seniors.
Another pilot initiative “Inclusive Beach” was presented during the conference. Its main idea is social rehabilitation and adaptation of people with disabilities and development of adaptive tourism in Braslav district by creating an inclusive beach integrated into the city public beach.
The sustainability of the pilot initiative lies in the following aspects:
The pilot initiatives “Accessible Tourism in Braslav” and “Inclusive Beach” are being implemented 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 Government of the Russian Federation.
The implementation of these initiatives will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 3, 10, 11 and the other SDGs by the Republic of Belarus.
On February 24, 2025, students of the Belarusian State University of Economics took an active part in the training session on the topic “Stimulating and de-stimulating effects of taxation”.
The main objective of the session was to explore the role and place of taxation in creating an institutional environment for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.
In the form of a business game, students analyzed regulatory taxation measures that states, including the Republic of Belarus, can undertake to mobilize domestic resources to achieve the SDGs. The students were also familiarized with ways of tax incentives to combat climate change, use clean energy, implement green industries, etc. As a result of the event, students were able to appreciate both the importance and complexity of tax instruments through case studies of specific economies, and were convinced of the need for integrated efforts and partnerships to achieve the SDGs.
Effective use of tax opportunities helps to increase the resilience of the economy and contributes to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
To increase the interest of students of general secondary and specialized secondary education in engineering and technical specialties, “Engineer of the Future” technical interest spaces have been established on the basis of higher education institutions of Belarus.
At the moment, such spaces have been opened in EI “Vitebsk State Technological University”, EI “Brest State Technical University”, EI “Polotsk State University named after Euphrosinia Polotskaya”, EI “Gomel State Technical University named after P.O. Sukhoi”, IEIHE “Belarusian-Russian University”.
The “Engineer of the Future” interest spaces are primarily focused on four-way interaction: “schoolchild – student – teacher (scientist) – engineering technicians (working youth)”. Students participating in the educational process will have a unique opportunity to communicate and learn from qualified teachers who, in turn, will be able to share their theoretical knowledge and practical experience.
The functioning of the “Engineer of the Future” technical interest spaces will be an important step in training qualified personnel capable of solving urgent tasks facing the country’s economy and will contribute to the achievement by the Republic of Belarus of the Sustainable Development Goals 4, 8 and the other SDGs.
On February 17, 2025 the student round table “SDGs in the Republic of Belarus and other countries” was held at the Belarusian State University. The event was organized by the Student Council and the Council of Compatriotic Communities of the Belarusian State University.
During the event, students of different faculties of the Belarusian State University presented reports on achieving the SDGs in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The Faculty of Economics was represented at the event by the SDG 8 Youth Ambassador Anastasia Korshek. She told the participants about the achievements of Belarus in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and informed about the activities of SDG Youth Ambassadors and projects they are implementing.
The student round table “SDGs in the Republic of Belarus and other countries” promotes popularization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development among children and youth.
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