Public Associations and Civic Initiatives in Belarus: Participation Potential
July 2020
Reliable data on civic activism, on attitude towards civil organizations and initiatives, on readiness to
participate in their activities is an essential element in the development of strategies, action plans and
project proposals of public organizations and civic initiatives.
The issue of factors determining civic activism is the focus of the survey "Public Associations and Citizens
Initiatives: Participation Potential", conducted in 2019 by the Baltic Internet Policy Initiative (BIPI)
and the Office of European Expertise and Communications (OEEC). The purpose of the survey is to
“measure” (1) awareness and involvement of citizens in activities of public organizations and initiatives;
(2) potential for participation in their activities. The survey involved 1434 respondents., 71 % of whom
(1018 citizens) know about the activities of public organizations and civic initiatives in their locality and
or region.
The survey has shown:
- promising potential: the share of respondents who are ready to take part in activities of public
organizations and civic initiatives is three times larger compared to the share of those who are
already involved in their activities.
- the highest participation potential is among the residents of rural areas and small towns aged 15-
24,
- voluntary participation prevails though 24,2% of respondents answered that they participate in
civic activities because their managers/authorities make them do so,
- lack of information: 71% of respondents know about the activities of public organizations and civic
initiatives in their locality and/or region, but 72% of them would like to know more,
- prospects for building confidence: 11% of the respondents fully trust public organizations and civic
initiatives, and 69% of respondents have a positive attitude to such activities,
- degree of satisfaction with the activities of public organizations and civic initiatives: 55% of
respondents believe that public organizations should solve local problems, but only 33% say that
they actually do so,
- main criteria for judgment and evaluation of the activities of public organizations and civic initiatives:
personal participation in events and information in social networks,
- main motives for participation: interesting projects, shared values, desire to help others, clear goals
of organizations and initiatives,
- main barriers for participation: lack of awareness about opportunities for participation and lack of
resources (time and competencies),
- most in-demand areas of activities: ecology, human rights, healthy lifestyle, social services, culture;
but only ecology, healthy lifestyle, and human rights are among the five areas of activity in which
respondents are likely to take part,
- formal membership in public organizations without active participation in their activities remains a
serious challenge,
- the range of activities of the organizations of the “third sector” does not correspond to the
perceptions of the respondents about the needed civil society activities and their readiness to
participate in currently available activities.
To realize the potential, the following is needed:
- better inform the public about the goals, values and specific projects of organizations and initiatives,
- take into account the need to develop strategies aimed at building trust in civil activism,
- actively participate in solving specific problems of local communities,
- connect action plans with the agendas of new social movements (ecology, human rights, healthy lifestyles, etc.) both to attract supporters and to compensate for inconsistency between the thematic
spectrum of the “third sector” organizations, perceptions of the relevance of civic activism and
readiness to participate in such activities,
- to consider and use the opportunities of developing action plans for increasing civil activism,
taking into account the data disaggregated by gender, age, education, employment and type of
settlement.
Analytical report in
English and in
Russian
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