Article 3 of the European Charter on Local Self-Government ratified by the Law of Ukraine in 1997 defines the concept of local self-government as “…the right and the ability of local authorities, within the limits of the law, to regulate and manage a substantial share of public affairs under their own responsibility and in the interests of the local population”. This ability of local governments highly depends on the capacity of the officials of the bodies of local self-government.
In this context, in 2006 UNDP-led Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme jointly with the Ukrainian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (UALRA) developed a manual “Decentralisation and Effective Local Self-Government”, as well as a corresponding training course for the newly elected local councillors.
The manual “Decentralisation and Effective Local Self-Government” consists of 6 major modules, including the ones on “Local Self-Government and Decentralisation”, “Social Mobilisation for Effective Self-Government”, “Citizens’ Participation”, “Strategic Planning”, “Operational Planning” and “Financial Planning”. Last year, 140 municipal officials were trained on these subjects; it is expected that about 120 persons will be trained in 2007.
The first training of 2007 was conducted on 16-17 August in Rivne municipality. It attracted about 30 participants. They were officials from local and regional self-government bodies in Volyn’, Kyiv, Ternopil’, Rivne and Vinnytsia regions. Participants of training were selected by UALRA among those local councils which share the vision of community participation as one of the ways to increase the efficiency of local self-government and service delivery at local level.
“Proportional system of elections to the bodies of local and regional self-government has brought many new things into the legal system of Ukraine; those changes are positive and negative. According with the statistic data, up to 80% of the membership of local governments has changed. Both experienced and absolutely new people not fully aware of the specificities of decentralisation have joined local governments. Training activities organised jointly by UALRA and UNDP/MGSDP are targeted at the second group of people. Participants can learn about the work experience of the previous councils, rights and duties of the municipal officials, deeply understand the transfer of authorities from the bodies of state power to the local self-government, and from the latter to public organisations and community-based organisations. What is most important, that people who are quite new in local self-government, have an excellent opportunity to learn from the experienced ones”, said Vyacheslav Nehoda, Head of the Secretariat of UALRA.
As a result, participants learned the working of decentralisation and local governance, along the ways to involve wider public in decision-making process. They considerably enhanced their knowledge in financial, operational and strategic planning in fostering further municipal development. The training also built overall capacity of local governments in managing the decentralisation process locally. The module on “Social Mobilization and Effective Local Governance” raised strong interest among the participants, and proved the important roles the participatory governance and social mobilization play in, particularly, strengthening decentralisation, and for sustainable local development overall.
"As for me, I learned a lot of interesting useful information which you can not get anywhere else. The attractiveness of such meetings is in the fact that the trainers do not only give lectures, but also share the practical advice and answers to the questions you have. This activity should be continued in future and made available for more local governments", said Mykola Boychenko, Kaharlyk City Mayor, participant of training.
The trainers were Vyacheslav Nehoda – Head of the Secretariat of UALRA (module on “Local Self-Government and Decentralisation”), Sergiy Kolotov – Novohrad-Volynskiy Deputy Mayor (“Strategic Planning”), Iryna Skaliy – UNDP/MGSDP Governance and Sustainable Development Expert (“Social Mobilization for Effective Self-Government”), Valeriy Rubtsov - Director of the Institute of Local Democracy (“Citizens’ Participation”), Yuriy Hanushchak – Advisor on Finance and Budgeting in the Secretariat of the President (“Financial Planning”).
Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme (MGSDP) of UNDP in Ukraine was initiated in April 2004 to develop and demonstrate a participatory and transparent mechanism for localizing the principles of sustainable development. The objective of MGSDP is to promote democratic governance so as to improve living quality of people in urban areas of Ukraine. Since the period of Programme’s inception, 83 community projects were implemented in 16 partner municipalities worth 10693.2 thousand UAH which directly benefited 68 thousand citizens. In 2007, UNDP/MGSDP partners with the Swiss Agency on Development and Cooperation for joint activities on fostering decentralised local development in urban Ukraine.
The selection of candidates for future trainings is still in process. It is planned that, at least, 2 training sessions of similar kind are yet to come. To get more information about UNDP/MGSDP and apply for participation in future trainings, 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. More details can be also found at the project’s web-site:
In this context, in 2006 UNDP-led Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme jointly with the Ukrainian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (UALRA) developed a manual “Decentralisation and Effective Local Self-Government”, as well as a corresponding training course for the newly elected local councillors.
The manual “Decentralisation and Effective Local Self-Government” consists of 6 major modules, including the ones on “Local Self-Government and Decentralisation”, “Social Mobilisation for Effective Self-Government”, “Citizens’ Participation”, “Strategic Planning”, “Operational Planning” and “Financial Planning”. Last year, 140 municipal officials were trained on these subjects; it is expected that about 120 persons will be trained in 2007.
The first training of 2007 was conducted on 16-17 August in Rivne municipality. It attracted about 30 participants. They were officials from local and regional self-government bodies in Volyn’, Kyiv, Ternopil’, Rivne and Vinnytsia regions. Participants of training were selected by UALRA among those local councils which share the vision of community participation as one of the ways to increase the efficiency of local self-government and service delivery at local level.
“Proportional system of elections to the bodies of local and regional self-government has brought many new things into the legal system of Ukraine; those changes are positive and negative. According with the statistic data, up to 80% of the membership of local governments has changed. Both experienced and absolutely new people not fully aware of the specificities of decentralisation have joined local governments. Training activities organised jointly by UALRA and UNDP/MGSDP are targeted at the second group of people. Participants can learn about the work experience of the previous councils, rights and duties of the municipal officials, deeply understand the transfer of authorities from the bodies of state power to the local self-government, and from the latter to public organisations and community-based organisations. What is most important, that people who are quite new in local self-government, have an excellent opportunity to learn from the experienced ones”, said Vyacheslav Nehoda, Head of the Secretariat of UALRA.
As a result, participants learned the working of decentralisation and local governance, along the ways to involve wider public in decision-making process. They considerably enhanced their knowledge in financial, operational and strategic planning in fostering further municipal development. The training also built overall capacity of local governments in managing the decentralisation process locally. The module on “Social Mobilization and Effective Local Governance” raised strong interest among the participants, and proved the important roles the participatory governance and social mobilization play in, particularly, strengthening decentralisation, and for sustainable local development overall.
"As for me, I learned a lot of interesting useful information which you can not get anywhere else. The attractiveness of such meetings is in the fact that the trainers do not only give lectures, but also share the practical advice and answers to the questions you have. This activity should be continued in future and made available for more local governments", said Mykola Boychenko, Kaharlyk City Mayor, participant of training.
The trainers were Vyacheslav Nehoda – Head of the Secretariat of UALRA (module on “Local Self-Government and Decentralisation”), Sergiy Kolotov – Novohrad-Volynskiy Deputy Mayor (“Strategic Planning”), Iryna Skaliy – UNDP/MGSDP Governance and Sustainable Development Expert (“Social Mobilization for Effective Self-Government”), Valeriy Rubtsov - Director of the Institute of Local Democracy (“Citizens’ Participation”), Yuriy Hanushchak – Advisor on Finance and Budgeting in the Secretariat of the President (“Financial Planning”).
Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme (MGSDP) of UNDP in Ukraine was initiated in April 2004 to develop and demonstrate a participatory and transparent mechanism for localizing the principles of sustainable development. The objective of MGSDP is to promote democratic governance so as to improve living quality of people in urban areas of Ukraine. Since the period of Programme’s inception, 83 community projects were implemented in 16 partner municipalities worth 10693.2 thousand UAH which directly benefited 68 thousand citizens. In 2007, UNDP/MGSDP partners with the Swiss Agency on Development and Cooperation for joint activities on fostering decentralised local development in urban Ukraine.
The selection of candidates for future trainings is still in process. It is planned that, at least, 2 training sessions of similar kind are yet to come. To get more information about UNDP/MGSDP and apply for participation in future trainings, 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. More details can be also found at the project’s web-site:
