The second stage of the training programme “Steps for Specialists: Waste Management”, initiated by U-LEAD with Europe last year, has been launched.
The info session, which took place on the basis of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Rivne oblast, analysed the intermediate results of the first stage and discussed further steps to prepare projects to improve the waste management systems.
“We see that this topic is important for the Ministry of Reconstruction and other partners. The municipalities must receive assistance in developing projects and seeking sources of funding. We are ready to cooperate with them, with relevant ministries and other partners,” said Oleh Chernysh, Municipal Investment Adviser at U-LEAD.
According to the expert, 12 project proposals from municipalities from all over Ukraine were selected for participation in the second stage of the training programme.
For these municipalities, U-LEAD will conduct a series of training activities and individual consultations. The activities will continue until November 2023. By this time, the final versions of the applications and drafts of the project and estimate documentation should be ready.
The selected projects will cover various areas of waste management such as construction or reconstruction of landfills for solid household waste, improvement of bio-waste management systems and installation of recycling facilities.
As Oleh Chernysh added, the projects differ in scale and budget. Their value ranges from 100,000 euros to 18 million euros. The average is about 2.5 million euros.
“We already have the first estimates for the budgets of the submitted projects. Our experts, together with municipal officials, are committed to their improvement. There is a high probability that the cost of each project will increase, as all of them are large-scale, and achieving all their goals will require significant funding,” the expert said.
Dmytro Laznenko, an expert on waste management, gave general recommendations to municipalities on the preparation of project proposals. In turn, Ruslan Syviy, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Rivne oblast, emphasised the following.
“At the second stage, participating municipalities will finalise their applications and receive professional advice from our experts. In the end, they will have ready-made projects that can be submitted to competitions of international technical support programmes and receive funding for their implementation.”
The following municipalities continue their activities as part of the programme:
Kopychyntsi and Pidhaitsi municipalities of the Ternopil oblast;
Boryslav and Sambir municipalities of the Lviv oblast;
Horodnia municipality of the Chernihiv oblast;
Slavutych municipality of the Kyiv oblast;
Berezivka and Konotop municipalities of the Sumy oblast;
Kurne municipality of the Zhytomyr oblast;
Horodok municipality of the Khmelnytskyi oblast;
Solonytsivka municipality of the Kharkiv oblast;
joint application of two municipalities of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast, Saksahan and Zhovti Vody.