February 29th, Novohrad-Volynskiy (Zhytomyr region): Training was conducted for about 30 representatives of local small businesses, public organizations and media to raise public awareness on consumer rights in European context and in Ukraine.
Since 2005, when the partnership was launched between the UNDP-led Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme and Novohrad-Volynskiy City Council, the issue of raising public awareness on socially important agenda became one of the objectives of this partnership. In 2006-2007, the local stakeholders successfully implemented the awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS prevention and gender equality which benefited over 5’000 local citizens.
As the municipality is serious about its economic development and building the civil society at local level, the agenda of consumer rights was deemed essential for further work in this context. Thus, the seminar-training “Consumer Rights in European Context and in Ukraine” was conducted under support from the UNDP- and EU-project “Consumer Society and Citizens Networks”.
“Novohrad-Volynskiy City Council has recently approved the “Strategic Plan of City Development”, one of the most important parts of which is the economic development aimed at raising prosperity and stability of the local communities. In this context, it is important to establish the balance of interests of businesses, citizens as consumers of their goods and services, and the local government”, said Mr. Mykola BOROVETS, Novohrad-Volynskiy City Mayor opening the training. “We all know that observing consumer rights is a standard of socially responsible business. Since our target is to make business in our city socially responsible, we have to work a lot on achieving this goal. For this purpose, we created a department of the City Council on Entrepreneurial Activities and Consumer Rights Protection. We expect that this dialogue between the stakeholders will lead to development of the local normative act to regulate the relationships between business, consumers and local government”.
In course of the training, Mr. Denis POLTAVETS, Expert on Civil Society Development, presented the goals and objectives of the UNDP- and EU-project “Consumer Society and Citizens Networks”, talked about the system of ensuring consumer rights in Ukraine and the countries of European Union. He also highlighted the experts’ vision on the role of the local authorities in ensuring the consumers’ interests and described the available mechanisms.
“As the national survey supported by our project in 2007 shows, only 20% of Ukrainians while purchasing the low-quality goods are ready to actively protect their rights, and try to solve their problem at all levels starting from the director of the shop or supermarket up to the consumer rights’ protection associations. This level of passiveness of a Ukrainian consumer proves the importance of such trainings and awareness campaigns for people”, said Denis POLTAVETS in course of his presentation.
Later on, Mrs. Natalia BORODACHОVA, Expert on Consumer Rights Protection, explained the UN leading principles on consumer rights’ protection, described the national legislative framework on consumer rights protection giving references to the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “On Consumer Rights’ Protection”, the Law of Ukraine “On Citizens’ Associations”, the Law of Ukraine “On Information” and others. She also gave information about the independent comparative testing as an importance mechanism of raising citizens’ awareness on the quality of goods and services available at the consumer market.
“It is important to provide a consumer with as much information as possible on his/her rights, possible mechanisms of their protection, legislation in this area and other related issues. In this context, we recommend to use the information provided by the web-portal we created within our project – www.consumerinfo.org.ua”, said Mrs. Natalia BORODACHОVA to the participants. She also announced the All-Ukrainian Forum of Consumers “Interests of Ukrainian Consumers: European Dimension” to be held in Kyiv on March 11-13th, and invited the interested local stakeholders to benefit from it.
Similar trainings will also be conducted in 2008 in other partner municipalities of UNDP/MGSDP.
For more details, please contact Mrs. Olena URSU, UNDP/MGSDP Monitoring and Communication Expert, by tel: +38 (067) 290 36 42, or via e-mail: olena.ursu@undp.org.ua
As the municipality is serious about its economic development and building the civil society at local level, the agenda of consumer rights was deemed essential for further work in this context. Thus, the seminar-training “Consumer Rights in European Context and in Ukraine” was conducted under support from the UNDP- and EU-project “Consumer Society and Citizens Networks”.
“Novohrad-Volynskiy City Council has recently approved the “Strategic Plan of City Development”, one of the most important parts of which is the economic development aimed at raising prosperity and stability of the local communities. In this context, it is important to establish the balance of interests of businesses, citizens as consumers of their goods and services, and the local government”, said Mr. Mykola BOROVETS, Novohrad-Volynskiy City Mayor opening the training. “We all know that observing consumer rights is a standard of socially responsible business. Since our target is to make business in our city socially responsible, we have to work a lot on achieving this goal. For this purpose, we created a department of the City Council on Entrepreneurial Activities and Consumer Rights Protection. We expect that this dialogue between the stakeholders will lead to development of the local normative act to regulate the relationships between business, consumers and local government”.
In course of the training, Mr. Denis POLTAVETS, Expert on Civil Society Development, presented the goals and objectives of the UNDP- and EU-project “Consumer Society and Citizens Networks”, talked about the system of ensuring consumer rights in Ukraine and the countries of European Union. He also highlighted the experts’ vision on the role of the local authorities in ensuring the consumers’ interests and described the available mechanisms.
“As the national survey supported by our project in 2007 shows, only 20% of Ukrainians while purchasing the low-quality goods are ready to actively protect their rights, and try to solve their problem at all levels starting from the director of the shop or supermarket up to the consumer rights’ protection associations. This level of passiveness of a Ukrainian consumer proves the importance of such trainings and awareness campaigns for people”, said Denis POLTAVETS in course of his presentation.
Later on, Mrs. Natalia BORODACHОVA, Expert on Consumer Rights Protection, explained the UN leading principles on consumer rights’ protection, described the national legislative framework on consumer rights protection giving references to the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “On Consumer Rights’ Protection”, the Law of Ukraine “On Citizens’ Associations”, the Law of Ukraine “On Information” and others. She also gave information about the independent comparative testing as an importance mechanism of raising citizens’ awareness on the quality of goods and services available at the consumer market.
“It is important to provide a consumer with as much information as possible on his/her rights, possible mechanisms of their protection, legislation in this area and other related issues. In this context, we recommend to use the information provided by the web-portal we created within our project – www.consumerinfo.org.ua”, said Mrs. Natalia BORODACHОVA to the participants. She also announced the All-Ukrainian Forum of Consumers “Interests of Ukrainian Consumers: European Dimension” to be held in Kyiv on March 11-13th, and invited the interested local stakeholders to benefit from it.
Similar trainings will also be conducted in 2008 in other partner municipalities of UNDP/MGSDP.
For more details, please contact Mrs. Olena URSU, UNDP/MGSDP Monitoring and Communication Expert, by tel: +38 (067) 290 36 42, or via e-mail: olena.ursu@undp.org.ua
