Nataliia Starostenko, Sector Manager, Regional and Local Development, Delegation of the European Union in Ukraine, welcomed participants of the fourth wave of the U-LEAD training programme “Steps for Specialists. Project Cycle Management”. She emphasised the leading role of municipalities in Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression:
“The foundation of Ukraine’s resistance is our cities and towns, that is your job. Now is the time to think about recovery to the greatest extent possible. And recovery is a very practical work. Above all, it is about projects. We all know that project management is the foundation, the cornerstone for managing complex systems in today’s contexts. It is gaining more and more relevance in Ukraine, because Ukrainian cities are already starting to learn how to manage more serious projects. We see how effective partnerships between Ukrainian and European cities are and how useful these partnerships are for the residents of municipalities,” noted Nataliia Starostenko.
The manager of the EU Delegation in Ukraine noted that the project management tools can greatly help Ukrainian cities and towns cope with the challenges of war and respond to the serious needs of municipalities. These tools enable local self-government to effectively develop strategies, allocate resources and implement projects to contribute to the recovery and development of municipalities.
The participants of the Steps were also greeted by Olena Tomniuk, Deputy Director of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme and Head of the Regional Affairs Department, who spoke about the main innovations of the course and certification of the programme:
“Allow me to welcome you to your new profession because this is a beginner course. It is designed for those who love and know how to dream, visualise, invent. You will encounter many experiments and even more detachment from reality on your journey. But there always will be those who will adapt your dreams and make them more grounded. The work of a project manager allows dreams to come true and to see very concrete results in built housing, in children who find new extracurricular opportunities for development, in adults who find new paths in this difficult time,” Olena Tomniuk told the participants of the course.
The Deputy Director of the U-LEAD Program further stressed that this wave would be the first to study in the professional programme. Indeed, the training course Project Cycle Management is approved by the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service (almost 4 ECTS credits).
Moreover, according to Olena Tomniuk, “Steps for Specialists. Project Cycle Management” will be among the first U-LEAD training programmes with a blended learning format. In addition to the online component for all 50 participants, an offline class will be held in Kyiv for the most successful of them. Then, based on the study results, a few more participants will be chosen from among them to be offered internships in municipalities that have implemented best practices for working with projects.
As part of the first seminar of the programme, the participants together with Oleh Kulinich and Petro Hotsaliuk, U-LEAD’s project cycle management experts, and Tetiana Tatarchuk, Head of the Regional Office of the U-LEAD in the Chernivtsi Oblast and moderator of the course, talked about the basics of the project approach and its implementation in the activities of local self-government; project life cycle and integration; as well as legal framework for preparing and implementing local development projects.
“Throughout this course, we will talk not only about the preparation of projects, but also about their implementation and completion, analysis and follow-up. We will also focus on project activities as part of a municipal development strategy, on partnerships in projects, the project team and roles within it,” said course moderator Tetiana Tatarchuk.
