Today there are 362 small cities in Ukraine (with population less than 50 thousand people). This year’s conference gathered more than 100 representatives of bodies of local self-government of the small cities, representatives of the central authorities and donor agencies. This year the conference is of a particular importance because after the recent local elections about 60% of the new city mayors started their functions.
- to provide mayors of the small cities with information on opportunities of resource support to the activities of the local self-government bodies;
- to reinforce the dialogue with the central authorities on supporting the development of territorial communities of small cities and villages;
- to bring attention to the specific problems of the small cities in all the regions of Ukraine;
- to share best practices of work on municipal development and management.
During the section on housing and municipal economy, Natalia Oliynyk, director of the Department for Strategy of Reforming the Housing and Municipal Economy of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Municipal Economy of Ukraine, presented the joint plans of cooperation between UNDP/MGSDP and the Ministry of development of the model peogrammes for raising the professional qualification of the heads of the associations of co-owners of multiapartment houses and for acquiring the qualification of the “house manager”.
Under the condition of the budget constraints, best practices of solving typical problems of cities, innovative tools for mobilizing the local communities are of a particular importance for the managers of the local self-government bodies. Many of them are developed by the partner municipalities of UNDP, and were presented by Olena Ursu, MGSDP Governance and Sustainable Development Expert. Especially interesting and timely, judging from the feedback and response of the participants, is the experience of supporting formation and functioning of the associations of co-owners of multiapartment houses, introduction of the quality management systems for municipal services in accordance with the ISO 9001:2008, introduction of the initiatives on electronic governance. Each participant could learn more about these experiences from the MGSDP publication “Success Stories. Making life better. Ukrainian cities’ experience” which was distributed together with the materials of the Conference.
Small cities live due to the local budgets which, similarly to the state budget, are being formed on the basis of the budgetary and tax legislation. Analysis of the indicators proves that 2011 is challenging year for all the local budgets. Today in Ukraine a number of problems exists in the financial maintenance of the bodies of local self-government which is particularly difficult in case of the small cities. That is why the statement on providing the real resources to the local councils of the small cities for fulfilling their delegated authorities was included into the Resolution of the 6-th Annual Conference of the Association of Small Cities of Ukraine, Pavlo Kozyrev, Ukrayinka City Mayor, Head of the Association of Small Cities of Ukraine said.
With this purpose, the proposals for strengthening the local self-government which will help small cities to become more powerful were developed as the result of the 6-th Annual Conference of the small cities. They are defined in the Resolution of the conference participants which will be sent to the President of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The ext of the Resolution can be found here: http://astu.com.ua/news/rezoljucija_ukhvalena_uchasnikami_vi_shhorichnoji_konferenciji_malikh_mist_ukrajini/2011-07-11-96 .
Photos are taken from the web-site of Ukrayinka city council: www.ukrainka.org
For detailed information please refer to Olga Romaniv, UNDP/MGSDP Communications and Reporting specialistby telephone (044) 584-34-75, 584-34-76 or via email: olga.romaniv@undp.org.ua
