In line with this recommendation, the UNDP-led Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme (UNDP/MGSDP) supports the Programme’s partner municipalities in building their capacities in modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). During March-June 2007, the official web-site of Mohyliv-Podilsky was created to enable better dialogue between the local government and communities, as well as strengthen the municipality’s capacity in undertaking participatory governance initiatives at local level. From now, it can be found on the Internet at http://www.misto.mogpod.com.ua.
In the early 2007 the Mohyliv-Podilsky municipality officials assessed the town council’s current ICT capacity and outlined its needs for further improvement. As it was found out, the municipality did not have any official Internet-based source of information. The existing unofficial web-site was considered insufficient since it provided limited information about the city, and the city council as the body of local self-government. Consequently, it had no options to enable dialogue with the local community, failing to provide a comprehensive database of local legislation and other important documents. Therefore, Mohyliv-Podilsky City Council, following an initiative by the City Mayor Mr. Mykhaylo Savolyuk, started preparation works to create its official web-site with active support from UNDP/MGSDP.
The web-site was developed by representatives of Zhytomyr IATP Centre (Internet Access and Training Programme) and received the following address on the web: http://www.misto.mogpod.com. It was officially launched on July, 27th in participation of Mr. Mykhaylo Savolyuk, Mohyliv-Podilsky City Mayor, Mrs. Olena Ursu – UNDP/MGSDP Monitoring and Communications Expert, Mr. Anatoliy Kovtonyuk – web-site developer, about 30 local councilors, representatives of the local citizens, academia, businesses and NGOs.
“According to the “E-Readiness Assessment” conducted by UNDP in Ukraine in 2003, ICT brings many benefits to its users and offers new possibilities for local bodies of government, such as: more rapid implementing of resolutions, on-line legislative databases, enhanced public relations (PR), interactive democratic dialogue, and instant polls. By supporting ICT projects of our partner municipalities, UNDP/MGSDP provides local communities and city councils with a free access to these opportunities”, said Mrs Ursu, speaking at the Regular Session of Mohyliv-Podilsky City Council on this occasion.
The new website brings the following major advantages, ensuring overall openness and accessibility:
Easier accessibility for citizens to the database of legal and normative documents of the city council (its decisions, bylaws, Mayor’s orders etc). The database will be constantly replenished.
Transparency in managing local development - availability of information about the city development plan, budget and reports about the financial performance
Feedback options: interaction of citizens and the local government, city inquiries, on-line communication, on-line voting, on-line consultations, availability of e-mails of the executive committee’s officials, “Questions and Answers” section etc.
Accessibility of the city council’s members, departments’ representatives and mayor (their telephones, reception hours for citizens), and accountability (uploaded Programmes and reports about their performance)
The creators of the web-site reiterated that the major task in strengthening ICT at the level of city council is not to create a web-site, but to ensure that it is updated on time and is maintained properly. “Only timely and regularly updated web-site will reflect the true activities of the local council and its executive committee and allow the citizens to voice their urgent needs and problems. The local community may be involved in the decision-making process through posting their feedback, remarks and suggestions, personal opinions on the pages of a forum, participating in the on-line surveys specific to the local context. On the other hand, the web-site may raise the qualification level of the municipal officials through availability of new knowledge. There is also a section with vacancies to enable the competitive selection process for the municipality. It also provides opportunities for the city’s management to conduct fast internal monitoring of the activities performed by specific departments, directorates, and communal enterprises”, said Anatoliy Kovtonyuk.
The municipality has already deputed the staff to act as the website’s moderators and be responsible for its maintenance. UNDP/MGSDP will support training of this staff in web-site administration issues, and will equip the workplace with necessary logistics. Now onward, active usage of the newly created information source will be the responsibility of the municipality. “Mohyliv-Podilsky values the opportunity to make its services closer to the local citizens through the official web-site. We see it as an important tool to make our activities more transparent and accountable to people”, Mykhaylo Savolyuk said.
Since April 2004 when UNDP/MGSDP started functioning, 83 sustainable development projects of the local communities were implemented worth in total 10.7 mln. UAH which benefited directly 68006 citizens. During this period, 4 municipalities received its support for creation of their official web-sites, including Zhytomyr www.zt-rada.gov.ua, Novograd-Volynskiy www.novograd.org.ua, Kirovske www.kirovskoe.com.ua and Halych www.galych-rada.gov.ua.
To get more information about UNDP/MGSDP, please contact Olena Ursu, Monitoring and Communications Expert of UNDP/MGSDP, by tel. (+38044) 280 30 07 , or via e-mail: olena.ursu@undp.org.ua
