December 10-12, Lviv: This year the Annual Meeting of National Forum of Partner Municipalities of UNDP Project "Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme" (UNDP/MGSDP) gathered more than 75 participants including City Mayors and their deputies, representatives of Government of Ukraine, Parliamentary Committee on State Construction and Local Self-Governance, UN Development Programme and other international organizations. Forum participants shared best practices and discussed the prospects of housing and municipal economy reform, decentralisation of power and achieving sustainable development in Ukrainian municipalities.
Within support of UNDP/MGSDP the community-based and citizen-centric approach to local development is introduced in partner municipalities. The Municipal Support Units have been established in all partner municipalities and the capacities of MSU staffs are constantly developed through training, exposure visits and consultations.
Oleksandr Alipov, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Municipal Economy of Ukraine welcomed the participants in a video appeal.
Volodymyr Khomko, Rivne City Mayor, Chairman of the National Forum of 29 partner municipalities of UNDP/MGSDP welcomed the participants : "Such projects are very important for changing the mentality of people. People feel the taste to implement something jointly with local authorities and achieve positive results. If people realize that they can and want to cooperate and local authorities are eager to help, then there would be different society in Lviv and Rivne”.
According to Elena Panova, UNDP Deputy Country Director, UNDP cooperation with Lviv will continue. "We believe that Lviv can become a resource city for sharing its experience with other cities of Ukraine in the field of monitoring, oversight on the administrative services provision. A new joint project of UNDP and Lviv City Council will be launched under support of EU on administrative services provision to increase the capacity of SCOs to provide monitoring and oversight on administrative services provision".
Oksana Remiga, UNDP Senior Programme Manager presented UNDP priorities in the area of local development and decentralization and vision of MGSDP perspectives for 2013-2015.
Iryna Skaliy, Project Manager described the achievements of the UNDP/MGSDP in 2012 and plans for 2013.
The press conference was held devoted to effective mechanisms for local self-government bodies for citizens’ engagement and solving the urgent development problems in cities. The speakers were Elena Panova, UNDP Deputy Country Director, Volodymyr Khomko, Rivne City Mayor and Andriy Moskalenko, Director of Department "Administration of the City Mayor."
The Project provides systemic support to the bodies of the local self-government to for mobilizing citizens through their motivation to creation of the community-based organizations (condominiums, civil society organizations, or other types and their networks) as well as developing the capacities of these organizations to solve the local development problems
UNDP / MGSDP aims at introducing effective approaches and mechanisms for decentralized governance for effective services provision. At this stage, the Project is actively disseminating experience gained during 8-year period in 29 partner municipalities.
The Project mobilises local communities to unite, practice leadership and jointly solve local problems. During eight-year period, local communities established 660 community organisations, which united more than 214 thousand inhabitants of the cities. It is important that Project`s capacity development activities raise professionalism of local government officials and community activists. Overall almost 14 thousand people participated in 500 training activities on various aspects of decentralisation and effective local government.
In 2012, 22 local community projects were supported worth UAH 2.74 mln in municipalities of Rivne, Yevpatoria, Dzhankoy, Saky, Voznesensk, Hola Prystan, Novovolynsk, Tulchyn, Dolyna, Rubizhne, Ivano-Frankivsk and village Litochky. The projects will benefit 3630 persons, including 1217 women, 1517 men and 896 children.
Project`s experience shows that the effectiveness of local self-governance raises upon introduction of
the quality management systems for municipal services’ provision in accordance to ISO 9001:2008 and electronic documents flow in the city councils and their executive bodies, creation of the one-stop-shop Centres for Provision of Administrative Services Provision. Development of the interactive official web-sites of the city councils and introduction of different online services facilitates citizen participation.
Under support of UNDP/MGSDP quality management system in the provision of municipal services (QMS) in 2011-2012 was introduced in Lviv and is being introduced in Bakhchysaray and e-document flow is introduced in Voznesensk and Dolyna. In Voznesensk the Center for Administrative Services Provision was established. In 2012, a study was conducted on "Introduction of quality management systems in the provision of municipal services in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001:2008: current practice and directions for improvement".
UNDP / MGSDP is supporting development of the housing sector in Ukraine by motivating people to create condominiums and providing small grants to implement their infrastructural projects. To increase public awareness on the reform of housing and municipal through the creation of condominiums the
journalist contest was held on the best success story of condominiums in cooperation with the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Municipal Economy. 20 articles, 10 video and 2 radio recordings were received for participation in the contest. The winners were awarded during the forum.
In partnership with the MinRegion a social video was produced and presented at the forum. The purpose of the video is to make the residents of apartment buildings realize that entrance and corridor are their property, not just their apartment. This video can be used to encourage residents to create condominiums.
Pavlo Kozyrev, Ukrainka City Mayor, was elected Chairman of the National Forum of Partner Municipalities in 2013.
A short booklet about the Project results in 2012 can be viewed here.
The pictures can be reviewed at Facebook page.
For more information, contact Galyna Smirnova, Monitoring and Communications Officer, tel. (044) 584-34-75 or e-mail: galyna.smirnova at undp.org.ua
