The UNDP-led Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme works in partnership with 22 municipalities belonging to 12 regions of Ukraine as well as at the national level in order to promote participatory governance so as to improve living quality of the people in urban Ukraine.

 

Using social mobilisation approach, the Programme promotes creation of community-based organizations in the selected municipalities which are founded on the principles of self-help and good governance. Through the Programme intervention, their institutional capacity is built such that they are able to plan, mobilise resources and undertake their priorities to solve their social, economic and environmental problems in a sustainable way that ultimately lead towards accomplishment of Ukrainian Millennium Development Goals. It happens with support from the respective city councils and other national/international development agencies. The city councils integrate communities’ plan in their own development agenda and contribute resources to implement such plans. The process of local sustainable development is bottom up in true sense. It moves from local level all the way up to national level.

 

Saky is one of 4 municipalities in Autonomous Republic of Crimea which joined UNDP/MGSDP in 2007 in order to apply the community-based approach to local development. Since then, Saky City Council has established the effective Unit for Supporting Community Initiatives, realised a number of awareness campaigns on important agenda of human development (HIV/AIDS prevention, promotion of gender equality), and mobilized the local communities to plan and implement projects on solving their priority development problems. Currently, 3 community projects are being supported by UNDP/MGSDP, including 2 on roof reconstruction by the associations of co-owners of multi-apartment buildings and 1 on sewerage system and sanitation improvement by the public organization of the local kindergarten.

 

As the community mobilization work initiated by Saky City Council upon launching partnership with UNDP starts bringing first inspiring results, the City Councl has created the video film which reflects appreciation of the community work in the city, and motivates citizens to participate in local decision-making on a wider scale. This film can be seen in Internet by the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY9UfQsuazA

 

In framework of MGSDP, such activities in the partner municipalities are supported by major donors – UNDP core fund, Swiss Agency on Development and Cooperation, Canadian International Development Agency and Royal Norwegian Embassy to Ukraine.