In late March, teams of 10 municipalities from all over Ukraine embarked on their unique journeys of creating a project office. Among them is the Ovruch municipality, Zhytomyr Oblast, which won the competition to join the support programme “Creating a Project Office in the Municipality” by U-LEAD with Europe.
The Ovruch municipality was one of the first to suffer devastation from the enemy. Social and municipal infrastructure was destroyed by air strikes and shelling. They had to quickly seek support in recovery and think about developing the territory and attracting resources. Sofiia Kravchuk, Chief Specialist of the Department of Economic Development and Investment Attraction of the Ovruch City Council, spoke about this.
“We decided that attracting grant funds is one of the best options for reconstruction and sustainable development. This requires certain skills and mastery of project management. As soon as U-LEAD announced the call for participation in the support programme, we saw a future in this and realised that this was the chance we were waiting for,” said the specialist.
The municipal team takes learning participation very seriously. They have already created a project management sector and are holding a competition to fill two specialist vacancies in this unit.
According to Sofiia Kravchuk, the City Council already has some experience in writing grant applications as well as project management skills: “In cooperation with the Initiative Youth of Ovruch NGO, we were able to attract UAH 1,500,000 to expand our youth policy and create a cultural space — a community building centre; a solar power plant was also installed at the hospital in cooperation with the Eco Club NGO.
As part of the support programme, the teams of specialists will participate in seminars and training sessions where they will not only learn about creating a project office in the municipality, but also understand how to organise its work, as well as explore effective methods of promotion and cooperation with donors.
“By creating a project management sector, we will be able to achieve sustainable economic growth, help small and medium-sized businesses, increase employment rates, implement green energy projects and create decent living and leisure conditions in the municipality for all groups of the people,” said Sofiia Kravchuk.
The Ovruch municipality has been cooperating with U-LEAD for many years. In 2022, the municipality became one of the 60 participants of U-LEAD’s comprehensive training programme “Business Friendly Municipality”. Following the programme, they initiated the project of transformation of the local library into a creative space, KOLOHUB. This initiative was implemented with the support of Cedos and the Western NIS Enterprise Fund.
“Project activities involve comprehensive and systematic work of all units of the municipality, which requires time and knowledge. Furthermore, a quality project application must be based on a thorough analysis of the situation in the municipality, contain calculations and be well-written in accordance with the grantor’s requirements. It’s great if everyone in the municipality can write projects, but it would be better to have a unit or an official responsible for this activity who coordinates and plans it,” said Vasyl Nevmerzhytskyi, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Zhytomyr Oblast.