Workshop "Mitigating Social Vulnerabilities through Public Finance: Focus on Children and Adolescents"

The Sustainable Development Goals’ implementation represents a window of opportunity to improve the strategic allocation of resources to address vulnerable groups’ needs in Belarus. In the short run, the mobilization of significant additional financial resources in support of the SDG achievement may require the reprioritization of state expenditures, particularly in the social sector.

In this context, this discussion is timely as it creates a space for debating openly what needs to be done to make public interventions more systematic to reduce identified gaps in some SDG targets. It is time to take stocks of available global and local evidence coming from rigorous research and traditional cost-benefit and sectoral analyses.

Since the majority of social sector’s programs is financed by local budgets a strong role in improving the performance of public spending should be given to local level solutions aimed to support SDG localization and advance good (child-friendly) governance.

Conference opening
Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar, UNICEF Representative to Belarus
Dr. Alex Kremer, World Bank Country Manager for Belarus

Section 1. Risk of Vulnerabilities and Socioeconomic Mobility across Generations
Socio-economic Mobility across Generations: Belarus in the Global Context
Dr. Alexandru Cojocaru, Senior Economist at the Poverty Global Practice, World Bank

Discussion:

  • Dr. Joanne Bosworth, Regional Advisor, Social Policy, UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO)
  • Gleb Shymanovich, Economist at the IPM Research Center
  • Dr. Anastasia Bobrova, Head of Department, Institute of Economy, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
  • Natalia Shcherbina, Head of Division, Institute of Economics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

Section 2. Public Finance for Youth and Adolescents: Future Generation Orientation
Commitment to Equity and Future Generation Orientation
Dr. Jose Cuesta, Chief of Social and Economic Policy at the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti (Florence, Italy)

Discussion:

  • Dr. Ludmila Borovik, First Deputy Director, Economic Research Institute at the Ministry of Economy 
  • Dr. Kateryna Bornukova, Academic Director at BEROC 
  • Andrei Zayats, Centre for System Analysis and Strategic Research, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
  • Dzmitry Babicki, Senior Researcher, CASE Belarus

Speakers:

  Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar, UNICEF Representative to Belarus 

  Dr Alex Kremer, World Bank Country Manager for Belarus

   Joanne Bosworth, Ph.D., Regional Advisor, Social Policy, UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO)

  Alexandru Cojocaru, Ph.D., Senior Economist at the Poverty Global Practice, World Bank

  Jose Cuesta, Ph.D., Chief of Social and Economic Policy at the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti (Florence, Italy)

  Gleb Shymanovich, Economist at the IPM Research Center

 Anastasia Bobrova, Ph.D., Head of Department, Institute of Economy, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

 Natalia Shcherbina, Head of Division, Institute of Economics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

 Andrei Zayats, Centre for System Analysis and Strategic Research, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

  Dzmitry Babicki, Senior Researcher, CASE Belarus

 Kateryna Bornukova, Ph.D., Academic Director at BEROC