The authorities of Rivne municipality actively involve local residents into the process of solving local problems. The community-based approach to local development,  that the City Council learned from UNDP Project  “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme” became very useful for mobilising local residents.  

 

The project operates in 29 municipalities of Ukraine and promotes participatory governance and contributes to the improvement of living standards in the urban Ukraine. UNDP/MGSDP applies a community–based local development approach to promote local partnerships and strengthen a “bottom-up” decision-making approach to urban development in partner municipalities. The Programme is operational at three levels – the level of local communities, municipal and national levels.

 

Rivne municipality became a partner of the UNDP/MGSDP in 2004 and fully internalised the community-based approach to local development. The Municipal Support Unit was established in the City Council in the framework of cooperation (it is called UN Projects Support Unit as a part of Department of Economy). The Project provided logistical support and conducted trainings for the department personnel for effective mobilisation of local communities.

 

During the press-conference, Volodymyr Khomko, The Mayor of Rivne municipality noted: «Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme  gives a unique opportunity to unite the  active residents that worry about local problems. Together with local self-governance bodies they really improve the living conditions (the condition of houses, pipelines, adjacent territories). It is an important  step towards sustainable civil society».

 

Under the Programme support, 22 projects of local communities were implemented during  2004-2010  in the social sector (roof reconstructions in ACMHs replacement of water supply and sewage pipelines in the kindergartens, etc), and in the sector of energy efficiency and environment protection (replacement of windows in educational institutions, reconstruction of the heating systems, basement pipelines, etc). The total cost of the projects is UAH 3 mln., including UAH 596 thousand contributed by UNDP, UAH 201 thousand contributed by Swiss Confederation (SDC), UAH 1.71 mln contributed by the City Council, UAH 427 thousand contributed by the local communities and UAH 73 thousand contributed by the third parties. Generally, the implementation of these projects benefited 31 thousand residents (7703 women, 6203 men and 17742 children).

 

Community- based approach turned out to be very effective and the City Council started to apply it for implementation of local community projects without donor funding (using the funds of the City Council and local communities). The experience of municipality shows, that the local problems are managed more effectively if local authorities involve local communities. Plans, initiated by people, turn out to be more important and bring more effective usage of local budget funds.

 

 

In order to achieve sustainable local development and considering the experience gained and mechanisms worked out, Rivne municipality prepared the Municipal Programme of Sustainable Development for 2009-2012 (MPSD). The Programme was approved by the session of the City Council №2278, dated 15.04.2009. According to MPSD regulations, the Municipal Sustainable Development Council and its Advisory Committee were established to activate private-public partnership, participatory planning, citizens involvement into the process of solving local social and economic problems, to appraise and select the local initiatives. These bodies involve communities, educational institutions and their networks to transparent dialogue with local authorities and help to elaborate joint mechanisms of local planning.

 

UAH 800 thousand were allocated for implementation of MPSD activities. In 2010 the decision was made to increase financing of the Programme’s activities, considering activeness of local  communities and positive  results of the project implementation. Therefore, in 2010 the budget of the City Council of Rivne municipality allocated UAH 3.1 mln for implementation  of MPSD activities. 31 projects were implemented  in 2010, the total cost of the projects was UAH 4.1 mln. 24 projects were implemented by  ACMHs- roof repairs, reconstruction  of water supply, sanitation and heating systems, introduction of  individual heating systems, heat insulation, replacement of windows for the total cost UAH 2.5 mln. 6 projects were implemented by local  educational institutions- replacement of windows (UAH 1.6 mln) including contribution of the municipality- UAH 3.1 mln, UNDP/MGSDP UAH 200 thousand, community- UAH 773 thousand. The project beneficiaries amount to 15 500 people (4221- men, 5768- women, 5575- children). In 2011 the City Council plans to allocate UAH 3.5 mln for the community projects realisation.

 

Also the journalists had a chance to get familiarised  with the results of UNDP Project «Removing Barriers to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigation through Energy Efficiency in the District Heating System, Phase 2».