Development of rural regions represents an urgent issue both for Europe and for Belarus. Under the rural development we consider a directed, intentional process of sustainable economic, social and political changes, as well as environmental changes, aimed at improvement of the quality of life of population, living in rural areas.
The necessity of an integrated approach to rural development is recognized both in developing countries and in advanced ones. What is the integrated approach? The integrated approach means such organization of activities aimed at development, when:
 the key points are the society, economics, environment;
 the development proceeds both “up”, and “down”: it is necessary to include politics, financing and support of the government on all levels, as well as other resources and citizens’ contribution;
 all sectors are engaged: state, private, public;
 the basis of interrelation are partnership and cooperation.
Rural development has to be based on the interests and involvement of the community of a certain territory. It is also necessary to note, that the more a community is active and viable, the more likely it is to attract new people into this territory and prevent departure of local population.
1 © PA “Center for Social Innovation”
Course on Rural Development in Belarus

Background
About 2.8 million people live in Belarus today. The main activities in rural areas of Belarus are production and processing of agricultural produce. Such a situation led to many problems in rural regions. The demographic potential of rural areas continuously decreases due to the rural population migration to large cities. The demographic situation there is characterized with low birth rate, high mortality, and low life expectancy. By 2020, the rural population of the country may decrease by 30%.
The economic situation in rural areas also is very difficult. The average salary level in rural areas is
63% lower than in the capital. Pensions 20% are lower, than in the city .
The investment activity is extremely low. Such rural problems as unemployment, low income, lack of any perspectives for adults and children, as well as lack of motivation to work, lead, from one side, to apathy and indifference in local population. From the other side, it results in mass hard drinking and alcoholism, both among men and women.
About organization
We are a group of like-minded people called the Centre for Social Innovations, which is active in the field of adult education and socio-economical development on the area we can cover.
Our legal position: a non-governmental, non-commercial, not-for-profit organization, which has been already twice registered in Minsk. According to the Statute CSI carries out its activity in Minsk but in association with other county and local organizations we export our projects to a number of settlements in Belarus (in our dreams - even abroad). Our mission is to promote the development of both free, creative, sociable people and human communities, which being built on co-operation and mutual respect will become the “incubators” for democratic culture.
Ideas/goals, concepts
In January, 2004 PA «Center for social innovations» with support of Informational-legal center for businessmen of Minsk and PA «Educational center ‘‘POST‘‘» and Belarusian State Agricultural
Academy (BSAA) developed and conducted a training course on the development of rural territories
«Course on rural development» for the initiative groups of citizens.
Objective of the course : to train 5–8 informal leaders, living in rural area, to work with local population with the aim of improvement their standard of living through collective or individual activity, with the reliance on local resources and cooperation with urban population.
Tasks:
А.
To form the project committee for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation of education and activity in rural areas.
B.
To conduct teaching in the form of the 8-months activity-oriented training program, including the following elements:
1.
Evaluation of the human, natural, financing and social resources existing in the participants’ environment.
2.
Identification of the possible activity on the development of rural territories and the requirements to such activity.
3.
Joint assessment of the potential possibilities of employment of the existing resources for the aims of development of rural areas.
4.
Selection of significant activities on the rural territories development for implementation by the participants in their communities.
5.
Common or individual analysis of the potential possibilities for implementation of the selected activity.
6.
Elaboration of joint or individual «business-plans» for the selected activity.
7.
Implementation of the selected «business-plans».
8.
Common or individual evaluation of the process.
2 © PA “Center for Social Innovation”
Course on Rural Development in Belarus

Capacity, methods
Structure of the course: the course consisted of 3 three-day trainings, which took place in March-
November, 2004. In between the trainings, the participants completed their interim homework.
The expected results of the «Course on rural development»:
1.
The developed and tried course on the development of rural territories may be used as a model for the upgrading course for BSAA and other educational institutions of Belarus.
2.
About 4-5 projects on rural development will be implemented, which further can be used as examples in educational programs.
3.
At least 100 rural inhabitants will be involved in the projects on community development.
Training №1
Objectives:

To present to the participants different aspects of development of rural territories.

To describe different methods of analysis of the potential of development of a specific small community and to learn the effective interaction with different groups of people.
The training was conducted on April 5-7, 2004. The themes presented:
1.
General aspects of community development, including the analysis of human, material resources and social capital. Communication in groups, dissemination of knowledge.
Legislative framework of private enterprising in rural areas.
2.
Specific aspects and conditions of development of rural territories. Description of general rural conditions and resources.
3.
Examples of rural tourism in the countries of West and East Europe. Evaluation of the potential of rural tourism in Belarus, including the agro-tourism, eco-tourism, historical tourism, sport-tourism, recreational tourism, craft-tourism.
4.
Evaluation of the potential of the establishment of links between urban and rural areas.
5.
Determination of tasks for activity in between trainings, including assessment of local resources in the participants’ communities.
«Activity between the trainings» №1 took place in April-May. It was supported by the facilitators of
PA «Center for social innovations», PA «Educational center ‘‘POST‘‘» and Belarusian State
Agricultural Academy (BSAA) and included:
 development of questionnaires and presentation materials for assessment of local resources;
 organization of meetings with local inhabitants with the aim of assessment the local resources;
 carrying out assessment of local resources and collection of ideas on the development of concrete rural territories;

Preparation of presentations of the results of assessment and collection of ideas at the training
№2.
Training №2 was conducted on May 27-30, 2004. The themes presented:
1.
Presentation and discussion of assessment of local resources and ideas on development;
2.
Formation of groups of participants, working on similar programs of development of rural territories;
3.
Analysis of the local resources assessment;
4.
Identification of problems and possible solutions;
5.
Development of the presentation on the analysis of situation for local citizens.
«Activity between the trainings» №2 took place from June to October. The facilitators of PA
«Center for social innovations», PA «Educational center ‘‘POST‘‘» and Belarusian State Agricultural
Academy (BSAA) also supported it. These activities included the following tasks:

Conduction of a presentation and discussion on the results of analysis of resources for the interested citizens in local communities;

Organization of meetings of local inhabitants with the aim of discussion the work which was carried out at the seminar and determination of priorities of local development;

Search for local inhabitants, interested in implementation of different aspects of activity on the development of rural territory;

Assistance to local inhabitants in drawing the preliminary business-plan;
3 © PA “Center for Social Innovation”
Course on Rural Development in Belarus


Preparation of the presentation of the business-plan at the training №3.
Training №3 was conducted on November 25-27, 2004. The themes presented:
1.
evaluation of business-plans developed during the «activity between the trainings» №2 in groups with support of experts;
2.
drawing up the renewed and corrected business-plans for presentation to local inhabitants;
3.
overall assessment of the training program;
4.
announcement of the tender criterions for the project proposals on the financing from the part of the project group.
The «Activity between the trainings» №4 proceeded from November to December. As it was in the past, it was supported by the facilitators of PA «Center for social innovations», PA «Educational center ‘‘POST‘‘» and Belarusian State Agricultural Academy (BSAA) and included the following activities:
1.
presentation and discussion of the corrected business-plans with the villagers ;
2.
beginning the implementation of the selected activities;
3.
preparation of tender proposal for obtainment of financing;
4.
general evaluation of the activity on the rural territories’ development.
Intervention description
The training part of the project was implemented very successfully, due to the large experience of participating organizations in such activity. On the trainings, all the scheduled themes were put forth, and participants confirmed their relevance for the work on development of their territories. The organizers were pleasantly surprised by the participants’ enthusiasm. The only trouble was high turnover of participants. From the initial staff, only three persons were present at the first seminar.
Another seven joined the team of participants during the second and the third seminars. In the opinion of organizations, it was a great achievement that the representatives of local authorities became active participants of the course. Besides, the organizers of the course managed to obtain financing to support several business plans or micro-projects. After the careful examination of applications by a special commission, composed from the representatives of CSI, POST and experts on rural development, there were selected three offers on implementation of micro-projects. The main criterions of selection of applications were the following:
 the project’s orientation towards the development of the region and the local community;
 employment of local recourses (human, financial) in implementation of the mini-project;
 existence of a team able to implement the mini-project in this locality.
After conduction of interviews and consultations the implementation of micro-projects has started. The main success was the implementation of the project on the internet-center establishment. Due to the fact, that the leader of this initiative group was a very experienced and respectful member of the community, he managed to find a place for the club and to get an authorization to open it quite quickly. An external student was trained by the Center for social innovations to administer the Center’s work. With the help of local community, the premise of the future center was renovated and in late
April of 2005, the Internet-center was opened.
The project of a local festival was not that easy to implement. The application was executed very skillfully. The only weak point was a schedule of the project implementation. It was revised and adapted to the real situation, which took some additional time. However, even more problems arose in the time of realization of the projects.
Because of mutual claims of organizers of the contest of projects (the program of the festival was not fulfilled, it was implemented under the aegis of another organization, financial report was not submitted) and the team, performing the mini-project (expenses on the conduction of the festival were not covered) their further cooperation became impossible. Due to this conflict, difficulties also arose in implementation of the second objective – establishment of a pilot internet-club in one of the regions.
Since the team, implementing this micro-project, participated in the festival preparation, it was also implicated in this conflict situation. The team unilaterally refused to work further with the organizers.
4 © PA “Center for Social Innovation”
Course on Rural Development in Belarus

Further work on the project «Course on rural development» the organizers had to re-orient on other regions of the Republic.
Conclusions
The «Course on rural development» is an innovative practice, aimed at teaching farmers and local authorities’ representatives on the new technologies of development, allowing increasing the quality of life of the population, not damaging the natural and cultural heritage. Thus, the criterions of sustainable development are the basis for the entire course. It is quite difficult to assess the sustainability of the practice itself, because it is rather new and some methodological aspects of it are still under revision. However, according to scientific research, the innovative practices of development for rural areas have to be implemented not less than through 7-15 years in succession, in order to become irreversible.
Dissemination of experience of the present practice, including the neighboring countries, it is planned on after the year 2006, when the appropriate informational materials are ready and published.
However, the developers are already willing to share their experience, gained in the process of development and implementation of the Course.
Contacts information
Leonid Kalitenja,
CSI coordinator of rural development projects
Viatcheslav Tcherniavski, financial manager of CSI
Minsk, Belarus, 220012, Independence Av. 76a, of
. 2C
Phone/fax. +3752840709, +3752840544
E-mail: slava@consult.by.com
5 © PA “Center for Social Innovation”
Course on Rural Development in Belarus