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Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Territorial brand for Chernobyl recovering areas
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
EXPLORATORY
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is to promote the development the Chernobyl territories using new narratives and storytelling to change the societal perceptions of the regions. We focus on making these regions attractive for investors, SMEs and bankable projects as well as supporting development of local human potential.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
Support for the territories of Belarus affected by the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is one of the priorities of the work of the UN country team. The importance of the development of the Chernobyl regions is enshrined in the Resolution of the UN General Assembly of December 16, 2019 on cooperation to mitigate and minimize the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster.
Since 1986, international organizations, donors, the private sector, and civil society organizations have supported the restoration of the affected areas and the population living in these territories. During this time, with the support of UN agencies in Belarus, more than 80 large-scale projects and programs for restoration and development were implemented for a total amount of more than 70 million US dollars. Only the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), over the past five years, together with national and international partners, has implemented 68 initiatives in the affected areas worth about 5.85 million US dollars.
The development of economic potential contributes to the effective restoration of the Chernobyl territories. Positioning the region, which help remove the stigma of "affected" and "unsafe" territory, will allow local business entities (including social entrepreneurs) to enter new markets for their products.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Regional entrepreneurship is provides livelihoods and drive economic development at the local level. SMEs development is a national priority enshrined in the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of the Republic of Belarus for the period up to 2035, the Program for Socio-Economic Development of the Republic of Belarus for the period 2021-2025, the Strategy for Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurship "Belarus - the Land of Successful Entrepreneurship" for the period up to 2030, the State Program "Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurship" for the period 2021-2025.
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
In May 2023, the Lab conducted an exploratory mission to the Brahin and Khoiniki districts. Findings include:
1.Local SMEs and executive committees confirmed the importance and necessity of debiasing the Chernobyl’s regions production. Negative perception of products on internal and external markets hinders entrepreneurship development and negatively effects on sustainability. According to the local community, holding an information campaign that will demonstrate the quality, safety, traditions of the region's products will contribute to addressing these challenges;
2. Bragin and Khoiniki executive committees are interested and ready to implement initiatives on destigmatization of Chernobyl regions’s producs. Piloting new mechanisms will strengthen the local business initiative and create conditions for the local export.
3. Local authorities and Republican Association of wheelchair users noted the effectiveness and crucial role of UNDP’s support for vulnerable groups in the Chernobyl regions. Involvement of PWD and other vulnerable groups (rural women, elderly people, youth) to economic activities and entrepreneurship ensures their access to sustainable livelihoods.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
The AccLab will employ innovative communications tools to formulate new value perception of the products of enterprises in the Bragin and Khoiniki districts of the Gomel region. The AccLab will convey local authorities, small businesses (such as farmers, artisans, etc.), local and national influencers as well as media and comms experts to develop and test stories and narratives for districts.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
Territorial re-branding will help to destigmatize Chernobyl recovering areas and promote new approaches to support local economic development.
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
Ministry of Economy, Bragin Executive Committee, Khoiniki Executive Committee, local businesses
What sector does our partner belong to?
Private Sector
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Partnership will invest their expertise and local knowledge to identify, design and promote new value perception of the products of enterprises in the Bragin and Khoiniki districts.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
What tools are most effective to debias the Chernobyl’s regions production?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Explore, Test
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Human-centered Design and co-creation with local partners will be used to develop, test and evaluate the effectiveness of comms tools.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
The value that UNDP brings is local presence. UNDP has supported many local initiatives and can collect information about their further development through user journeys, surveys, interviews, and experiments. These sources brings trends that can be scaled up in other districts or regions of the country and persuade policy makers.
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
Аround 1,5 m rural entrepreneurs, and around 0,9m of local population living in Chernobyl recovering areas.
The implementation of the set of rebranding activities will allow:
- to pilot new tools to support local economic development;
- create conditions for the development of new economic growth points;
- to increase the investment attractiveness of the region;
- strengthen the sustainability of local SMEs.
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8Decent work and economic growth
11Sustainable cities and communities
17Partnerships for the goals
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