Participants of the Forum meeting included Mayors and other decision-makers from 22 partner municipalities of UNP-led Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme, national stakeholders like the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine, Ministry of Housing and Municipal Economy of Ukraine, Academy of Municipal Management, donors agencies like United Nations Development Programme, Canadian International Development Agency, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and other donor-supported projects.

 

Having started from reviewing the course of Programme implementation in 2008, the participants discussed the current situation of local self-government, donor support in the sector of local development and decentralization in Ukraine, and results of applying community-based development approach to solve priority development problems like repairs of housing infrastructures, increasing people’s access to drinking water, strengthening social protection for people with disabilities, raising access to quality medical services etc.

 

Since 2004 when the Programme was initiated, the experience of three pilot municipalities has been adopted by 19other municipalities across the country, including 4 new municipalities in Autonomous Republic of Crimea. In her welcome speech, Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecka, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, marked the growth in the size and partnership of the Programme: “Continued increase in demand for the Programme is encouraging. We are glad to see that our partners are involving local communities more and more into their decision-making process and undertaking of local development. Thus, the vision of Johannesburg Declaration and that of Ukrainian Millennium Development Goals to improve living condition of the citizens through public-private partnership is being translated into action in the partner municipalities”.

 

Yulia Sudnikova, Head of Department of Strategy of Reform of Communal and Housing Economy Of the Ministry of Communal and Housing Economy said: “The Ministry supports cooperation with Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme and will provide support for such cooperation. In our opinion, the major role of the Programme is to transfer its successful experience of implementation of community projects for creation of effective owner of residential property for persuasion of wider public in necessity of such reform”.

 

In 2008, 28 local community projects were supported worth 3092 thousand UAH. 46.5% of the total cost was contributed by the partner municipalities, 29.6% - by UNDP/MGSDP, 13.1% - by local communities and 10.8% - by other donors. Iryna Skaliy, UNDP/MGSDP Project Manager, expressed gratitude to Programme bi-lateral donors – Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Canadian International Development Agency, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ukraine – for continued support to Programme activities in Ukraine. Nevertheless, she also mentioned that city councils of Ukraine remain the top first Programme donors and beneficiaries at the same time, contributing the highest share of cost-sharing to community development initiatives. It shows that the approach is being internalized in there everyday activities and policies. “Municipalities express demand to learn the experience of MGSDP and incorporate it in regular operation of the city councils. Also, the share of financial contribution in co-financing of community projects is growing. We observe that the interest to the Programme activities is increasing and Programme approach coincides with the course of policy reforms in Ukraine”.  

 

In order to analyze Programme experience and generate recommendations for municipalities of all over Ukraine policy studies were conducted in 2008; there results were presented to the participants of the Forum by UNDP/MGSDP Consultants. Leonid Tulovskyi presented a model of citizens’ engagement in solving problems of water supply and sanitation in urban areas of Ukraine, and Oleksandr Orlenko presented recommendations for nation-wide application of community based approach for urban development and exploring opportunities for inter-municipal cooperation.

 

Among the best practices discussed during the Forum, there were the experience of introduction of quality management system for municipal services in accordance with the ISO 9001:2000 (presented by Yuriy Gerzhov, Voznesensk City Mayor), experience of community-based strategic development planning (presented by Mykola Borovets, Novograd-Volynsky City Mayor), local support of creation and functioning of condominiums for effective housing policy at the local level (presented by Volodymyr Garazd, Dolyna City Mayor), experience of universities in establishing education for local sustainable development (presented by Anatoliy Sadovenko, Academic Secretary of the Academy of Municipal Management) and other.

 

Judging from the course of discussion, the housing sector remains one of those spheres of the municipal economy, where citizens’ engagement and active behavior is one of the most important factors. In this regard, Volodymyr Garazd, Dolyna City Mayor, said: “Any changes and reforms start from consciousness of the citizens. Therefore, our local reform of communal and housing sector was based on forming the effective owner through changing citizens’ perception and attitude to common property. Cooperation with UNDP/MGSDP was an opportunity, real chance and a step ahead for us. Having received unique experience of work with communities and having studied the experience of other cities of Ukraine, we developed our vision of the reform through supporting condominiums creation. We carried out strong information campaign, provided legal, financial and accounting consultations and allocated budget resources for supporting condominiums, which helped us achieve positive results. At present, we are at the second stage of the reform, which envisages establishing real effective ownership of property. It is important to train citizens to manage their property, create favorable conditions, facilitate establishment of market of services and adopt legislation for their effective operation. We hope that support of UNDP and Ministry of Communal and Housing Economy will helpus implement our plans to create a model of management of housing stock in a small municipality and transfer our experience to other municipalities”.

 

In course of discussions and presentations, the participants have worked out recommendations to be taken into consideration by UNDP/MGSDP management and donor agencies for improving the Programme implementation to bring maximum benefit for the Ukrainian citizens.