The exchange visit was organised by UNDP Project “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme" with financial support from the Swiss Confederation. In recent years, eight similar visits were organised within a sub-project “Promoting Conditions of Participatory Governance and Development in Urban Areas”.

The visit to Rubizhne municipality brought together 25 representatives of the municipalities of   Galych, Ivano-Frankivsk, Dolyna (Ivano-Frankivsk Region), Novograd-Volynskiy (Zhytomyr Region), Kalynivka, Tulchyn, Mogyliv-Podilskiy (Vinnytsia Region).  The representatives of Tomashhorod (Rivne Region) and Turka (Lviv Region) which are the partners of EC/UNDP Project “Community Based Approach to Local Development”  also participated in the visit.
 

On September 16, the delegation participated in the plenary session, where Anatoly Busyenkov, Rubizhne City Mayor informed the guests about peculiarities of  the city and local community, and presented the experience gained during the study tour to Swiss Confederation organised by the Programme and  the prospects of introduction of innovative practices in Ukrainian municipalities. On the same day, the guests participated in a roundtable on engaging local communities to solving the issues of local importance. The participants presented the experience of Rubizhne and other municipalities at the roundtable. 
 

The participants of the visit were briefed on introducing fundamentals of consumer education in schools of the city during a meeting with community of School № 1 and the members of SCO "Vidrodzhennya" and discussion on the introduction of the study course "Fundamentals of consumer education”.
 

Also, Rubizhne City Council presented the local policy for promoting establishment and operation of  the  Associations of Co-Owners of Multi-Apartment Houses (ACMHs). The guests met the  representatives of ACMHs "Nash Kvartal", "Nash Kvartal -2", "Nash Kvartal-4” and learned about the projects on porches and corridors insulation, implemented with UNDP/MGSDP support.
 

Valentyn Pichko, head of section on cooperation with SCOs of the Local Self-Governance Department, the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine noted that Rubizhne experience in cooperation with the local communities is worth scaling up at the national level. Among the participants of the visit were Mykhailo Kypenko, Head of the Monitoring Reform and Development of Housing and Municipal Economy, Department of Strategy, Reform and Development of Housing and Municipal Economy, the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Economy of Ukraine and Zoya Vyborna, chief specialist of the cooperation with local self-government bodies and their associations, the Department of Regional Policy and Local Self-Government, Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
 

Rubizhne municipality is  the Project’s partner since 2007 and has implemented six local  community projects while another four are in progress.
 

During the visit the representatives of Rubizhne and Saky municipalities signed  an Agreement on inter-municipal cooperation.

UNDP/MGSDP was initiated in 2004 for promoting democratic governance aimed at improving the livelihoods of people in urban areas across Ukraine under the framework of public-private partnership. The Programme cooperates with community-based organisations, academia and civil society organisations in 24 municipalities and 5 settlements of municipal type across Ukraine and other partners in private and public sectors. Together they apply various sustainable development mechanisms. Since 2004, UNDP/MGSDP supported 239 local community projects with a total cost of UAH 27.2 mln. For more information on the Project's activities, please visit: http://msdp.undp.org.ua