U-LEAD experts help municipalities establish interaction with IDPs by raising awareness of local self-government officials working with IDPs about the main steps for obtaining administrative, social, educational and medical services.
In particular, U-LEAD experts remind municipalities of the following:
- An internally displaced person uses most services regardless of the place of registration, as they are extraterritorial in nature;
- Every IDP is entitled to health care, medical assistance and health insurance. Local self-government bodies, within their competence, ensure the provision of medical services for IDPs in municipal healthcare facilities located in the relevant settlement;
- The Affordable Medicines Programme, which operated before the war, is still available today. Regardless of the place of residence, certain categories can receive the necessary medicines for free.
Having a tentative road map with the main steps and services for IDPs, representatives of the local government will be able to help people who come to the municipalities fleeing the war more efficiently. Within the municipality, IDPs should receive services to the greatest possible extent, which would require informing IDPs about the scope of services they are entitled to according to the current legislation as well as assistance in their implementation.
this was said by Valerii Mikulich, Adviser on Decentralisation and Local Self-Government of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Zhytomyr region.
The road map for work with IDPs was discussed during an information session for representatives of the municipalities in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was organised by the team of the Regional Office U-LEAD with Europe in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The Dnipropetrovsk region has sheltered more than 300,000 internally displaced persons, and today there is not a single municipality that has not sheltered people affected by Russian armed aggression. In addition to people who moved to our region from other regions, our municipalities also accept residents of the Dnipropetrovsk region who fled war-torn municipalities for safer places. Such migration requires special attention from local self-government bodies to the needs of new residents and calls for the development of local plans to provide IDPs with everything they need. This would require working out an action plan so that all services and organisations involved in this process work consistently, smoothly and stably.
said Olena Tertyshna, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The experts also informed the participants about the latest changes in the current legislation regarding the payment of housing allowances for IDPs and compensations to owners of residential premises for temporary accommodation of IDPs, as well as the provision of educational services for internally displaced children. In addition, representatives of municipalities were able to learn about financial instruments and international assistance programmes to support IDPs.