Mission and vision

OEEC is a non-profit organisation that runs programs for communities and organisations to benefit civil society in Belarus. Our activities are based on a positive approach, high standards of management, and service delivery.

Our mission: We create and strengthen opportunities for people and organisations to engage in positive changes in their lives, the lives of their communities, and Belarus as a part of Europe.

We work for a diverse and progressive civil society that:

  • bases their activities on the needs of target groups, expertise, and reliable data;
  • engages people in processes that are meaningful to them to influence what happens in the society;
  • creates space for partnership, communication, exchange of experience and expertise, where people and organisations trust each other and cooperate for the public good.

We believe that people, organisations, and communities can make any positive changes around them by developing necessary competencies.

We are convinced that innovations, exchange of experience, best practices, development of connections, contacts, and partnerships within Belarus and between Belarusian, European, and Eastern Partnership organizations can strengthen civil society.

We trust that the Belarusian experience is as valuable as the European one, and the mutual exchange will benefit everyone.

Key Values of the OEEC

Human rights, gender equality and environmental friendliness are not merely about a nice verbiage. The OEEC is guided in its work by cross-cutting values.

Human rights are about an unalienable legacy of all the people with no differences. The right to life and freedom, freedom from slavery or tortures, freedom of opinion and its free expression, the right to work and education and many more.

Gender equality is about the recognition of women and girls’ rights and their empowerment. The OEEC seeks to make women visible in its work.

Environmental friendliness is a concept designed to minimise the damage that humans have already caused to the environment for the sake of preventing any possible future damage. When arranging its events and meetings or when running its programmes, the OEEC aspires to adopt a waste-free operational format.

The OEEC employees, as well as its external consultants, trainers, and experts, are guided by the Non-Discrimination Policy.