Our team
Andrei Zayats
Managing Director
Andrei Zayats is a Managing Director at Darada Analytics as well as a lead consultant in public finance and social policy, with over 25 years of experience across Belarus and the Eurasia region.
- Expertise: Public finance management, fiscal policy reform, social sector modernisation, intergovernmental fiscal relations, public financial management information systems (FMIS), and public finance for children.
- Background: Over 25 years of experience in the fiscal sector, including 14 years as a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Finance of Belarus, where he led the team that drafted the National Budget Code and shaped fiscal policy for seven budget cycles. Served as a Lead Research Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences, advising on fiscal policy and trade in services. Extensive advisory experience with the international technical assistance projects for Government bodies, including Ministries of Finance, Economy, Labour and Social Protection, Housing and Public Utilities as well as local authorities. As a Social Policy Officer with UNICEF, he developed and piloted the public finance for children initiative, covering 25% of Belarus’s child population, and supported conducting the Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) costing study and developing the Multidimensional Child Poverty Index.
- Education: Advanced degrees in Economics, State and Local Governance, and Public Finance; postgraduate studies in Economics. Author of more than 20 publications, including 16 on public finance management.
Known for his ability to navigate complex stakeholder environments and translate high-level policy into actionable results, Andrei brings both strategic vision and technical rigor to transformative projects in transitional economies. Working languages: English, Russian, and Belarusian.
Alena Kasyanenka
Head of Sustainable Development & Regional Planning
Alena Kasyanenka is a Head of Sustainable Development and Regional Planning at Darada Analytics with over 20 years of project coordination and multi-stakeholder engagement experience in Belarus and the Eurasia region, focused on translating global sustainable development commitments into actionable local strategies.
Expertise: Sustainable development strategy, SDG localization, sustainable regional and urban planning, multi-stakeholder partnerships, international project coordination, capacity building, and event management.
Background: Over 20 years of experience in research, policy coordination, and project implementation. From 2023 to 2026, Alena served as Thematic Coordinator on Regional Development for UNDP Belarus. She coordinated the elaboration of sustainable development strategies for all regions of Belarus. Alena managed the SDG Pilot Initiatives Contest, through which 21 projects were supported, contributing to local socio-economic progress and inclusion. She organized major national and regional events on sustainable development and coordinated the creation of a database of SDG best practices.
Alena headed the department at the Institute for Regional and Urban Planning of Belarus, where she led research on sustainable cities, housing, climate change, and the green economy. She contributed to drafting the National Urban Development Policy of the Republic of Belarus for 2016–2020. She has extensive experience working with UN-Habitat, UN-ECE, and EU-funded projects.
Education:
Higher education degrees in Engineering and in Law.
Languages: Russian and English (advanced).
Alena is known for bridging national policy frameworks with regional implementation, combining strategic vision, strong coordination skills, and a results-oriented approach to sustainable development in transition economies.
Andrei Zayats
Managing Director & Senior Partner
Andrei Zayats is a Senior Partner and Managing Director at Darada Analytics as well as a lead consultant in public finance and social policy, with over 25 years of experience across Belarus and the Eurasia region.
- Expertise: Public finance management, fiscal policy reform, social sector modernisation, intergovernmental fiscal relations, public financial management information systems (FMIS), and public finance for children.
- Background: Over 25 years of experience in the fiscal sector, including 14 years as a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Finance of Belarus, where he led the team that drafted the National Budget Code and shaped fiscal policy for seven budget cycles. Served as a Lead Research Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences, advising on fiscal policy and trade in services. Extensive advisory experience with the international technical assistance projects for Government bodies, including Ministries of Finance, Economy, Labour and Social Protection, Housing and Public Utilities as well as local authorities. As a Social Policy Officer with UNICEF, he developed and piloted the public finance for children initiative, covering 25% of Belarus’s child population, and supported conducting the Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) costing study and developing the Multidimensional Child Poverty Index.
- Education: Advanced degrees in Economics, State and Local Governance, and Public Finance; postgraduate studies in Economics. Author of more than 20 publications, including 16 on public finance management.
Known for his ability to navigate complex stakeholder environments and translate high-level policy into actionable results, Andrei brings both strategic vision and technical rigor to transformative projects in transitional economies. Working languages: English, Russian, and Belarusian.
Our experts
Olga Avila
Expert in Early Childhood Development and Child Health Care
Over 25 years of experience bridging clinical practice and health policy in Belarus and the Eurasia region, with deep expertise in primary health care, early childhood intervention (ECI), deinstitutionalization, and early child development (ECD)
Farhod Khamidov
Expert in Monitoring, Evaluation and Research
Over 23 years of experience supporting socio-economic programmes in development and humanitarian settings. Brings deep expertise in evaluations, surveys, visualisation, evidence use and data systems, with regional experience across Europe, Central Asia, East and South Asia, and the Middle East
