From vision to practical implementation
Anna Pustovit is a psychologist and public activist who understands the value of support at just the right moment. She has long-standing ties to the Economic Development Department in Slavuta municipality, together they implemented social initiatives, applied for grants, helped IDPs, military personnel and their families through Love in Action NGO.
Opening her own business was a logical next step for Anna, but also a new challenge. She needed to figure out the procedure for state registration, choose the right type of individual entrepreneur status. Municipal professionals were the ones who helped Anna define a starting point and supported her every step of the way.
"When I had a question about opening my own business, professionals from the Economic Development Department offered me advice, explained the ins and outs. We are currently in the process of registering me as an individual entrepreneur. We are to cooperate in the future," says Anna.
This case is not an exception but rather an example of the new approach to cooperating with entrepreneurs, which is being implemented by Slavuta municipality after participating in the “Municipal Business Environment” Assessment and Development Programme offered by U-LEAD with Europe.
Changes begin with assessment
Slavuta joined the programme with a clear goal: to analyse the business environment and build effective communication between the authorities and entrepreneurs. According to Halyna Darchyk, the Head of the Economic Development Department, the municipality has long been aware that its working relationship with businesses needs to be strengthened.
"We sought to improve communication with businesses, as we saw that our efforts were not sufficiently focused on entrepreneurs. And participation in this training programme became a much-needed catalyst for change. We are very grateful to the U-LEAD team for the training and constant support," says Halyna Darchyk.
Upon completing the training, the municipality conducted a survey of 36 respondents as part of the assessment, which included entrepreneurs, municipal officials and organisations that support businesses. According to the assessment, the overall business environment index in the municipality was 2.69 out of 4 possible points, signalling that there was a lot of room for improvement.
First results
The municipality of Slavuta did not stop at analysing problems — it immediately took action. Following the business environment assessment, municipal experts updated the investment portal, created a Telegram channel for prompt communication with entrepreneurs and visited the municipality’s businesses.
"Our working group features employees of the Economic Development Department, the Financial Department of the Executive Committee, as well as our colleagues from the Tax Service. We provide consultations and help with writing grant applications. We already have success cases: a veteran who wanted to become an entrepreneur approached us, and we helped him complete his application. He received funding and opened his own business," says Halyna Darchyk.
The municipality is already planning a reassessment of the business environment at the end of the year to track the dynamics of changes and analyse the effectiveness of the implemented tools. This will not only allow progress to be recorded, but also enable approaches to be adjusted in a timely manner, based on feedback from entrepreneurs. The reassessment will be a sort of “control point”, an indicator of whether the business community’s trust in the authorities is really growing and new opportunities for business development are emerging.
"I am sincerely grateful to the U-LEAD experts for giving us clear, practical tools — so easy to understand that it’d be a shame not to use them. This has enabled us to organise our work more effectively, identify new opportunities and understand the direction in which we should proceed. Sure, there is a lot to be done, and resources are scarce, but we are determined to take action and continue developing the business environment in the municipality," says Halyna Darchyk.
