New Belarus: showcasing digital innovation to strengthen democracy, transparency, and civic participation

June 10, 2025

Date
2:10 pm—2:30 pm · June 10, 2025
Room
Dijlezaal (This won't be livestreamed)
In response to the 2020 Belarusian election crisis, New Belarus emerged as a digital ecosystem (mobile app + web platform), uniting Belarusians worldwide. Its mission transcends technology by building a resilient global Belarusian community committed to freedom and democracy, through an array of digital and civic tech initiatives.

Pavel will share the key achievements and innovations from the New Belarus ecosystem.

Key achievements:

  • Golos (2020): Engaged 500,000+ users in electoral monitoring, demonstrating scalable civic engagement.
  • EKRP (2020): Documented 790 police crimes, promoting legal accountability.
  • Digital Solidarity (2021): Mobilized €450,000 in donations from 16,000 people.
  • Okdoc (2021): Connected 150 doctors to 21,000 patients.
  • LegalHub (2021): Delivered legal aid to 8,000 clients with 30 experts.
  • ByMapka (2022): Boosted local businesses with 2,000 entries and 80,000 visits.
  • New Belarus (2023): Reached 70,000 users, with 50%+ in Belarus, fostering civic-political engagement.
  • Gronka (2024): Launched a crowdfunding platform for social and cultural projects, ensuring secure transactions via Stripe and cryptocurrency.

Innovative Initiatives:

  • Digital tax initiative: piloted participatory budgeting in 2023, funding a cultural library and history portal with €42,000 from 1,000 citizens. In 2024, over 1,400 observers and 344 participants submitted 20 high-quality ideas, collectively contributing €73,656.
  • Yas Haspadar AI candidate: combats authoritarian propaganda, amassing 100K YouTube views and 5K interactions, covered by global media.
  • Digital political office: bridges citizen-representative gaps via real-time dialogue and feedback. The AI assistant fosters engagement by handling feedback, inquiries, and discussing political news in real-time.
  • Digital voting & ID: provides blockchain-secured, transparent electoral processes audited by a leading US company.
  • Detection of propaganda (AI anti-propaganda tool): combats propaganda by identifying patterns, detecting bot farms, and automating responses. It analyses content, flags suspicious activity, and validates information against credible sources.

Explore:

Speakers