This report covers the period 1 January to 31 December 2011

In brief

Programme outcome

IFRC supported programmes in Belarus aim to reduce the number of deaths, illnesses and impact from disasters and public health emergencies; to reduce the number of deaths, injuries and impact from disasters; to increase local community, civil society and Red Cross Red Crescent capacity to address the most urgent situations of vulnerability; and to promote respect for diversity and human dignity, and reduce intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion.

Programme(s) summary

The overriding purpose of this programme support plan is to strengthen Belarus Red Cross capacities in terms of increasing its role in the civil society to effectively address local vulnerabilities and to meet the humanitarian challenges facing Belarus today. Over the past year, IFRC country representation has been providing essential support and advice to Belarus Red Cross in meeting its strategic priorities, including:

• Scaling up HIV programming to include HIV prevention in the field of labour; • Introducing gender oriented approaches in HIV prevention and harm reduction programming;
• Increasing capacities of communities to prevent and cope with human influenza pandemic;
• Meeting the needs of the most vulnerable individuals affected by the socio-economic crisis;
• Establishing a psychosocial support service to victims of disasters in accordance with IFRC standards;
• Developing youth volunteer movement and participation; • Facilitating tailored organizational development support to Belarus Red Cross upon request related to revising statutes, Red Cross law, strengthening governance and management, resource mobilization and finance development, human resource management;
• Supporting prevention and assistance measures related to trafficking in human beings, consisting of, primarily, awareness-raising through peer-to-peer education, rehabilitation and social re-integration of victims;
• Promoting social inclusion and empowerment approaches towards the discriminated and marginalized people.

IFRC representation assistance goes far beyond technical programme support, such as financial and budget management services for ongoing programmes. Partnership development and coordination, support to grant applications and assistance in identifying funding opportunities, humanitarian diplomacy and supplementary services to National Societies operating bilaterally have also been in the centre of attention.