The Forum was a part of a European Week of Local Democracy, which is an annual European campaign, initiated by the Council of Europe and European Committee on Local and Regional Democracy on October 15, 2007 (Valencia, Spain). The purpose of the European Week of Local Democracy is to foster the knowledge of local democracy and promote the idea of democratic participation at a local level through venues held at local and national level in member countries of the Council of Europe. In Ukraine, annual activities devoted to European Week of Local Democracy are introduced with the Decree of the President № 922/2007 dated from September 27, 2007. UNDP was requested by the Foundation for Local Self-Government of Ukraine to share its approaches and experience of introducing the community-based local development in cooperation with the local self-government bodies all over Ukraine.

 

High level decision-makers participated in the Forum including Mr. Vasyl Kuybida, Minister of Regional Development and Building of Ukraine, Mr. Roman Bezsmertnyi, Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine, Mr. Oke Peterson, Secretary General of the Council of Europe for the Coordination of Cooperation programs with Ukraine, the Members of Parliament of Ukraine, representatives of the central government, NGOs and academia. During the Forum, they have discussed the priorities for improvement of local government in Ukraine and Europe, innovative mechanisms of development of local government, fostering regional democracy and transregional cooperation.          

 

On behalf of UNDP, Oksana Remiga, Senior Programme Manager, and Olena Ursu, MGSDP Officer-in-Charge, participated in the Forum. Ms. Remiga delivered a presentation on UNDP local Development Programmes and empowering the local communities for participation in decision-making for enabling proper reforms at the central level. Ms. Remiga briefly presented the experience of UNDP-led “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme”, “Chornobyl Recovery and Development Programme”, “Crimea Integration and Development Programme” and “Community Based Approach to Local Development” project.

 

“UNDP Local Development projects introduce new techniques, like community based approach that proved to be effective for solving broad variety of local development problems. Creation and development of community-based organizations demand to scale up the activities of the projects. At the same time, many legislative, administrative and financial obstacles for real self-government can be eliminated only at the central level”, said Oksana Remiga.

 

Ms. Remiga dwelt upon main components of Local Development Programmes, which include technical assistance and lobbying at the central level, strengthening local governance and community participation in decision-making process and community development. Local Development Programmes can facilitate drafting and amending legislation or reforming existing administrative practice through providing best practices and initiatives of communities, clearly defining the authority and responsibilities of each level of government, contribution to reform of intergovernmental fiscal relations etc. In addition, these Programmes assist in institutionalization of partnership between local communities and local government bodies through training programs for public servants, involving community to decision-making process. Community development component includes supporting self-organization of the communities, introduction and implementation of training programs for community organization, provision of small grants for community projects and improving living environment of the citizens.

 

Collection of the materials of this Forum will be published by Foundation for Local Self-Government of Ukraine under support from UNDP/MGSDP and other international donors involved in the sphere of local development in Ukraine.