April 2009
Strengthening the Civil Society Capacity in Building Partnerships
A Ukrainian delegation visited Timisoara and Arad (Romania) as a second stage of the Ukrainian-Moldovan-Romanian initiative “Strengthening the Civil Society Capacity in Building Partnerships with Local Governments” on March 27-29, 2008. Its members included Oleh Yosypenko, Nadvirna Deputy Mayor, Serhiy Harat, Dolyna Mayor advisor, RTIC Director Nataliya Hasiuk, and Mariya Kovaliv, Deputy Director of the Association for Economic Development of Ivano-Frankivsk (AEDIF) Mariya Kovaliv.
On March 27, the participants took part in a workshop on public awareness and citizen involvement into the decision making process, NGO activities, types of community boards, and a regulatory framework and activities of the neighbourhood community boards. The latter were established in Timisoara based on a French model in 2004 (currently there are 14 of them). The group learned about the public survey results on the efficiency of these boards. Neighbourhood community boards are voluntary citizen associations that do not have the status of a legal person, do not have a political affiliation, and are not-for-profit. They promote the values of participatory democracy by maintaining an ongoing dialogue between the local government and the dwellers of a particular neighbourhood, thus facilitating active citizen involvement into addressing specific problems of the community. This experience also proves that in most cases advisory and consultation bodies make a considerable contribution into identifying and solving specific problems of individual communities. Citizen participation in the neighbourhood community boards helps to raise the trust to the local government, eventually improving their performance.
On March 28 a number of meetings took place in Timisoara Mayor’s office. The participants learned about its activities and structure, in particular, about the Development Department, which covers local development, domestic and foreign investment, tourist information, and the preservation of historical landmarks. There was an interesting discussion about the experience in developing and implementing EU-sponsored projects by NGOs and the development and operations of industrial parks.
During the meeting with Timisoara Mayor and Arad Deputy Mayor the participants learned about the cooperation between the local governments and the neighbourhood community boards; their role in identifying the common problems of the cities, reviewing social and economic development projects, and the municipal budget. Timisoara Mayor assured the participants about his willingness to closely cooperate with Ivano-Frankivsk local authorities. Ukrainian guests shared their experience in involving the citizens into the decision-making process, preparing development strategies on the local, regional, and sector levels, and identified opportunities for cooperation and common projects.
Ukrainian and Moldovan delegations learned about the local experience in establishing and operating neighbourhood community boards, citizen information centres, and condominiums. When sharing the experience of implementing various projects and programs, the partners discussed ideas on developing and implementing joint projects in the area of strengthening community boards, monitoring local governments, improving the infrastructure and tourism industry of the local communities.
The experience obtained as the result of the project is extremely important not only for the NGOs, but also for local governments.
Romanian and Moldovan partners were interested in AEDIF’s practical experience in developing and implementing joint projects with local governments, preparing local development strategies, monitoring local governments, and building cooperation with the third sector aimed at local community development. The partners discussed the issues of citizen involvement into the decision-making process and the practical experience of the Ukrainian partners in improving the transparency of local governments in Dolyna and Nadvirna. As the result of the discussion, the partners developed specific proposals on improving the transparency and accountability of the local governments.
The following stage of the project envisages an international conference in Ivano-Frankivsk Region (to be held in April) devoted to citizen involvement into the decision-making process on the local level. Moldovan and Romanian delegations will visit Dolyna, Nadvirna, and Yaremche in order to get acquainted with the local governments and NGOs.
The project is implemented with the financial support of the “East-East” program of the International “Renaissance” Foundation. The project partners include three NGOs from Moldova (Chisinau Municipality - Conflict Resolution Institute INRECO), Romania (Timisoara Municipality – Agency for Information and Development of Non-Governmental Organizations) and Ukraine (Association for Economic Development of Ivano-Frankivsk).
About the project „Strengthening the Civil Society Capacity in Building Partnerships with Local Governments" project is aimed at information exchange between the representatives of the local governments and NGOs in Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine (Chisinau, Timisoara, and Ivano-Frankivsk Region) in order to encourage social activities of the local NGOs and community organizations, improving the capacity of the civil society to promote efficient governance on the local level. The project envisages 4 visits for experience sharing.
In February NGO and local government representatives from Ivano-Frankivsk had the opportunity to visit Chisinau (Moldova), where they learned about establishing and operating neighbourhood community boards.
The international cooperation under the “Strengthening the Civil Society Capacity in Building Partnerships with Local Governments” project will help to develop relations between Chisinau, Timisoara, and Ivano-Frankivsk Region, introduce positive experience into democracy building for the local governments in these communities, establish direct links between the representatives of the local communities and NGOs, enhance communication between NGOs of the three countries.
