Green partnership in Eastern Europe

Green partnership in Eastern Europe

Democracy and civil society development is the key task faced by post-communist societies. In the 1990s Poland received substantial support in this respect. Nevertheless, this is still a difficult and long process, although for Poland it is made easier by its EU integration, which provides many practical tools, including legal and financial ones. NGOs and local self-governments are our natural partners, being our closest neighbours with whom we share the same cultural background, historical and political burdens as well as geographic and natural conditions.

During several last years, together with the Dutch foundation Milieukontakt Oost-Europa, we organised a number of study visits to Poland for NGOs and local self-governments from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Their aim was to exchange experiences regarding concrete environmental protection solutions as well as cooperation between NGOs and local self-governments and central administration.


In 2007, within the Foreign Aid programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we supported development of the network of Belarusian NGOs – “Green Partnership” and conducted activities to build up contacts between Polish and Belarusian organisations, which enabled further cooperation and joint initiatives.


Currently, we are implementing a Polish-Belarusian projects financed by the European Commission and the RITA Programme of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation. The project is entitled “Multistakeholder Local Action Strength – Improvement of local sustainable strategies and local actions development and implementation in three rural communities in Belarus.”

Our partners include an international NGO from Minsk – Ecoproject Partnership and the following municipalities: Disna (Vitsebsk Voblast), Beloosersk (Brest Voblast), Ananichy and Dukora (Pukhavichy Voblast).

The project is developed around such issues as: What does sustainable rural development mean? Is it possible to achieve economic success by utilising social potential as well as natural and historical values of a municipality? How to improve the living standard of inhabitants and increase the development potential at the same time taking care of environment? How to stimulate social activity and involve people in joint work? What can Belarusians and Poles learn from each other and what can they gain from cooperation and exchange of experiences?

Within the project we have organised field trips to partner municipalities, joint workshops in Minsk, which presented methods for working with local communities within Leader +, as well as Open Space events. During a study visit to Poland our partners from Belarus became familiar with experiences from preparation and implementation of the local sustainable development strategy in the Barycz River Valley in Lower Silesia and Wielkopolska. Within the next project stage we have organised workshops with participation of local communities in three Belarusian municipalities, applying the Open Space method. This allowed to collect ideas for specific activities in respective municipalities. Implementation of three local pilot sustainable development projects will crown our cooperation with local communities from Disna, Ananichy/Dukora and Beloozersk.

The potential for Polish – Belarusian cooperation at the local level is substantial. The same holds true for other partners from the East. It requires, however, tangible and considerable financial and institutional support, and securing this support becomes one of the most essential challenges faced by Poland and the EU.

2010 was a year of intensive work in our partner municipalities: Disna, Ananichy/Dukora and Beloozersk. Respective local communities developed ideas for their pilot projects. All of them decided to focus on sustainable tourism as the main area of development. Using the EC’s small grants the municipalities managed to implement their ideas. They prepared tourist and educational trails and referring to history, mementoes from the past and natural attractions. The municipalities installed small infrastructure, such as information boards, benches, sheds, waste bins. They also initiated first information and promotion activities in order to encourage potential tourists to visit the area and rest there.
The activities in the municipalities of Disna, Ananichy/Dukora and Beloozersk were additionally supported from the programme Polish Aid 2010 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in the project: “Development of local government potential in sustainable tourism in three rural Belorussian municipalities.”

The municipalities prepared attractive information and promotion brochures, presenting their history, natural assets, social and economic conditions and development potential. They were published in Russian and English. Moreover, each municipality had its website developed in order to activate local communities and promote itself. Internet allows small municipalities to open on the world and present their chief assets.

Apart from the abovementioned pilot projects, brochures and websites, we also focused on skills development and education of local communities. The PGN conducted a series of training and workshops in project planning and management, website administration and small-business management. The last issue appears to constitute one of the main challenges in further development of small municipalities in Belorussia.

This intensive year finished with meetings in respective municipalities, where together with local communities we discussed the activities undertaken so far as well as possibilities for further cooperation. As a result, Local Action Plans for 2011 were prepared and they will constitute a basis and a guiding point for further development.
Apart from providing assistance to selected municipalities, we shared our experiences, presented successful initiatives and how they were implemented and highlighted the importance of cooperation between NGOs and local governments, especially the results achieved due to activation of local communities. The conference “Sustainable Development within Rural Areas – Polish and Belorussian Experiences,” organised in July 2010 in Minsk, constituted an opportunity for implementing this objective. The conference gathered representatives of various circles from different regions of Belorussia, i.e. local governments, NGOs, governmental administration, research institutes, Polish and Belorussian experts, media and representatives of the European Commission. All in all, 85 people participated in the conference. The following issues were discussed:
- sustainable development of rural areas in the Republic of Belorussia,
- sustainable tourism in Poland,
- territorial marketing and development of regional brands as a tool for implementation of local strategies,
- the Barycz River Valley – Polish approach towards sustainable regional development,
- development and promotion of local products,
- local products in Poland,
- presentation of pilot projects implemented in three Belorussian municipalities – Disna, Ananichy/Dukora and Beloozersk.

Moreover, during the conference various municipalities could present their local products and information materials on special stands.

The project constitutes a positive example of Polish-Belorussian cooperation with involvement of various social partners, especially NGOs and local governments. It was presented as a good practice during the conference on Eastern Partnership “Go East!,” organised in October 2010 in Warsaw by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Many representatives of NGOs and other social partners participated in the conference. He hope that our project will inspire and encourage them to cooperation.

The programme’s leader: Joanna Furmaga, HYPERLINK “mailto:joanna@zielonasiec.pl” joanna@zielonasiec.pl

2010 activities within the Green Partnership in Eastern Europe Programme were co-financed by the European Commission (EuropeAid Programme) and Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Polish Aid 2010).