History of systemic changes
The municipality of Mena started its cooperation with U-LEAD with Europe in 2017, shortly after it had been formed. "At that time, we had 20 village councils with no unified vision of how everything should function. U-LEAD helped us elaborate a municipality development strategy, as well as regulations on departments and structural units," said Yurii Stalnychenko, the Secretary of Mena City Council.
Since then, the partnership has grown stronger and stronger. With the support of U-LEAD, Mena was the first municipality in the oblast to create a municipal fire department. Inter alia, it developed a regulatory framework, organised training for professionals and opened four branches, which today ensure prompt response to fires in the entire municipality. "Fire protection is our priority, because we are an agricultural region," explained Yurii Stalnychenko.
Another stage of development was a project to improve administrative services. Together with U-LEAD, the municipality designed a model and documents to set up an Administrative Service Centre, which currently provides about 400 services. In 2018–2019, Mena municipality introduced electronic document management, and today everyone – from secretaries to village starostas – uses this system.
Transparent procedures mean solutions that are understandable to the public
Mena has become one of the few municipalities in the region to fully align administrative processes with the new law "On Administrative Procedure." After Liudmyla Starodub, the Manager of Affairs at Mena City Council, joined U-LEAD’s training programme "Administrative Procedure", the municipality not only learned the new legislation updates, but also learned to effectively apply them.
"Each inquiry used to go through different procedures, but now it’s unified. We have a simple, transparent procedure that is the same for everyone," says Liudmyla Starodub. ‘This mitigates corruption risks and empowers people to protect their rights and advocate for themselves. The training helped me understand how the law works in practice, and I passed this knowledge on to my colleagues in the city council."
The approach to investing in the professional development of municipal officials is one of the municipality’s strengths, notes Iryna Kudryk, the Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in Chernihiv Oblast: "The senior officials of Mena municipality, city council members and even the public have been active and interested participants in many initiatives offered by U-LEAD since the very beginning of the activities. It is extremely important that municipal officials understand the value of investing in people – in their expertise and new practices. In turn, these skills become the asset that drives change in the municipality, as development projects are implemented and the services are drastically upgraded. Ultimately, people feel that the quality of life improves, and the municipality itself becomes recognisable as its residents build their own identity."
Cybersecurity: an inspiration for the whole country
In 2024, Mena became the first municipality in the oblast and the 12th in Ukraine to implement the Digital Shield, a project to strengthen the cybersecurity of local self-government. The project, implemented by Good Initiatives of Mena with the support of U-LEAD, joined the Municipality 4.0 educational programme. The head of this NGO, Nataliia Prymakova, stated: ‘We saw the need for digital security and wanted to help the municipality protect itself from cyberattacks. We purchased equipment, set up a server room, installed licensed software, and, most importantly, conducted training. Officials admitted to having been unaware of such risks — the training proved to be very useful.”
The project presentation aroused interest among donors as well as other municipalities. Today, in addition to implementing changes, Mena also shares its best practices with its neighbours. "We are excited to lead the way and willing to advise others. We are currently working with the Digital Transformation Department of Chernihiv Oblast Military Administration to consult municipalities both within and outside the oblast," said Yurii Stalnychenko.
Technology that serves people
U-LEAD support ensured that the municipality also received the necessary technical assistance, including a forklift and a minibus. "A forklift is an indispensable asset for a utility company in a municipality with 39 settlements. As for the minibus, we decided to use it to transport schoolchildren, as part of optimising the network of educational institutions to comply with the laws," said the secretary of the municipality.
Educational autonomy
In 2020, Mena was one of the first municipalities in the oblast to make its educational institutions independent. This was preceded by a large-scale outreach campaign, which the municipality held jointly with the Education Department with the support of U-LEAD. As a result, today, in accordance with the laws, each educational institution that has the status of a legal entity conducts its financial and economic activities and plans its budget at its own discretion. This enabled quick response to challenges, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic: principals promptly made decisions on directing funds where they were needed most.
"We saw that this had been the right decision. If things had stayed centralised, we simply would not have survived in a crisis," said Yurii Stalnychenko. This success inspired other directions: the autonomy of educational institutions was later successfully scaled up to cultural institutions.
Power of the project management approach
Project management competencies are key to ensure development. This is what the municipality of Mena firmly believes in, and its officials work on strengthening their capacities, including through U-LEAD’s training programmes. Among them is Serhii Skorokhod, the Head of the Economic Development and International Relations Department: "U-LEAD training provided fundamental knowledge that has already brought a wide range of results. For instance, we were able to prepare a package of documents to join the USAID DOBRE Programme. It really was a challenge for us."
The knowledge gained enabled the municipality to win a grant for the modernisation of the hospital, which allowed us to insulate the building, update internal networks and equipment. Next, the Mena municipality implemented a project to create a rehabilitation centre, which was supported by the UNDP and the Government of Japan.
Today, Mena has 26 Ukrainian and five international partners and cooperates with over 50 funds. In 2024 alone, about 70% of additional funds were attracted through international technical assistance. "Both with U-LEAD and other donors, we did not chase ‘hard’ projects. Most of the projects are “soft” ones that helped us learn to work in a systematic manner. They helped us build an approach to development, and we strive to use every opportunity. These projects transform us from the inside — and we are ready for this," summarised Yurii Stalnychenko.
Launched in 2016, U-LEAD with Europe is a joint initiative between Ukraine and the European Union and its Member States —Germany, Denmark, France, Poland and Slovenia — to create a multi-level governance system that is transparent, accountable and responsive to the needs of Ukrainian citizens. The third phase of U-LEAD started in 2025, focusing on strengthening local self-government and ensuring sustainable recovery at the local and regional levels in the context of Ukraine’s EU integration goals.
