On 28th of October UNFPA and its partners hosted first round table in Minsk within the Project on supporting the realization of the National Programme for Demographic Security of the Republic of Belarus. The aim of the round table was to assess the efficiency of the measures chosen to ensure demographic security in Belarus and the possibilities of their improvement.
The Project is financed by the Government of Russian Federation, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). National coordinator of the project is Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus.
Round table hosted representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Economy, experts from National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, Russian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, as well as from geography and economics faculties of Belarusian State University.
The participants of the round table discussed the perspectives of improving the methodology of assessment of separate measures and programmes of demographic policy as well as the policy as such.
Availability of specific indicators of change in demographic situation, development and improvement of demography indicators monitoring, assessment and evaluation systems can help to trace the tendencies in migration, birth, mortality and life expectancy in Belarus and hence introduce necessary measures to prevent the risks and cope with the challenges. This means that improvement of demography analysis is important for each of us as it helps to come up with more informed and efficient population related policies in Belarus.
One of the biggest challenges for experts today is to monitor and forecast migration processes in Belarus. It is hardly possible to follow whether the migrants stay in the country or return back, and how much time they spend in Belarus.
These and other issues were discussed during round table by the key stakeholders in Belarus dealing with demographic policies and statistics as well as experts from Russian Federation.
