From January 11 to February 28, a thematic exhibition "The Republic of Belarus and Sustainable Development" was opened in the Official Documents department (2nd floor, room 207).

Sustainable development is development in which the needs of current generations are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This basic formulation first appeared in 1987 in the report “Our Common Future”, prepared by the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development. In 1992, at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, this term was used as the name of a new concept of the existence of all mankind. Methods for the practical implementation of the concept of sustainable development were discussed at the Earth Summit, at which world leaders adopted Agenda 21, proclaiming the obligations of states on the basic principles for achieving sustainable development by our civilization. At the conference, all participating countries were asked to build their national socio-economic development programs in such a way that the provision of the material needs of the current generation did not cause damage and did not jeopardize the existence of future generations of people.

In August-September 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development was held in Johannesburg (South Africa), at which the participating States agreed on the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of Implementation. The key concept of sustainable development recognized the possibility of economic growth, taking into account the solution of three problems: 1) environmental, related to the prevention of the detrimental impact on the environment, as well as the high probability of human death due to possible global environmental and technological disasters; 2) economic, involving the transition to a qualitatively new resource-saving technologies and the preferential use of renewable resources; 3) socio-demographic, based on overcoming the polarization between the poor and the rich.

Due to the development of the concept of sustainable development in the Republic of Belarus by the international community, the National Commission on Sustainable Development was established in 1996, and in 1997 the first National Sustainable Development Strategy of the Republic of Belarus (NSSD) was adopted. It was based on the ideological principles and methodological approaches of Agenda 21, as defined by the UN Conference on Environment and Development.

In 2004, Belarus developed and approved the National Strategy for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development of the Republic of Belarus until 2020 (NSSD-2020). In NSDS – 2020, the main attention is paid to the features of the forecast period, the further implementation of Agenda 21, the harmonization of social, economic and environmental development as equivalent complementary components in a single balanced complex "man - environment - economy".

In September 2015, the UN member states adopted a new Sustainable Development Agenda for the period up to 2030. It consists of 17 main Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 related tasks and 242 indicators designed to solve the most acute problems of humanity and improve the state of the planet. The adoption of the Agenda 2030 required all states to revise and concretize their national plans and mechanisms to achieve the sustainable development of society, taking into account the SDGs. Belarus is committed to the implementation of Agenda 2030 and has already taken a number of important steps to implement it at the national level: the Government of the Republic of Belarus approved the National Strategy for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development until 2030, appointed a National Coordinator for the Sustainable Development Goals, formed the Council for Sustainable Development development. Within the Council, sectoral working groups on economic, environmental and social issues are formed.

The exhibition presents more than 100 documents from the collections of the National Library of Belarus in Russian and English: books, periodicals, brochures, booklets.

The exposition consists of the following thematic sections:

The concept of sustainable development: the essence, principles, main aspects
Sustainable Development Strategy of the Republic of Belarus: the environmental aspect
Economic aspects of sustainable development of the Republic of Belarus
Social component of sustainable development of the Republic of Belarus
Sustainable development of regions and regions of the Republic of Belarus
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Republic of Belarus

The exhibition will be interesting for specialists in the field of environmental, economic and socio-economic planning and forecasting, economists, environmentalists, students and teachers, as well as all those interested in the sustainable development of the Republic of Belarus.

Useful Links:

• UN and Sustainability
• Sustainable development goals
• World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, South Africa, August 26 - September 4, 2002)
• UN General Assembly Special Session to review implementation of Agenda 21 (Earth Summit + 5) (New York, June 23-27, 1997)
• 17 goals to transform our world
• Sustainable Development Goals in Belarus
• Regional Forum of SDG Coordinators: building partnerships to support national sustainable development efforts
• National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSSD) for the period until 2020

Documents:

• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
• Agenda 21
• Program for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 (A/RES/S-19/2)
• Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (A/CONF.199/20)
• General Assembly resolution on the implementation of Agenda 21, the Program for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the decisions of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (A/RES/64/236)
• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• Starting positions of Belarus to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
• National strategy for sustainable socio-economic development of the Republic of Belarus for the period up to 2020
• National Strategy for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development until 2030
• On the development of the draft National Strategy for Sustainable Development of the Republic of Belarus for the period up to 2035

The opening hours of the exhibition corresponds to the library’s opening hours.
Entrance to the exhibition is available by the library ticket or ticket of the library's social and cultural center.

For more info: (+375 17) 293 27 34.
Е-mail: pr@nlb.by

The article is created by the Official Documents Department.