Policy Papers
Affordable, effective and just? How people see the Belarusian system of social support for families with children
Demographic policy, in particular measures for birth rate stimulation, has generated considerable discussion among experts and in the society that is due to notable decline in the fertility rate after 2016. Why after a decade of steady birth rate growth, Belarus finds itself again on the edge of demographic crisis and almost continuous "improvement of support measures for families with children" still have not made it possible to stabilize the fertility rate at the level of simple reproduction of the population?
The Policy Paper is available only in Russian.
Support policy for families with children in Belarus inherited the key social guarantees that were envisaged during the Soviet time (free healthcare, education, employment guarantees, childcare allowance, benefits for nutrition and health recovery, etc.). The stand-alone model of family policy in Belarus started to form with the adoption of the law "About demographic security" in 2002. The law identified demographic risks (depopulation, aging, unregulated migration processes and degradation of family institute) and set the structure of state programs in the field of demographic security, including the directions for public policy towards families with children and "in the field of standard and quality of life". Based on the law "On demographic safety", number of programs have been developed and adopted, namely National programs for demographic security for the years 2007–2010 and 2011–2015, Government program "Health of the people and demographic security of the Republic of Belarus" for 2016–2020, all providing for the strengthening of support measures for families with children. In these laws family policy in Belarus aquired explicit paternalistic characteristics. The aim of active participation of the state was seen in "improving the quality of life of families with children", while the ultimate goal was to "stabilize the demographic situation" in the country and to "create the preconditions for demographic growth".
This work is part of a study of the attitude of the Belarusian population to the social protection system, which is conducted by the IPM Research Center together with BEROC.