This Forum was created by the 3 pilot municipalities of UNDP/MGSDP – Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne and Zhytomyr – in February, 2005 with the major purpose to enhance the inter-municipality cooperation for local sustainable development action, identify existing legal/policy provisions that need to be changed, lobby for new policy/legal options, and strengthen local stakeholders on sustainable development in the municipality zone.
The meeting was opened by Ms. Z.Fedoruk, Deputy Mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk on Economic Issues and a Chairperson of the Forum, who welcomed the participants and briefed them about the Programme achievements at local and national levels for the period of chairing the Forum. Mr. Volkov, UNDP Senior Programme Manager, expressed the satisfaction of UNDP management with the progress of Programme activities, thanked the partner municipalities for their efforts in fostering the participatory governance at local level, and reiterated the necessity of paying greater attention by municipalities to make communities active, and to mobilise resources and to meet their financial commitments as a part of cost-sharing.
In the course of the meeting, Mr. H.Osterreider, Policy Consultant of UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre, presented to the participants the issues of inter-municipal cooperation, gave practical successful examples of the countries, and highlighted possible ways of how to establish partnerships with other municipalities in Ukraine and abroad. Mr. J.Christen, SDC Expert and UNDP Independent Consultant, shared his observations and impressions from UNDP/MGSDP based on 2 previous missions. He gave valuable suggestions on how the Programme efficiency could be improved at the local and national levels. Ms. V. Rosikhina, UNDP/MGSDP Policy Consultant, summarized the major findings from the 3 policy studies completed by the Programme in 2006, in particular, on the policy to support the municipal governance for sustainable development.
During the working session of the Forum, the representatives of the pilot municipalities voted unanimously for the acceptance of Novohrad-Volynskyy, Halych, Mykolayiv, Kirovske, Hola Prystan’, and Kaharlyk municipalities as the new members of the Forum, and re-selected the Chairperson of the Forum giving their voices for Zhytomyr municipality. Also, they agreed upon the necessity of making the efforts of the Forum more sustainable and nationally owned, and in this context decided to move the Secretariat of the Forum from UNDP/MGSDP office to the Ukrainian Association of Local and Regional Authorities which is the national partner of the Programme for many initiatives related with the local-self-government. It was also decided that the tentative workplan for 2007 could be developed by the members of the Forum to ensure more effective and smooth implementation of the Programme activities. The meeting of the Forum was officially closed by Ms. Vira Sheludchenko, Zhytomyr City Mayor – a NFPM Chairperson.
“I think that it is a great opportunity that we have such a Forum. Through its framework our voices are becoming stronger. All good experiences and success cases of the community-based projects in our cities we will be able to share and disseminate, being especially strengthened by the expertise and support of the Ukrainian Association of Local and Regional Authorities”, said Mr. Mykola Borovets, Mayor of Novohrad-Volynskyy municipality.
