Symferopol (AR
The workshop was organized by UNDP-led Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme (UNDP/MGSDP) under support of Canadian International Development Agency.
To increase the level of satisfaction of the citizens with the quality of municipal services, the existing system and approaches should be modernized. The municipal services quality management system ISO 9000:2001 helps bodies of local self-government to apply improved provision of municipal services according to international standards. The experience of introduction of system of improved governance was discussed in course of workshop held in Symferopol with 35 participants including mayors and representatives of four Crimean UNDP/MGSDP partner-municipalities Backchysaray, Scholkino, Saky and Dzhankoy and nine Crimean municipalities willing to become partners with UNDP/MGSDP, representatives of universities, mass-media and UNDP-led Crimea Integration and Development Programme.
Dzhankoy municipality recognized the benefits from introduction of improved system of governance and applied to UNDP/MGSDP for support in introduction of this system in the municipality. “Introduction of system ISO 9001:2000 would promote transparent mechanism of provision of high quality municipal services and provide reliable information about cost of services, execution period and reduce corruption” said Ruslan Golovko, Chief of Administrative Services of Executive Committee of Dzhankoy City Council.
UNDP/MGSDP supports partner-municipalities in improving quality of governance; therefore introduction of Municipal Services Quality Management System in compliance with ISO 9001:2000 was piloted in Voznesensk in 2007-2008. In course of introduction of modernised system of governance, the city administration personnel participated in 50 trainings, developed 100 information cards describing in detail the mechanism of delivery of different services, and city council approved “Policy of Quality of Executive Bodies of Voznesensk City Council” and ”Code of Conduct of Authorities and other Executive Bodies of Voznesensk City Council”. In order to assess the results of introduction of quality management system, the surveys of public opinion were conducted in September 2007 and October 2008. According to the results, 36% of the respondents said that the quality of municipal services delivered by executive committee of the city council has improved after introduction of system ISO 9001:2000.
Vasyl Fedorov, First Deputy of Voznesensk city mayor presented the benefits for city administration personnel and population. «Introduction of system ISO 9001:2000 simplified process of delivery of services, reduced time of delivering the services, diminished the opportunities of personal influence of city administration personnel on decision-making process”, he said.
Valeriy Guliy, an expert from a Lutsk-based Centre for Support of the Reforms presented the experience of introduction of the system ISO 9001:2000. Introduction of this system would improve quality of services delivered to the citizens, save local budget resources, revise the structure of the city council and improve investment climate in the municipality as experts say.
UNDP/MGSDP works in Crimea since 2007 and Municipal Support Units were established in four Crimean municipalities to coordinate work on mobilizing local communities for participatory actions on sustainable development. Relevant staffs of the Municipal Support Teams received training from MGSDP and logistics support for ensuring effective work of the office.
Since 2007, 15 capacity building activities were held in Crimean cities. Specifically this included including four training for municipal officials and community leaders, four orientation sessions, three HIV/AIDS public awareness campaigns on prevention and establishment of gender equality and two trainings on gender-based analysis and two exposure visits.
In addition, Saky City Council was assisted in launching a news web-site while official web-sites in Dzhankoy and Scholkino are in progress. Currently, three community projects are implemented in Saky municipality with support of UNDP/MGSDP with total cost 217 including 97 thousand UAH contributed by UNDP/MGSDP, 97 thousand UAH contributed by Saky City Council and 23 thousand UAH contributed by local communities. The projects in Crimea are implemented under support of Canadian International Development Agency and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Crimean municipalities express interest and willingness to adopt MGSDP approach and become partners, therefore after negotiations were carried out with the authorities of settlements Nyzhnegorske, Krasnogvardeyske, Pervomayske and Zuya, the partnership agreements were signed between UNDP/MGSDP and Crimean municipalities.
For more details, please, contact Galyna Gulenko, Monitoring and Communications Officer of UNDP/MGSDP, by tel. +3 8044 501 4203 or via e-mail: galyna.gulenko@undp.org.ua.
