On 26-27 July,  a Confrence with participation of international experts «Smart city: Electronic Technologies for Promoting the Local Democracy and Urban Sustainable Development» will be held in Vinnytsia  municipality. The Conference is organized by UNDP Project “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme” in cooperation with Vinnytsia City Council, Association of e-governance municipalities,  City Development Institute “Cities of Ukraine”. The purpose of the event is to familiarize cities with the Smart City concept, summarize accumulated experience, exchange best practices and promote the search of opportunities for building integral approaches to urban local development.

Traditionally, a city can be defined as “smart” when investments in human and social capital and traditional (ex. transport) and modern (ex. ICT) communications infrastructure fuel sustainable economic development and a high quality of life with a wise management of natural resources through participatory governance. The concept of Smart City presents the willingness to combine modern approaches to city development (provision of sustainable development, development of local democracy, orientation to development of human and social capital) using the opportunities provided by modern electronic technologies.

This approach is very relevant for modern cities of Ukraine, particularly in the context of decisions taken during the Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20. Nowadays Ukrainian cities are mostly in search of new approaches to solving economic, social, infrastructural problems, provision of local self-government development and governance of city development as a whole, while at the same time bodies of local self-governance actively introduce modern IT technologies into their work. There are a lot of already implemented innovative practices in some cities.

Contents of the planned event:

·   Introduction of electronic technologies into the sphere of interaction between authorities and citizens of cities (organization of administrative services provision, call-centers, launch of interactive web-portals etc.).

·   Introduction of electronic technologies for optimization of work of bodies of local-self-government (internal portals, electronic document flow etc.).

·   Introduction of electronic technologies for solving infrastructural problems (automatic systems of traffic management, electronic technologies in housing sphere and energy efficiency; “safe city” projects etc.).

·   Using electronic technologies for improvement of social services provision (electronic card of a patient, automatic system for charging subsidies etc.).

·   Launch of integral platform for optimization of management of city development (GIS-systems etc).

·   Exposure visits for getting acquainted with the experience of Vinnytsia city council in introduction of innovations into city development using electronic technologies.

The participants will be able to get familiarized with practice of Vinnytsia City Council in introduction of innovations in local development based on ICT.

On organizational issues, please refer to Olena Ursu, MGSDP Governance and Sustainable Development Expert  via e-mail: olena.ursu@undp.org or Tel.: (044) 584-34-75, fax.: (044) 584-34-76.