Highlands, a long distance from the regional capital and difficult weather conditions. This is the briefest description of the Koniatyn municipality in the Chernivtsi Oblast with a population of almost 5,000 in 9 localities scattered across 120 square kilometres of land. And yet, the project approach and strategic vision helped them set priorities, grab every opportunity for growth and develop good practices for attracting external resources.
The Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Chernivtsi Oblast organised an experience exchange event for heads of municipalities in the Bukovyna region — “Project Management and International Cooperation For Successful Municipal Development”. Oleksii Skrypchuk, head of the municipality, spoke there about their project experience and tools for attracting resources:
“Each employee of the village council should be a project manager in their field.”
According to him, they managed to attract donor funds due to the cooperation of the municipality with a project organisation assisting in the selection of tenders and financing mechanisms, as well as training the employees in a project mindset. Oleksii Skrypchuk believes that local self-government employees (educators, social workers, doctors, economists, heads of municipal companies and organisations) should be managers who implement projects in their fields.
According to the head of the municipality, only last year, this facilitated attracting more than UAH 3.5 million for the implementation of various projects at the expense of external resources such as the funds of the regional budget, international donor institutions, charity assistance and crowdfunding.
The effects of the project are obvious anywhere you look. No grand scale or pompous speeches, only care for people and their needs. Mental health rooms have been created in educational institutions; a Centre for Professional and Creative Development with sewing and carpentry workshops and an active youth council have been established. Positive changes are also visible in health and safety: a modern outpatient clinic provides the public with high-quality service packages under contracts with the National Health Service; partnerships with Polish colleagues enabled updating the fleet of rescue vehicles; we ourselves set up bomb shelters in schools; and a modern Administrative Services Centre has been launched. The municipality has a vision of its own spatial development and has developed project and estimate documentation for priority investment and social projects.
Tetiana Tatarchuk, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Chernivtsi Oblast, welcomed this approach. She outlined the prospects for the participation of Ukrainian municipalities in project activities and management of EU funds:
“A wide range of rules, structures and procedures is needed here, and our municipalities are only setting foot on this path. It is vital to develop international and domestic municipal partnerships, create project offices, train staff and form transparent and understandable local policies.”
The participants appreciated project management practices in the Koniatyn municipality, the possibilities of creating project offices in their municipalities, as well as agreed on the development of joint projects that are part of international cooperation programmes. It is easier to take the road to European integration by gaining project experience together.
