UNDP-led Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme has been cooperating with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) since 2005. The firsе stage (2005-2006) was implemented as a subproject “Promoting Conditions of Participatory Governance and Development in Urban Areas”. The achievements of the first stage exceeded expectations of donor agency and UNDP management. The Programme engaged 8 new partner municipalities, supported implementation of 33 community projects for sustainable development, held 3 East-West exchange visits, and provided numerous trainings for community leaders and municipal officials on participatory governance for local development.

The second stage (2007-2009) aimed at strengthening decentralized municipal governance through internalization of community-based approach in partner municipalities in Vinnytsya region and AR Crimea. The achievements of the second stage include engaging 6 new partner municipalities, support to 3 community projects, 2 East-West exchange visits, research on inter-municipal cooperation and on dissemination of the community-based approach applied by the Programme nation-wide. In addition, the Programme facilitated the policy dialogue on community engagement into local decision-making, and supporting elaboration of the Draft Law “On Introducing Changes and Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Bodies of Self-Organization of Population” which was registered for Parliamentary consideration.

 

The purpose of the workshop in Yalta was to share the vision on future Programme activities among SDC representatives, UNDP management, mayors of partner municipalities and Programme partners.

 

Major achievements of UNDP/MGSDP in donor’s perception were defined by Olena Lytvynenko, SDC Programme Officer. Among them, she named experience of social mobilization and community development, improving the quality of social and communal services at local level, introduction of effective and sustainable mechanisms of cooperation between local authorities and communities. In planning process, SDC recommended the project to focus on consolidation and management of generated knowledge and experience, cooperation between Ukrainian and Swiss municipalities, contributing to the policy reforms at the national level, and strengthening the role of National Forum of Partner Municipalities for this purpose.

 

According to the local development priorities nowadays, the partner municipalities claimed the importance of strengthened support to energy-efficiency measures in budgetary sphere and housing and municipal economy along with the broad public campaigns on energy-efficiency. Also, further improvement of service provision at local level is considered important by the municipal partners. “We suggest supporting establishment of the Centers for Provision of Administrative Services as mechanisms of decentralization of power. Such Centers would simplify the procedures of delivery of administrative services, eliminate corruption, increase citizens` satisfaction with quality of administrative services”, said Bogdan Bilyk, Head of Socio-Economic Development Department of Ivano-Frankivsk City Council in course of discussion.

 

Capacity development on important agenda of citizen’s participation in local development remains of the top importance for the municipalities. In this regard, Mykola Borovets, Novograd-Volynskyi City Mayor, said: “Establishing of community-based organizations (condominiums, cooperatives, associations) is a priority issue. But after official registration of the new organizations, the next step – to teach people and help them organize their work effectively – is the most difficult. Therefore, the seminars, trainings, exchange of experience should be supported. The second crucial topic is energy saving, and mobilizing communities for energy-saving activities. It is preferable to work systematically in this sphere, including wide public information campaigns on the subject”.

 

Creation of regional centres for knowledge transfer was also one of the suggestions from the local partners. Volodymyr Garazd, Dolyna City Mayor and Chairperson of National Forum of Partner Municipalities, said: «I am absolutely convinced that the activities on support to condominiums should be continued, because we represent industrial cities in which majority of population live in multi-apartment buildings. Support for condominiums is important for elaboration of various models of financing renovation activities. Also, energy-saving should be a priority for the next stage as it leads to protection of sustainable environment and reduces expenditures of local budgets. We suggest establishing regional centers for knowledge transfer – the platforms of new technologies which would provide trainings and demonstration of best practices”.

The Programme’s national partners like the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Economy of Ukraine, as well as the Ministry of Economy of AR Crimea, also expressed their views on further course of Programme activities in Ukraine. All these recommendations will be consolidated and taken into account in process of elaboration of the project document for the new stage of cooperation with SDC.