The document discusses the need for an Institute of Belarusian Reforms (IBR) to help develop Belarus. It notes the lack of experts to help with upcoming transformations and a shortage of opinion makers. The IBR's mission would be to develop a new elite of intellectuals to form public opinion and help with reforms. Its goals are to promote scientific expertise, consolidate Belarusian elites through cooperation, make knowledge more accessible, and present alternative development paths for Belarus. Proposed IBR projects include an online knowledge bank, a magazine, a student paper contest, and developing a comprehensive vision for Belarusian reforms.

1. Institute of
Belarusian
Reforms
We think Belarus

2. Let’s get it started
 A VISION written down with a date
becomes goal.
 A goal broken down into STEPS becomes
a plan.
 A plan backed by ACTIONS makes our
intentions come true.

3. Problem
Why we are convinced that the institute of
Belarusian reforms is needed:
There is no any certain expert group in Belarus
which is recognized as real alternative to the
current government, a team, which would be
perceived as professionals who are able to
meet the difficult challenges of upcoming
transformation.

4. Problem
Why we are convinced that the Institute of
Belarusian Reforms is needed:
Belarus feels an acute shortage of people,
who can play the role of opinion makers not
only among scientific community, but also
in media and NGOs.

5. Problem
Why we are convinced that the Institute of
Belarusian reforms is needed:
Due to permanent brain drain and intensive
emigration impact social and political
initiatives in Belarus are in desperate need
of intellectual renewal and suffer from a
lack of new well-educated leaders.

6. Problem
Why we are convinced that the Institute of
Belarusian reforms is needed:
Belarusian expert community is very
atomized. University graduates, young
specialists, scientists and policy-makers in a
very modest extend share results of their
scientific researches.

7. Our Mission
We aspire to emerge new Belarusian elite – a
strong community of effective and ambitious
intellectuals, who will be able to form public
opinion, win political competitions, take active
part in carrying out market-oriented reforms
and building democratic institutions in the
Republic of Belarus.

8. Our Goals
It’s always the small pieces that makes the
big picture.

9. Pro-scientific approach
Common sense is not so common
We will strive to:
 promote scientific approach for expertise, analysis and drawing
conclusions among citizens of the Belarusian State, first of all among
journalists, set analytical trends and directions of public debate,
 popularize qualitative scientific product concerning Belarus
generated by foreign institutions & international organizations,
 establish online library containing expertise on the Belarusian
subjects,
 assist Belarusian citizens in revealing their scientific potential,
developing and publishing new scientific papers, submitting
applications for foreign educational programs;

10. Effective co-operation
Because life is a team sport
We will strive to:
 consolidate pro-Belarusian scientific and student elites,
professionals from real sector, think-tanks and NGOs on the ground
of common scientific vision of the Belarusian perspectives,
 accumulate human resources for the state officials of future
democratic Belarus,
 maintain a platform for enhanced co-operation between the
Belarusian experts and the international scientific community,
 use project-management and principle of scientific labor division
for the development of new analytical materials related to Belarus;

11. Knowledge sharing
The best way to have a good idea is to
have a lot of ideas
We will strive to:
 make analytical knowledge about Belarus more open and
accessible,
 persuade well-educated Belarusians to share knowledge and
experience with the society,
 create a platform, where experts from different countries can
collaborate and share their scientific results related to Belarus;

12. Time for change
If you change nothing, nothing will change
We will strive to:
 make the Belarusian society believe in the necessity and realness of
changes, as well as in the fact, that their country has chances of
decreasing the welfare gap between Belarus and i.e. OECD member
states in a reasonable period of time,
 set up a new developmental level of the Belarusian expert community,
restore social optimism and self-confidence,
 present alternative ways of advancement of the Belarusian State,
 engage the most promising Belarusian intellectuals in the media world
and make them public opinion leaders,
 recruit ambitious Belarusian intellectuals to think-tanks, enhance them to
try their hand in social movements and political parties;

13. Good lobbing is not bad
The key to successful leadership today is
influence, not authority
We will strive to:
 strengthen Belarusian lobby in the EU and the United States,
push for Belarusian demands among analysts and decision-
makers of official development assistance,
 promote competition between policy-makers and raise
standards of expertise concerning Belarus in order to extort the
Western democratic institutions take more deliberate and
perspicacious decisions supporting the Belarusian civil society,
 draw attention of the international scientific environment to
Belarusian problems, use the experience of foreign partners to
develop optimal concept of forthcoming transformation;

14. ACTIONS
Ideas for projects
1. Knowledge Bank
2. Magazine “Brainstorm”
3. Contest of scientific papers
4. Complex vision of Belarusian reforms

15. 1. Knowledge Bank
We want to create a web library that would contain analytical
materials, R&D surveys, newspaper and magazine scientific papers
prepared by domestic and foreign experts on the subject of
Belarusian transition. The main attention of IBR would be drawn to the
following areas of science: economics, sociology, political science,
law and public administration.
In addition to individual researches our internet portal would also offer
a broad overview of thematic publications and studies related to
Belarus, which are developed by international organizations (IMF,
OECD, The World Bank, United Nations…), universities, NGO’s, rating
agencies and so on.
A considerable place on the site would be devoted to educational
programs. We are going to inform our readers about sensible
undergraduate, master's & doctoral international programs and
initiatives dedicated to Belarusians, as well as internships and trainings
in prestigious international institutions and organizations.

16. 2. Magazine “Brainstorm”
The most valuable materials from our web portal
would be published in the quarterly "Brainstorm". If
magazine format would not allow us to place the
original publications in full, we would publish some
kind of summaries.
The magazine would be issued in two languages:
Belarusian and English (50/50).

17. 3. Belarus 1994:
twenty years later
The contest of scientific papers under the general title
“Belarus 1994: twenty years later”
Participants of the contest would be suggested to send
analytical researches related to the Belarusian post-
communist transformation: results, problems, trends,
prospects and forecasts. The most fundamental and
integrated works would be published in reputable
scientific journals and get symbolically rewarded. Sensible
participants of the contest would be also invited to
become a member of IBR ‘young think-tank’ and visit
special IBR conferences concerning challenges of modern
Belarus.

18. 4. Complex vision of
Belarusian reforms
The „young think-tank” team would be proposed to
develop universal vision of Belarusian reforms. Such a
survey would be presented to the Belarusian society as
“universal candidate programme” for presidential
elections in 2015.
So every politician who share ideas of democracy, market
economy and human rights and doesn’t have his own
candidate programme wouble be able to rely his
campaign message on ideas presented by the IBR think-
tank.

19. P.S.
We believe, that strong scientific network is more
important than knowledge of a single expert. For
knowledge is limited, whereas people’s cooperation
and knowledge sharing embraces the entire world,
stimulating progress and giving birth to new ideas.