Panel 3
Challenges and opportunities of a sustainable economic model
About Panel 3
The current political crisis in Belarus has either unleashed or accelerated various developments whose present form could not have been predicted even just a few years ago. The role of women in Belarusian society is intensifying significantly and talked about in new ways. Strikes and their legitimacy and usefulness have also become an important topic.
The increased desire for civic engagement has also become a major development. Whenever the state uses its power in a way that many people feel does not fulfil its duties, or when it is used even against its citizens, an impressive number of Belarusians appear willing to become involved and act at their own initiative.
This is becoming particularly apparent in the regional areas of Belarus. Whereas earlier one would find a relatively active civil society mainly in Minsk, we now see this emerging across the entire country, from provincial capitals all the way to small towns and villages. The notion of the “decentralised” is becoming a model for a “new” Belarus – and it seems quite likely that this trend will continue to grow, even with the current protests.
This Panel will present and discuss the various forms of civic engagement in the regions, and how the current situation has generated a new understanding of this phenomenon. A very diverse array of situations will be examined: we will talk about ambitious projects for local self-governance, initiatives promoting the development of rural areas, and the new potential for mobilisation by independent unions in Belarus’ regions.
About Panel 3
The current political crisis in Belarus has either unleashed or accelerated various developments whose present form could not have been predicted even just a few years ago. The role of women in Belarusian society is intensifying significantly and talked about in new ways. Strikes and their legitimacy and usefulness have also become an important topic.
The increased desire for civic engagement has also become a major development. Whenever the state uses its power in a way that many people feel does not fulfil its duties, or when it is used even against its citizens, an impressive number of Belarusians appear willing to become involved and act at their own initiative.
This is becoming particularly apparent in the regional areas of Belarus. Whereas earlier one would find a relatively active civil society mainly in Minsk, we now see this emerging across the entire country, from provincial capitals all the way to small towns and villages. The notion of the “decentralised” is becoming a model for a “new” Belarus – and it seems quite likely that this trend will continue to grow, even with the current protests.
This Panel will present and discuss the various forms of civic engagement in the regions, and how the current situation has generated a new understanding of this phenomenon. A very diverse array of situations will be examined: we will talk about ambitious projects for local self-governance, initiatives promoting the development of rural areas, and the new potential for mobilisation by independent unions in Belarus’ regions.
Moderator
Stefan Kaegebein
Regional Director Eastern Europe, German Eastern Business Association
Stefan Kaegebein
Regional Director Eastern Europe, German Eastern Business Association
Speakers
Jeroen Willems
Deputy Head of Unit, Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR), European Commission
Manfred Huterer
Manfred Huterer was born in Regensburg, and studied political science, international law, and Eastern European history at the Universities of Regensburg, Munich, Saint Petersburg, and Harvard University. He has been German Ambassador to the Republic of Belarus since the summer of 2019. Since joining the German Federal Foreign Office in 1992, he has spent his almost 30-year career in Berlin (as Division Head for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova), Moscow, Beijing, Washington, and Warsaw.
Aliaksandr Chubryk
Director of the IPM Research Center
Robert Kirchner
Robert Kirchner is the Deputy Team Leader of the German Economic Team (GET), which is implemented by the consultancy firm Berlin Economics. Active in most of the Eastern Partnership countries (including Belarus) and Central Asia, GET advises on a wide range of economic policy topics, including macroeconomic stability and structural reforms.
Kateryna Bornukova
Dr. Kateryna Bornukova is the Academic Director of the BEROC Economic Research Center. Kateryna holds an MA in Economics from the Kyiv School of Economics and a PhD in Economics from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. She also works as a consultant for the World Bank and other international organizations. Dr. Bornukova’s research interests include macroeconomics, economics of transition, and labor economics.
Eugeniy Lobanov
Eugeniy Lobanov is a Belarusian environmentalist, who has worked for 18 years in the area of chemical safety, waste management, and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles at the national and international level. Lobanov is a director and Head of the Toxics & Waste Program of the Center for Environmental Solutions (www.ecoidea.by), which is one of the leading environmental non-governmental organizations in the country. Lobanov is working on many publicly-oriented environmental and health issues in Belarus, including Zero Waste, chemicals in products, addressing local environmental challenges, developing tools for public environmental monitoring and participation and circular economy promotion. Lobanov also works with several international environmental networks, including Coalition Clean Baltic (www.ccb.se), where he works as a Coordinator of the Working Group on Hazardous Substances and Marine Litter, and of which he is also a member of the board of directors.
Jeroen Willems
Jeroen Willems works in the European Commission for DG NEAR as Deputy Head of Unit responsible for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and the Eastern Partnership. Willems has been previously posted in the EU Delegations to Azerbaijan, Bosnia Herzegovina, Congo and Ethiopia. Before joining the Commission, he worked in both the public and the private sector, supporting partner countries in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the former CIS as international management consultant, and as senior policy advisor to the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Aleś Alachnovič
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s representative on economic reforms.
Stephan Hoffmann
Hoffmann is Managing Director of North IT Group Germany and Belarus. Before he was Senior Business Development Manager and Member of the Board of an international consulting company in Moscow and Minsk. He studied Industrial Engineering and Business Law. His sphere of interests include Digital Economy and Digitalization, and his hobbies, sports and teaching.