U-LEAD With Europe organised a visit to exchange experiences between the municipalities of the Chernivtsi, Khmelnytskyi and Ternopil Oblasts. The participants studied the best practices of partnerships and cooperation between local self-government and international partners, the public sector and the business community in order to attract additional resources for the development of municipalities.
As part of the visit, a delegation of representatives of municipalities of the Chernivtsi and Khmelnytskyi Oblasts visited the municipalities of Kremenets, Kopychyntsi and Velyka Berezovytsia of the Ternopil Oblast.
The municipalities of the Ternopil Oblast presented the best practices of cooperation with international partners, the public sector and the business community. The visit aimed to show that this format of cooperation and partnerships was an effective tool for attracting additional resources to solve ongoing issues and ensure the development of municipalities.
“In the conditions of war, it is vital that municipalities have the tools to effectively attract additional resources and funds for their development. Municipalities have already developed mechanisms and systems of management decisions that allow them to promptly respond to the challenges caused by the war. The exchange of experience contributes to the introduction of new approaches to solving certain problems and helps municipalities from different regions to manage their own resources and attract additional ones more effectively,” said Nataliia Onyshchuk, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Ternopil Oblast.
In the Kremenets municipality, the delegation was able to see the implementation of projects in cooperation with foreign municipalities. As the head of the municipality Andrii Smahliuk emphasised, the Kremenets City Council considers the development of international cooperation to be a priority, which is yielding results. Therefore, as part of the cooperation project between the cities of Ukraine and Germany “Organisation of the Collection of Solid Household Waste in Kremenets” under NAKOPA, the municipality was able to update the physical infrastructure of the local utility company.
Municipality representatives visited sites created with the support of international partners. In particular, these were family-type orphanages and a rehabilitation centre for children and youth with disabilities.
The best practices of partnerships with NGOs were discussed during the visit to the Kopychyntsi municipality. The head of the municipality, Bohdan Kelichavyi, shared his experience in finding partners abroad and talked about active joint initiatives.
The municipality is home to the Navkolo Charitable Foundation that was able to create a public co-working space and set up a humanitarian headquarters. It features a social laundry that is open to internally displaced persons.
“Almost from the very first days of the war, we actively got to work and joined the volunteering efforts. We saw the need to support IDPs and the military and created a humanitarian headquarters, which became a volunteering hub in our municipality. Over time, we expanded our activities and set up a modern co-working space open to the public sector, IDPs, local youth and the elderly. All this became possible thanks to established cooperation with international organisations and technical support programmes. This is how we have set up an effective system of providing the military and IDPs with everything they need, as well as created new opportunities for the development of the municipality,” said Arsen Kelichavyi, Chairman of the Navkolo Charitable Foundation.
There is another charitable foundation — Posmishka — that is successfully operating in the municipality. It was founded 10 years ago in Zaporizhzhia, but now its team has relocated to Kopychyntsi.
The Posmishka Charitable Foundation implemented many initiatives for IDPs and children. Representatives of municipalities were able to see the work of the Children and Youth-Friendly Space established in the Children’s and Youth Creativity Centre. Thanks to effective cooperation with local self-government and international partners, the Foundation’s team has created a space where children, youth and adults can study, improve their English, work in an art workshop or join a drama club or a dance school.
The municipality of Velyka Berezovytsia shared their achievements in cooperation with local businesses, which became an effective tool for the social and economic development of the municipality. This was stated by the head of the municipality Andrii Halayko, who believes that municipalities can only grow with the cooperation of the government, business community and the public.
The delegation visited the West Ukrainian Industrial HUB, an industrial park created in the municipality at the end of last year. The HUB offers office spaces and utility premises equipped with European-style ramps and loading ramps with roofs.
“Today, local and relocated enterprises operate in the industrial park. The creation of the industrial park was initiated by Agroprodservice, a private agro-industrial company that leased more than 10 hectares of land,” said Vitalii Korol, director of the industrial park.
Next, the delegation visited Agroprodservice and saw its work. Its main activity is plant cultivation, in particular grain and oil crops, which the company grows in the Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Kherson Oblasts. The management of the company shared tips for successful cooperation with Velyka Berezovytsia and talked about the main humanitarian projects that are implemented in partnership.
“The trip to Ternopil Region was quite eventful. I saw a lot of new things and compared Mamaivtsi to other municipalities. Each municipality is special and unique, each has its own problems. The industrial park in the Velyka Berezovytsia municipality was impressive. It is very important to have such businesses as partners, as they are not just taxpayers, but also help implement social projects. You can see that a lot of work has been done, which means that the Velyka Berezovytsia municipality will always have a focus to move only forward,” said Nataliia Katriuk, head of the Mamaivtsi municipality of the Chernivtsi Oblast.
In the Velyka Berezovytsia municipality, representatives of municipalities of the Chernivtsi and Khmelnytskyi Oblasts saw a successful example of a joint social project, an open-air ethnomuseum in the village of Nastasiv. The location has become a real tourist magnet for the municipality. Before the full-scale invasion, it hosted the Koliada Unites Ukraine ethno-fest and held St. Nicholas’ Day every year, attracting thousands of visitors from across the country.
“It is extremely useful to travel to municipalities from other regions and learn from their experiences. Each municipality has its own vision and different methods of solving problems that all local self-government bodies face. Having seen the experience of other municipalities, you can implement the most successful solutions. As I visited each municipality, I wrote down interesting practices that can be done in the Teofipol municipality. We managed to record 13 points, which we will jointly implement upon returning home,” Mykhailo Tenenev, head of Teofipol municipality of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast, said when sharing his impressions of the study visit.