A three-month-long training programme for representatives of 12 municipalities that won the Support for Rapid Economic Recovery of Ukrainian Municipalities project is in progress at the Promprylad plant. After the training, a sustainability strategy will be created for each facility restored under the project. This will help ensure these facilities continue to exist and develop after completing the grant.

This project (hereinafter: SRER) was launched in Ukraine at the end of 2022 with the support of the German Government. It focuses on supporting the rapid recovery of local economies. The project also involves investing additional funds in rebuilding and improving business development infrastructure.

The grantees of this project are 12 Ukrainian cities, which not only include large oblast centers such as Lutsk, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, and Ivano-Frankivsk, but also relatively small cities such as Zvyagel, Stryi, Smila, and Lozova.

What makes the SRER project special is that it consists of two major components: physical works on rebuilding business infrastructure, as well as a series of educational activities to help grantees ensure the sustainability of the results achieved.

For example, when the Lozova City project team completes the creation of a "Service Hub" for local and relocated businesses, they will already have a sustainability strategy that will determine how the hub will develop after the grant is completed. The partners involved in the project will train the team in strategic and financial management, stakeholder engagement tactics, marketing, and more.

While the reconstruction works began in November 2023, the SRER training programme only started in early March 2024. It was launched with a 3-day visit by representatives of 12 municipalities to the revitalized Promprylad plant (in Ivano-Frankivsk City).

The Promprylad team is a partner of the project and has been developing solutions that develop the Ivano-Frankivsk region through education, art, innovation, and entrepreneurship since 2017. From their own experience, they know how to best develop a sustainable economic model and create an ecosystem that provides opportunities for business development.

During the visit, the participants listened to 7 lectures by invited experts. They also conducted a series of workshops focused on the long-term vision of their projects and a flexible plan for implementing this vision in the context of modern Ukraine.

Given the wide geography of SRER, after the visit to Promprylad, the training programme will be transferred to an online format. Over the next 3 months, project participants will attend twice-weekly lectures and workshops on operational planning, programme activities, marketing, communications, teamwork, etc. As a result, each team will receive a tailor-made sustainability strategy developed exclusively for their facility.

The “Support to Rapid Economic Recovery of Ukrainian Municipalities” project is funded by the German government. The project is being implemented by the German federal company “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit” (GIZ) GmbH in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine.

Media enquiries: 

Yuliia Samus, UNDP Ukraine Head of Communications; e-mail: yuliia.samus@undp.org