It was a great pleasure on behalf of PASCAL to speak at a conference focusing on the theme of ‘Learning cities for a creative economy and sustainable development’ held in the City of Vitebsk, the first officially designated Learning City in Belarus.

The conference, which took place 19-20 October 2018, was attended by more than 100 people and included representatives from cities across Belarus as well as experts in city development from 11 countries.

The region of Vitebsk, which has a population of 1.3 million people, is located close to the Russian and Latvian border.  The region has national parks, nature reserves, and wildlife preserves and the city is seeking to develop from an agricultural region to one which includes tourism and creative industries. The city wants to develop as a learning city which will not only engage its citizens in learning, but which can act as a model for development for other cities  and regions in Belarus.

The conference provided an opportunity to learn more about the plans for developing the city as well as to hear about experience in international contexts and to learn from presentations on themes related to the creative economy and sustainable development.  The opening sessions included welcome addresses from key personnel in the Vitebsk Learning City.

Chairman of Vitebsk City Council of Deputies, Mr Vladimir Belevich noted the importance of involving stakeholders and learning from experience. He noted that :

‘Co-ordination of efforts among government bodies, business, civil society and the academic community is one of the key factors of consistent implementation of the learning city concept today… learning from the best practices and becoming a participant of the international dialogue play an equally important role in development plans. Close cooperation with experts and practitioners will facilitate the development and implementation of effective solutions aimed at sustainable development of the city and for the development of a learning city.’

Deputy of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, Ms Tatsiana Starynskaya noted that the development of a holistic, consistent plan uniting the potential of citizens and steadfast political will of the city administration are the key conditions for further progress.

Prior to the conference, Vitebsk City was awarded the status of Learning City from UNESCO at a ceremony in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. The city accepted a certificate of membership of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities.

DVV International has supported the development of Vitebsk as a learning city  and  made a significant input to the development of the conference.  DVV is an Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association (DVV). It has more than 200 partners in over 35 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin-America. It supports building sustainable structures and systems for Adult Education along with citizens, educational organisations and governments. Working together with the people in partner countries, they seek to establish places for Lifelong Learning. They promote the establishment of Adult Education Centres which foster a culture of learning throughout life. As important part of the education landscape, they act as local implementing actors and motor for the learning city concept.  http://www.dvv-international.org.ua/

Mr Viktor Nikolaikin, Chairman of Vitebsk City Executive Committee in the City Action Plan notes:

‘The main goal of sustainable socio-economic development in 2018-2020 is to improve the quality of people’s lives Vitebsk by improving the level of culture as well as health of citizens and by providing high quality of education among other things… People and their creative potential are the main factors that promote the principles of sustainable development in all areas of the city’s activities. In this respect the creation of a favourable learning environment is becoming an important strategic resource.’  (City Action Plan 2018-2020).

Commenting on the success of the conference Ms Galina Veramejchyk, Country Director of DVV International Belarus said:

‘The conference has been an enormous success in bringing together so many people working in different services across Belarus and in providing a forum for the sharing of ideas and experiences both within Belarus and internationally from a number of presentations. DVV is pleased to be able to support the development of Vitebsk as a learning city and to provide a forum for the sharing of ideas and experiences which can assist the social and economic development of  learning across Belarus and beyond.’

A range of themed presentations and discussions enabled participants attending the conference to share ideas about practice, culture and creativity as a source for economic development and civic participation and for the development of urban communities.

Visits were also organised to see examples of good practice. These included a visit to a confectionary factory, to a ‘factory laboratory’ providing education course on robotics electronics, programming and other disciplines for adults and children  www.robovita.by/ and a visit to a Regional Resource Centre for adult education development in Vitebsk. I myself visited the Vitebsk Art Museum, previously an art college and now a resource not only for the local community, but for tourists visiting the city. 

Overall the densely packed programme provided a glimpse of an exciting range of activities and opportunities which Vitebsk is developing and which provide a model for development for other Belarus cities. 

Rob Mark, PASCAL Learning Cities Coordinator

The first picture below shows Rob Mark, PASCAL Learning Cities Coordinator, Choi Un Shuil, Anjou University, South Korea, Christoph Jost, Director of DVV International,German Adult Education Association and Galina Veramejchyk, Country Director of DVV International, Belarus.

The second picture is of the DVV logo.

(Click to enlarge).