Belarus

Joint Programming: State of play - There is currently no formal Joint Programming in Belarus. Therefore, European partners have decided to improve coordination and harmonisation of their efforts through the existing coordination mechanisms (e.g. Annual Donor's meeting in Brussels) as well as with ad hoc meetings on specific topics.

Future Prospects

A major lesson learnt from the joint analysis is the need to gradually move from financing civil society towards strengthening its role in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of governmental policies. It will require a challenging mix of actions aimed at building confidence between the authorities and civil society, training both sides in working with each other, enhancing the expertise and capacity of civil society organisations, etc. Of course, we should also maintain our support to the segment of civil society where common objectives with the authorities are for the time being unrealistic. Secondly, the need for the EU and the Member States to be more engaged into the sector of economic reforms will be crucial for enhancing our cooperation and achieving our principled interests. Here the focus should be on structural reforms (especially of the state owned enterprises) but also on strengthening the SME sector.