Heads and deputy heads of municipalities of the Volyn and Ternopil Oblasts studied development practices and projects of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast for three days. The experience exchange visit “Building Trust as an Effective Tool for Municipal Development” was organised by the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.
The guests began the first day by getting to know the Krasyliv City Council, which makes a great case for qualitatively new public outreach aimed at building trust in the authorities.
The head of the municipality regularly communicates with the public on social media, and this practice played a crucial role in rallying the community at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Furthermore, they actively attract resources of the state and international programmes for development here. For instance, the participants of the visit visited Krasyliv’s Sports and Rehabilitation Centre built with the involvement of funds from the State Fund for Regional Development, as well as state and local funding.
The municipality of Stara Ushytsia showcased the practice of cooperation between the government, the business community and the public sector in the field of tourism and craft production. Here they offer craft products together with wonderful nature, wellness and unique accommodation. Guests visited Mykola Prudyvus’ Craft Herb Shop, Traveller’s House, and Respublica Fest’s Bakota Hub art space, a former school converted into a multi-purpose residence and hostel. The delegation also visited the Podilskyi Tovtry National Nature Park, the tourist information centre of the Stara Ushytsia Village Council and, of course, took pictures at the Bakota Bay observation deck.
The municipality of Teofipol shared its experience of development projects involving youth and businesses. The local BiblioHub is a space for sharing ideas and forging contacts, a birthplace of projects and startups that are actively supported by the Local Development Agency, a municipal institution. The guests also visited the Vegetable Growing Development Hub and learned about the operation of the biogas plant at the Teofipol Sugar Factory PJSC, which came to be as the result of a successful partnership between the local self-government and businesses.
“Each municipality is honing its own development tools. In Krasyliv, this is an advanced communication within the local self-government — they actively listen to the residents and are constantly on the lookout for resources. Stara Ushytsia is an example of cooperation with the business community and uniting projects around tourism development. The Teofipol municipality’s projects are special for their complementarity and integration. One project flows into another and strengthens the third. For example, the municipality plans to combine a dairy co-op with a fruit and vegetable co-op and produce yoghurt,” Dmytro Vasylenko, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast, said at the end of the three-day experience exchange event.
The participants of the visit noted interesting practical cases of the municipalities in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast, which both inspire and push us toward action. Iryna Mazurenko, acting head and secretary of the Dubechne municipality that represented the Volyn Oblast, found the tourism experience of the Stara Ushytsia municipality useful:
“Importantly, we managed to visit different municipalities, rural and urban. Each has common problems and pain points, and trips like that allow sharing experiences and learning certain tips for solving them. In the municipalities of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast, every participant of the visit found something new and interesting for themselves. We saw their municipal property, productions, approaches to project management, public participation and tourism development. We were able to learn about many practical and inspiring cases in land improvement, culture, cooperation with the business community or public outreach. We were impressed by the practices of working with youth and developing tourism. Trips like this one are really inspiring and emotional; they bring representatives of municipalities closer together and help establish high-quality communication between them for further exchange of experiences,” she said.
Mariana Kuzmin, secretary of the Pidvolochysk municipality that represented the Ternopil Oblast, emphasised the potential of comparing the cases of the host municipalities with their own practices:
“The trip to the Khmelnytskyi Oblast was a great, eventful experience for me. These visits allow you to spot and better assess the weaknesses or strengths of your own municipality, comparing it with others. We saw a team approach to various tasks. I would love to implement a lot of this in our municipality, since I managed to get advice and observe the already implemented projects. I have a vision for the further development of our municipality; there is a direction in which the team and I want to move. It’s nice that thanks to U-LEAD, we can share experiences with colleagues and get new ideas for development.”