On Tuesday, March 12, the U-LEARN Educational Platform launched the support programme “Development and Implementation of the Public Budget”. Based on the results of the competition, teams from 16 municipalities of the following oblasts were chosen to participate in the training: the Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Ternopil, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy and Sumy Oblasts.
This local democracy mechanism was widely used before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. There were successful cases in many municipalities of Ukraine. Unfortunately, under martial law, most public budgeting processes were suspended.
According to Olena Tomniuk, Deputy Director of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, the full-scale invasion made the issues of the effective use of funds by local budgets and public engagement more relevant:
“Despite the ongoing war, today there is no question about whether to use the public budget or not. This tool for engaging residents in the distribution of financial resources is both expedient and timely. Firstly, it promotes the cooperation of local self-government with the public, involving the public in management and decision-making processes. Secondly, it allows the public to use a tool that enables residents to receive funds and implement their initiatives that would contribute to the growth of their municipalities.”
The support programme will last from March to July and consist of seminars, workshops and homework. As a result, each participating municipality, based on legislative methods, will have a chance to work out its own approach to the implementation of the public budget and develop its own package of documents required by the local self-government at all stages of public budgeting.
At the first seminar, the participants learned about the first steps to be taken to implement the public budget in the municipality. They also explored the priority municipal directions for the implementation of the public budget and its impact on the political situation as well as economic, cultural and social development.
The experts recounted the legal framework regulating the use of public participation tools and emphasised the risks and challenges that may arise in the process of its implementation.
“At the following seminars, participants will learn about the public budgeting stages, organising an awareness-raising campaign as part of introducing the public budget, holding the selection and implementation mechanisms of public budget winners’ projects as the final stages of public budgeting. At the same time, there will be practical steps that would engage the public in the implementation of initiatives,” said Liudmila Hurba, Adviser on Decentralisation and Local Self-Government of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Vinnytsia Oblast.
She and her colleagues, Olena Savchenko, Adviser on Municipal Finance and Management at the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Kirovohrad Oblast, and Tetiana Filatova, Adviser on Decentralisation and Local Self-Government at the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Luhansk Oblast, will work with the participating municipalities throughout the training programme.
At the end of the training, the participants who have passed the tests will receive certificates.