Public Initiatives of Ukraine Association with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe announces a competition for the selection of 120 municipalities to participate in the “Laboratories of Creative Dialogue in Municipalities” project.
After the full-scale invasion of russia, the Ukrainian municipalities showed extraordinary cohesion, togetherness, solidarity, and endurance. Each municipality, which is not in the occupation or war zone, received from several hundred to tens of thousands of internally displaced persons and provided them with everything necessary to the best of their ability. Under such circumstances, the population in the municipalities themselves often grew by 50–100%, and sometimes even by several times. The load on infrastructure, transport, and the social sphere has increased, and in some places there are differences of opinion, wariness, or social tension.
Understanding and cohesion within municipalities is the key to stability and endurance today, in the conditions of information attacks by the enemy who is trying to split the Ukrainian society by various means, sow discord and despair. Those municipalities that will be able to attract new residents in a timely and effective manner will receive benefits in the form of a reduction in social tension, strengthening of personnel potential, engagement of additional financial, material, and investment resources, resistance to potential conflicts in the period of information wars. Having mastered the procedures and practices generally accepted in EU countries for decision-making at the local level, municipalities will be able to better prepare for participation in programmes for the recovery of Ukraine.
One of these tools is a professionally facilitated dialogue, which opens up new opportunities for understanding and taking into account the needs of different groups of local residents and internally displaced persons in wartime conditions, and also helps to better prepare municipalities for the processes of post-war reconstruction and attracting additional resources.
The following municipalities are invited to participate in this competition:
- from Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia, Kirovohrad, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv regions;
- with a population of up to 50,000 people (as of 1 January 2022);
- those with registered internally displaced persons as of December 2022;
- interested in the actual involvement of residents in the decision-making process;
- able to offer a team of specialists to participate in the project (the team may include representatives of structural subdivisions of the executive committee, specialised communal institutions/enterprises) consisting of at least two people from one municipality.
In February–October 2023, the representatives of the selected municipalities:
- will participate in a training program (offline and online format) on organising and holding dialogue meetings in the municipalities;
- will master the methods of conducting moderated dialogue events aimed at understanding and taking into account the needs of different groups of local residents, and will be able to use the knowledge gained in their daily work;
- with the support of project experts, will prepare and conduct at least two moderated dialogues on topics relevant to the municipality;
- with the help of the knowledge and practical skills acquired in the project, will manage to establish a dialogue in their municipalities in wartime conditions, as well as better prepare municipalities for post-war reconstruction processes.
Why should municipalities participate in the “Laboratories of Creative Dialogue in Municipalities” project?
By participating in the project, your municipality will:
- receive well-trained specialists of the local self-government body in the facilitation of public dialogues, who will be able to apply this practice in the future to involve citizens in the development of local policies, in particular regarding post-war reconstruction processes and attracting additional resources;
- build the trust and support of municipality residents in the activities of local authorities through the involvement of various target audiences, including IDPs, in decision-making at the local level;
- increase the potential of cooperation with international programmes and projects as a municipality that uses effective mechanisms to involve citizens in the process of developing and implementing decisions important to residents;
- work with open and hidden conflicts in the municipality and solve them, taking into account the needs.
To participate in the competition, please fill out the form at this link.
The application deadline has been extended until 30 January 2023!
The selection of municipalities to participate in the project will be based on the principles of transparency and competitiveness, and will be carried out in two stages: evaluation of applications and selection interviews with the representatives of municipalities that have passed preliminary selection.
The results of the selection will be notified to the municipalities taking part in the competition.
For additional information, please contact:
Yurii Stepanets, vinmonp@gmail.com, tel. (067) 960 72 64
Ihor Dobko, ihordobko@gmail.com, tel. (067) 385 02 51.
