26-27 June, Voznesensk (Mykolayiv region): Forum of 35 City Mayors and decision-makers of local self-government bodies was organized by UNDP-led project to share the developed models and mechanisms of fostering human development, experienceі on wide involvement of the communities into the local decision-making and establishment of the Quality Management System of municipal services in accordance with the international standards ISO 9001:2000.
Voznesensk municipality with about 39 thousand population is one of the most active partners of the UNDP-led Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme generously contributing to achievements of its objectives, and is a Chairperson of the National Forum of Partner Municipalities since November, 2007. The meeting was hosted by Yuriy Gerzhov, Voznesensk City Mayor, and his team to share best local self-government practices with the Mayors and decision-makers from Western cities of Ukraine and neighbouring regions, including cities of Galych, Dolyna (Ivano-Frankivsk region), Berezhany, Gusyatyn (Ternopil region), Tul’chyn, Kalynivka (Vinnytsya region), Novograd-Volynskiy (Zhytomyr region), Kamyanets-Podilsky (Khmelnytsk region), Dubno (Rivne region), Dhzankoy, Saky, Shcholkine (Crimea), Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky (Odesa region), Rubizhne (Luhansk region), Mykolayiv, Pervomaysk, Yuzhnoukrayinsk, Nova Odesa, other cities from Mykolayiv region, representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine and of the Ukrainian Institute of Entrepreneurship (in total, about 35 participants).
During this visit, Yuriy Gerzhov presented the experiences of the municipality on developing the city-level Programme of energy efficiency, the innovative model of health care system management, effective mechanisms of managing the communal enterprises, strengthening linkages of the city council with the public organizations like City Economic Development Agency for solving problems related with land management, budgetary resources, social projects implementation etc. Participants had an opportunity to visit the City Council providing its services to the local citizens in accordance with the international standards ISO 9001:2000, local hospital applying the innovative model of managing the health care system, city cogeneration equipment set up for energy efficient water supply, association of co-owners of multi-apartment building and local schools which implemented the UNDP-supported community projects for improving the quality of life of their members.
“I strongly believe that the local self-government bodies have to establish effective functioning of the local communal enterprises, earn incomes for the local budgets and attract external investments to be able to solve problems in various development spheres of local development, including satisfying basic human needs like water supply, education, health care, housing sector, and others. Events like this are beneficial to all the participating municipalities, since they give us an opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences, elaborate innovative ideas and apply the viable models of solving various human development problems in our cities”, said Yuriy Gerzhov.
Voznesensk municipality established partnership with UNDP/MGSDP in August 2006. The major purpose of the Programme activities at local level is to help local communities in getting organized for solving their own development problems based on self-help approach. Since then, the department of supporting municipal initiatives and investments of Voznesensk City Council created within the framework of this partnership has successfully worked with the local citizens to motivate them for joining forces with the local authorities and donor agencies to implement the projects and initiatives in a sustainable way. As the result, 6 community projects were realized worth 556 thousand UAH, where the local communities contributed 10% of the project cost, 45% was shared by UNDP and 45% - by Voznesensk City Council.
To enhance the institutional capacities for participatory governance and sustainable development in the municipality, UNDP/MGSDP supported Voznesensk City Council to establish the municipal services’ Quality Management System in compliance with the ISO 9001:2000 for improving governance, service delivery and living quality of the citizens. Vasyl’ Fedorov, Voznesensk First Deputy Mayor, presented the achievements of the project and the new mechanisms of providing services to the local citizens to the participants of the visit. “Getting a certificate of matching the requirements of international standard ISO 9001:2000 is not a major purpose of this exercise for the local government. Most importantly, it is for developing an effective and rational management tool for the executive bodies of local self-government and raising community members’ satisfaction with the provided services”, he said.
During the concluding roundtable, the visitors elaborated a number of recommendations for the local self-government bodies willing to internalize the community-based development approach. They agreed that creation of specialized departments of supporting municipal initiatives and investments and special training programmes for their staffs is needed for initiating or strengthening these activities in any city. They see the important role of UNDP in providing advisory, consultative and capacity building support for enriching the local self-government and empowering the local communities across Ukraine. It was also mentioned that by establishing the strategic planning mechanisms of city development, the specialization of concrete cities should be identified (e.g. historic city, touristic or industrial centre etc), and the targeted municipal policies and programmes should be developed to support this strategic vision of the city parallel with supporting the community initiatives reflecting typical problems all over Ukraine. In this context, the participants welcomed recommendations outlined in UNDP’s 2008 report on “Human Development and Ukraine’s European Choice” which was also presented during the event.
Major purpose of this visit was to share knowledge and experiences on community-based municipal development, and motivate the city councils for internalization of the approach and support for the municipal initiatives of local communities. Since one of the objectives of UNDP/MGSDP is to build the capacity of civil servants and officials at regional and municipal level to improve local public service delivery, in 2008 this activity was supported by the Swiss Agency on Development and Cooperation to strengthen the inter-municipal cooperation in Ukraine and promote the participatory governance and development in cities.
“Knowledge transfer between the municipalities of Eastern/Southern and Western Ukraine is really necessary to create favourable environment for the stakeholders from both regions to gain from each other’s experience in context of social, economic and environmental governance and develop a sense of mutual respect and cohesion. We are grateful that whereas the politicians sometimes sharpen the inter-regional conflict in Ukraine, this Programme brings us together and helps to raise efficiency of our development work at local level”, said Yuriy Artsev, Secretary of Rubizhne City Council during the visit.
Similar visit will be organized by the Programme in Ivano-Frankivsk and Dolyna municipalities later this year. For further details, please contact Mrs. Olena URSU, UNDP/MGSDP Governance and Sustainable Development Expert, by tel. (067) 290 36 42 or via e-mail: olena.ursu@undp.org.ua
During this visit, Yuriy Gerzhov presented the experiences of the municipality on developing the city-level Programme of energy efficiency, the innovative model of health care system management, effective mechanisms of managing the communal enterprises, strengthening linkages of the city council with the public organizations like City Economic Development Agency for solving problems related with land management, budgetary resources, social projects implementation etc. Participants had an opportunity to visit the City Council providing its services to the local citizens in accordance with the international standards ISO 9001:2000, local hospital applying the innovative model of managing the health care system, city cogeneration equipment set up for energy efficient water supply, association of co-owners of multi-apartment building and local schools which implemented the UNDP-supported community projects for improving the quality of life of their members.
“I strongly believe that the local self-government bodies have to establish effective functioning of the local communal enterprises, earn incomes for the local budgets and attract external investments to be able to solve problems in various development spheres of local development, including satisfying basic human needs like water supply, education, health care, housing sector, and others. Events like this are beneficial to all the participating municipalities, since they give us an opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences, elaborate innovative ideas and apply the viable models of solving various human development problems in our cities”, said Yuriy Gerzhov.
Voznesensk municipality established partnership with UNDP/MGSDP in August 2006. The major purpose of the Programme activities at local level is to help local communities in getting organized for solving their own development problems based on self-help approach. Since then, the department of supporting municipal initiatives and investments of Voznesensk City Council created within the framework of this partnership has successfully worked with the local citizens to motivate them for joining forces with the local authorities and donor agencies to implement the projects and initiatives in a sustainable way. As the result, 6 community projects were realized worth 556 thousand UAH, where the local communities contributed 10% of the project cost, 45% was shared by UNDP and 45% - by Voznesensk City Council.
To enhance the institutional capacities for participatory governance and sustainable development in the municipality, UNDP/MGSDP supported Voznesensk City Council to establish the municipal services’ Quality Management System in compliance with the ISO 9001:2000 for improving governance, service delivery and living quality of the citizens. Vasyl’ Fedorov, Voznesensk First Deputy Mayor, presented the achievements of the project and the new mechanisms of providing services to the local citizens to the participants of the visit. “Getting a certificate of matching the requirements of international standard ISO 9001:2000 is not a major purpose of this exercise for the local government. Most importantly, it is for developing an effective and rational management tool for the executive bodies of local self-government and raising community members’ satisfaction with the provided services”, he said.
During the concluding roundtable, the visitors elaborated a number of recommendations for the local self-government bodies willing to internalize the community-based development approach. They agreed that creation of specialized departments of supporting municipal initiatives and investments and special training programmes for their staffs is needed for initiating or strengthening these activities in any city. They see the important role of UNDP in providing advisory, consultative and capacity building support for enriching the local self-government and empowering the local communities across Ukraine. It was also mentioned that by establishing the strategic planning mechanisms of city development, the specialization of concrete cities should be identified (e.g. historic city, touristic or industrial centre etc), and the targeted municipal policies and programmes should be developed to support this strategic vision of the city parallel with supporting the community initiatives reflecting typical problems all over Ukraine. In this context, the participants welcomed recommendations outlined in UNDP’s 2008 report on “Human Development and Ukraine’s European Choice” which was also presented during the event.
Major purpose of this visit was to share knowledge and experiences on community-based municipal development, and motivate the city councils for internalization of the approach and support for the municipal initiatives of local communities. Since one of the objectives of UNDP/MGSDP is to build the capacity of civil servants and officials at regional and municipal level to improve local public service delivery, in 2008 this activity was supported by the Swiss Agency on Development and Cooperation to strengthen the inter-municipal cooperation in Ukraine and promote the participatory governance and development in cities.
“Knowledge transfer between the municipalities of Eastern/Southern and Western Ukraine is really necessary to create favourable environment for the stakeholders from both regions to gain from each other’s experience in context of social, economic and environmental governance and develop a sense of mutual respect and cohesion. We are grateful that whereas the politicians sometimes sharpen the inter-regional conflict in Ukraine, this Programme brings us together and helps to raise efficiency of our development work at local level”, said Yuriy Artsev, Secretary of Rubizhne City Council during the visit.
Similar visit will be organized by the Programme in Ivano-Frankivsk and Dolyna municipalities later this year. For further details, please contact Mrs. Olena URSU, UNDP/MGSDP Governance and Sustainable Development Expert, by tel. (067) 290 36 42 or via e-mail: olena.ursu@undp.org.ua
