Kyiv, 29 March 2024 — The Association of Ukrainian Cities held a two-day training event in Kyiv on March 21-22 for representatives of 12 Ukrainian municipalities implementing their own local initiatives as part of the Support to Rapid Economic Recovery of Ukrainian Municipalities (SRER) project.

The SRER project is funded by the German Government through the German federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine. The project focuses on supporting the rapid economic recovery of communities, in particular through the restoration and improvement of infrastructure that is essential for business development — especially for small- and medium-sized businesses.

The goal of the training is to strengthen the capacity of local officials and representatives of utility companies to form partnerships between local governments, the business community and the public sector, as well as the executive authorities. These partnerships then become a powerful basis for building a favourable business environment and carrying out joint project activities.

The training event was the first of a series of six planned as part of a comprehensive training programme developed by the Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC) under the SRER project. The successful completion of this training programme will help strengthen the capacity of its target municipalities and develop the capacity of local teams to implement economic recovery projects in partnership with businesses and other stakeholders.

Mustafa Sait-Ametov, UNDP Regional Development Programme Manager in Ukraine, says the training programme has a triple benefit for its participants.

“First, all 12 communities that joined the project have generated their own initiatives and are now actively implementing them,” he says. “Their participation in the training programme will contribute to the successful completion of these initiatives, and thus to the restoration and further development of the communities.”

“The second benefit is the experience gained by the municipalities in the course of project implementation. Working with UNDP, they gain important knowledge and skills that will allow them to initiate and implement projects of similar scale and complexity in the future. 

“And thirdly, the Association of Ukrainian Cities also gains experience by helping municipalities. The AUC accumulates this experience and will be able to scale and disseminate it to help other members of the Association.”

Oleksandr Slobozhan, Executive Director of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, emphasizes the importance of the Project implementation not only for each of the 12 municipalities, which were able to implement their own initiatives, but also for the economic strengthening of Ukrainian communities to restore the whole of Ukraine. Speaking at the training event in Kyiv, Mr. Slobozhan briefly outlined the component of the Training Programme developed by the AUC under the SRER project, which is aimed at strengthening the capacity of communities.

During his speech, the AUC Executive Director also highlighted the value of implementing local initiatives, as their successful implementation will provide a well-established algorithm of actions for the implementation of similar projects. The AUC will replicate these best practices among other municipalities in Ukraine, Mr. Slobozhan said.

The Association of Ukrainian Cities, as well as partnering in the SRER project and contributing to the above-mentioned training programme, also provides advisory and technical support to municipalities and project partners at all stages of the implementation of initiatives (implementation, monitoring, and reporting).

After successful project implementation, the association disseminates these best practices to all AUC member communities.

This publication was created by the Association of Ukrainian Cities as part of the “Support to Rapid Economic Recovery of Ukrainian Municipalities” (SRER) project, being implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine in the framework of the international cooperation project ReACT4UA (“Utilization and Implementation of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine in the field of trade”), that is financed by the German Government and is being implemented by the German federal company “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

Media enquiries: 

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