April 20-24, 2004

FIELD VISIT OF DU TEAM REPRESENTATIVES TO THE DONETSK REGION

Following the work plan of the Democratising Ukraine Small Project Scheme, on April 20-24, 2004 representatives of the SMT – Programme Director Yulia Tykhomyrova, Programme Advisors Igor Popov and Inna Pidluska, Micro Project Manager Olga Kapeliushna, regional coordinator for the Donetsk region Oleg Grishin and trainer/consultant for the Donetsk region Olga Demidova (Further —programme representatives) went on a field visit to eight communities of the Donetsk region.

The purpose of the field visit was to meet local officials, representatives of leading local NGOs/CSOs and candidates for positions of local coordinators in communities, to explore the compliance of pre-selected communities with the programme criteria, and to provide recommendations to the SMT on the final selection of communities in the Donetsk region where the programme will be implemented.

The eight communities in the programme’s short list were selected through consultations of the SMT (Y. Tykhomyrova, I. Popov, I. Pidluska, representing the CCU, and Serhiy Polyansky, representing the British Council) with Annie Feltham (DFID), Oleksandra Zayarna (DFID), Marina Cherenkova (Action Donbass) and representatives of the SESP on 22nd March, 2004 in Donetsk. Therefore, the communities visited during the field visit included: Artemovsk, Dokuchayevsk, Kievsky borough of Donetsk, Novyi Svet, Telmanovo, Torez, Ugledar, and Yenakievo. The findings of the field visit and general consideration on the situation in communities are presented in the report below.

Visits to the Communities

The visits to the pre-selected communities were organized in the order in which they are presented below. The major preparatory organizational work was performed by the regional coordinator for the Donetsk region Oleg Grishin in close consultations with the DU Kyiv-based Micro Project Manager Yevhen Poberezhnyi. The CCU trainer and consultant for the Donetsk region Olga Demidova provided her valuable inputs. When building the field visit, the DU team benefited from recommendations made by Marina Cherenkova and SESP president Tetyana Gladysheva. Tetyana Gladysheva joined the DU programme representatives at the meetings in Torez, Yenakievo, Telmanovo, Novyi Svet and Ugledar.

KYIVSKY BOROUGH OF DONETSK CITY

Meeting with NGOs of the Kyivsky borough of Donetsk
The programme representatives met leaders and activists of the Kyiv borough organization of people living with disabilities, the Donetsk Centre for Information, Protection of Rights and Employment for the Disabled, the Eastern Ukrainian Fraternity, and the Youth Employment Centre. The youth Employment Centre was proposed as a potential base organization, as it has the necessary resources and institutional capacity to perform that function. The key issues discussed were promoting opportunities for young people, advocacy for the rights and equity of people living with disability, access to information about employment and social services.

The programme representatives also met the candidate for the position of the local coordinator Svitlana Tkachova, member of the board of the East Ukrainian Fraternity and a former administrative director of the Donetsk Regional Council of Youth NGOs, to discuss her vision of the situation in the community and assess her capacity for becoming an efficient local coordinator.

TOREZ

Meeting with local authorities in Torez
The programme representatives met mayor of Torez Viktor Antonov and head of the internal policy department Kateryna Ovsiychuk, and described the idea, purpose and general approach of the DU programme as well as the work done within the programme so far in the Lviv region. The presentation particularly stressed the non-political and community-development and NGO empowerment focus of the programme. Mr. Antonov described Torez as a mining town in which out of 12 mines only 4 were in operation at the time of the field visit. Out of 93 thousand of the population of Torez there are 34 thousand pensioners and 20 thousand youth. The average salary in the town is 420 UAH a month. The town’s annual budget is UAH 36.8 million. There are multiple colleges in the town that provide training in engineering, machine-building and mining. All industries and the social sphere of Torez are linked to mining and the mines. The unemployment level in general is about the Donetsk region’s average. However, unemployment among women is a major problem. The majority of persons registered at the local job centre are women. Viktor Antonov welcomed the DU programme initiative and expressed willingness to cooperate with the programme. He mentioned the “Natkhnennya” NGO as one of the institutions working to address the problem, but said that NGOs in the town were few. A recent initiative is to form the “Council of the Elders” at the mayor’s office to help address issues of the elderly, to hold consultations with representatives of civil society groups and disseminate information about decisions made at the municipal level. Antonov cooperated with the Action Donbass and was on a study visit to the UK. There are a number of “public councils” that cooperate with departments of the local authorities, focusing on needs of the elderly, war veterans and people living with disabilities. There are 5 re-abilitation centres in Torez, partly financed from the local budgets. Recent projects in town include re-organization of a network of schools and colleges and creation of “learning territories”, as well as health and social protection initiatives expected to be joined in “health territories”. There is also a “Centre for Legislative Initiatives” – a proto-think tank that is involved in drafting local bills, analysis and recommendations to national-wide bills.


Meeting with NGOs
Following the meeting with Mr. Antonov, the programme representatives met NGOs that were selected for the meeting by head of the internal policy department Kateryna Ovsiychuk: members organization of the SESP “Natkhnennya”, the Torez Organization of Women, the Torez branch of the League of Professional and Business Women. Yulia Tykhomyrova and Igor Popov presented the DU programme and described our work as a consortium. It was particularly stressed that the programme seeks to promote partnerships between local NGOs/CSOs and encourage them to create mechanisms that would continue to work after the project is complete. The participants of the meeting – representatives of Torez NGOs described their initiatives – primarily in the field of promoting women’s rights, health (particularly AIDS and drugs abuse prevention), local environment and issues of the elderly. Participants of the meeting also mentioned their involvement in political councils. In 2001-2002, the Torez Organization of Women implemented a program on creating the Volunteer Movement in the town within the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights Programme for Ukraine which was administrated by the Counterpart Creative Centre. The Torez branch of the League of Business and Professional women has cooperated with Winrock International and the Centre for Social Services for the Youth. The SESP member organization, “Natkhnennya” was established on the basis of the local employment centre and is now dealing with targeted social protection of the population, running seminars on business planning and small business development, and the AIDS awareness and prevention campaign. “Natkhnennya” (recommended by Action Donbass, SESP, the Torez officials) as the base organization, is related (through same people in the leadership and among founders) with a credit union. Speaking about priorities for their community, representatives of the NGOs did not have a clear view that would be shared by all but referred to creation of an information centre that would give access to information about providers of social services, a programme that would raise awareness of healthy lifestyle, development of a volunteer movement. In their turn, representatives of NGOs were interested in kinds of issues and projects the DU was working on in the Lviv region.

Meeting with proposed base organization, “Natkhnennya”
Following the general meeting, the programme representatives visited the office of the “Natkhnennya” NGO (registered in 2001) and the credit union and had a discussion with the staff, focusing on institutional capacity of the organization. In 2003, the NGO received about UAH 10,000 to its account and spent it on various activities as specified in its statutory documents. All the equipment found in the organization’s office belonged to DFID and was not listed as property of the NGO. The key question was the differentiation between the NGO and the credit union. As the “Natkhnennya” leader Nadia Fedosova explained, the two entities were registered as separate organizations and are formally mutually independent. Both the leader of “Natkhnennya” and Tetyana Gladysheva (SESP president) claimed the NGO and the credit union are not mixed in the community perception. Recommendations for strengthening the accounting system and making corrections in the NGO’s statute (on the order of liquidation) were made by Programme Advisor Igor Popov.

Meeting with a candidate for the position of a local coordinator – Torez
The programme representatives met and interviewed a candidate for the position of a local community coordinator for Torez, Elena Lopatina. Elena holds graduate degrees in economics, psychology and is doing her BA in English and lectures at a local college. Although lacking practical experience of work in the NGO sector, she demonstrates good inter-personal communication skills, ability to learn and relative independence on the local authorities and the leading local NGOs. She also has adequate access to communication technology / Internet.

NOVYI SVET

Meeting with Mayor of Novyi Svet Irina Berdnikova
The mayor of Novyi Svet is a very energetic and enthusiastic woman, open to new initiatives and eager to cooperate with the programme. The town is small (about 10,000 residents) and almost entirely dependent on the nearby Starobeshevska power plant that gives jobs to about 3,000 of Novyi Svet residents and sponsors the whole social sphere. The key issues in the town are care for the elderly, youth unemployment, drugs. Most of the projects implemented in the community so far involved social and humanitarian assistance to the vulnerable groups. The programme representatives briefed the mayor on the nature of the DU programme stressing its non-political nature and explained that it is about empowerment of local communities through NGOs/CSOs and not humanitarian assistance. One of the priority issues of interest for the mayor was to promote the creation of condominiums.

Meeting with local NGOs
The local NGOs visited/met by the programme representatives included SESP member “Nadezhda” (leader – Inna Zhdan), the Youth Club and the credit union that is linked to “Nadezhda”. The majority of activities of “Nadezhda” are organizing events for socially vulnerable people, helping their re-integration with the society, as well as disseminating of gifts, donated by local sponsors. Each of the members of the organizations has attended previous training seminars on issues of NGO development and communication (through the British Council and resource centres); some of the members have been trained in business planning, and some have delivered training seminars on team-building, fundraising, NGO development themselves. The organizations’ key target groups are youth and unemployed women; their current focus is promoting awareness of a healthy lifestyle through seminars, youth entertainment events, lectures, and promoting awareness of youth and children’s rights. Their partners include the local social service centre for young people, the local and regional department of health, and a local job centre. Some of officials of those governmental agencies are members of the credit union’s supervisory board. The organization’s 2003 budget was UAH 23 000. The office of the organization was an in-kind contribution of a local businessman – member of the organization; the office equipment belongs to DFID and is leased free of charge to the organization. “Nadezhda” has good relations with the local media. The obvious weakness of the organization is the lack of partnership experience with other local NGOs/CSOs (like other SESP organizations we visited, this one referred to partnership within SESP but not with a broader NGO community). Although “Nadezhda” and other influential local NGOs (the Veterans’ Council, the Women’s Council”) know each other and speak positively about each other, their interaction has been limited to participation in the same public events. As one of participants of the meeting at “Nadezhda” put it, “they don’t understand us, <…> we are at a different level”. The credit union, “Svet Nadezhdy” is formally registered and certified, has 5 staff members, 343 members, UAH 167 000 in assets. Its leaders argue that it is separate from the NGO “Nadezhda”

Other NGO leaders met by the programme representatives included chairman of the Veterans’ Council Aleksey Kohur and deputy head of the Women’s Council Natalia. While both of these organizations know about Nadezhda” and are ready to cooperate with it, they have not worked together before, though their target groups overlap (the Women’s Council also deals with issues of women, children at risk, the Veterans’ Council develops volunteer movement). They are sceptical about the credit union, though. The leader of the Veterans’ Council is a former teacher and sports coach, and most of local donors and decision-makers are his former students. Both of the organizations enjoy clear support of the mayor and have access to facilities owned/operated by the local authorities.

Meeting with a candidate for the position of a local coordinator
The programme representatives interviewed a candidate for the position of a local coordinator, Elena Belkina, an economist by training and an accountant with little experience in the NGO sector but good connections with the local authorities and good organizational/managerial skills, and also is computer literate, has Internet access and a cell phone. If Novyi Svet is selected as one of the project’s communities, the candidate will be able to use her good relations with the mayor and the local administration to facilitate their support for the project, but additional work will have to be done to develop relations with local NGOs/CSOs. Possibly, there will be a need to interview an alternative candidate for the position.

DOKUCHAYEVSK

Meeting with the deputy mayor for social issues and heads of departments of the Dokuchayevsk town council
The programme representatives met the deputy mayor for social issues, Vladislav Vodyakhin, head of the home policy department Valeria Dzhurilo, head of the administration of the town executive committee Irina Rud’, head of the youth policy department Galyna Tokarchuk. The meeting in Dokuchayevsk highlighted what efforts of a closely-knit community and friendly and pro-active local self-government bodies could do. The local leaders have been exposed to training opportunities and, building on that knowledge, opened a local community information centre, a newspaper and Internet access. According to the local authorities, “there are no political differences” in town. The town has its Statute. Local bodies of self-organization of the population and consultations with “the community” (primarily, veterans, women’s NGOs) on spending of the social part of the local budget are new popular trends. A number of NGO leaders came to the local government as a result of the recent local election (2002) – including head of the administration of the local executive committee and chairperson of the local branch of the Women’s Union of Ukraine Irina Rud’ and editor of the local newspaper Oleksiy Tokarchuk. There is a “political council” in town - a communication and advisory nongovernmental body organized by the mayor. According to a candidate for the position of a local coordinator, member of CVU Natalia Prokopenko, local government and NGOs are very closely interlinked, with practically “the same people” in most of the entities. The image of the mayor in town is very positive, and his actions are practically not challenged by any opponents. Priority areas as seen by representatives of local authorities include youth issues (employment, education, children at risk, family violence), increasing civic engagement/activism.

Meeting with NGOs and a candidate for the position of the local coordinator
The programme representatives met leaders of the local NGO proposed as a potential base organization – the Foundation of Retired Teachers, as well as other major local NGOs - the Veterans’ Union (leader – Priz Valentina) and the “Persha Lastivka” Foundation. The meeting highlighted a noteworthy situation: when activists of NGOs go into politics, the local NGO sector remains weakened. The Foundation of Retired Teachers, though demonstrating exceptionally good connections with local decision-makers and donors and successful local fundraising practice, has very little experience in areas that a modern NGO would be expected to have – i.e., programme management, networking, etc. It’s leader Lidia Bayeva calls the mayor and his deputies by their first names as her former school pupils, but the organization’s focus is more on support of the elderly (events, gifts, holidays etc.) than developing lasting solutions for the community as a whole. The two other organizations have broader target groups (veterans, children at risk, families). “Persha Lastivka” foundation works as a family support school and given training seminars on psychology, healthy lifestyle, culture. It is a voluntary initiative rather than a proper organization, as it does not have a permanent office, staff, account, etc. All of the organizations are able to attract devoted volunteers and contribute to the welfare of their target groups, but their institutional capacity is limited. Local NGO that the programme representatives met have very little (if any) experience of developing and implementing projects which would last longer that just individual actions. Their experience is limited to conducting separate events. Like most of social sector NGOs in the Donetsk region, they have good relations with local government (partly – through the Union for Unity, Accord and Renaissance” initiated by then governor of the Donetsk region, now prime minister of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich). The NGOs’ experience of finance management is limited to dealing with sponsors’ contributions (the Foundation of Retired Teachers has a professional accountant whose main employment is in the commercial sector).

The programme representatives had a discussion with a candidate for the position of a local coordinator, Natalia Prokopenko, an experienced local activist and member of the CVU branch. She briefed the programme representatives on the general situation in the local NGO sector and spoke about another visible local NGO whose leaders could not come to the NGO meeting – the local branch of the Ukrainian Women’s Union (we met its chairwoman, Irina Rud’, at the mayor’s office).

YENAKIEVO

Meeting with first deputy mayor of Yenakievo
The programme representatives met with first deputy mayor of Yenakievo Yuriy Sel’vansky, recommended by the mayor as his contact person and the one in the local authority who would interact with the DU programme should the decision be made to select Yenakievo as one of the communities to work with. Following the presentation by Yulia Tykhomyrova and Igor Popov, the deputy mayor told about the town and described his vision of priority areas. The town of metallurgists and miners, Yenakievo is an aging town with 53 thousand pensioners and 46 thousand inhabitants of working age. Average salary in the town is UAH 500 per month. The key challenges/problem areas are generation of income to the budget, small business development, the environment, children and youth at risk. On the other hand, the deputy mayor is optimistic about the town’s prospects – both because “large business is turning its face to the town” and the fact that prime minister Yanukovich comes from Yenakievo. Speaking about contacts with NGOs, he mentioned the Veterans’ Council, the Employers’ Council as organizations that are steadily involved in consultations with local authorities. He added that all NGOs were invited to submit their comments when the annual programme of local development was drafted.

Meeting with local NGOs
The programme representatives met leaders of local NGOs and their partners – representatives of local governmental structures (i.e., the employment centre, the department of education, the Centre for Social Services for the Youth, the department of working with children at risk, etc.) the meeting was organized at the office of the Business Women’s League, an NGO active since 1995 and proposed as the base organization for Yenakievo. The Business Women’s League advocates rights of women entrepreneurs, and recently has broaden its scope to include working with the youth and the elderly. Other organizations that took part in the meeting included the organization of the SESP network, “Devchata”, that focuses on providing business training to unemployed women; the Centre for Social Re-abilitation of Children living with disabilities, the Youth Crisis Centre (funded from the local budget and the UNICEF); the local branch of the Union of Women of Ukraine (lead by Nina Budarina); the local Centre for Children’s and Youth Creativity, the local branches of Amnesty International and the Red Cross. All of the organizations present at the meeting demonstrated a good history of involvement in the NGO sector and relatively high capacity. The key issues they identified as priorities for the community included youth unemployment, TB/AIDS/need of promoting awareness of healthy lifestyle. The organizations have known each other for many years and interacted in various formats. Although there was a feeling of distance between the “original” organizations that “formed themselves” and the “Devchata” that emerged as part of a project, the meeting participants were unanimous in their declared with to work together in a coalition that would involve the “Devchata” as well as the others. The Business Women’s League positions itself as a local coordinating organization that is on friendly terms with most of others in the NGO sector and the local government structures, and a “source” of three local elected representatives out of 50. It has a proper office, equipment, Internet access and other communication facilities, and experienced managerial staff.

Meeting with a candidate for the position of a local coordinator
The programme representatives met and interviewed Tetyana Bykova, a candidate for the position of a local coordinator for Yenakievo who appears to be an able and diligent person with good connections both in the NGO sector and the local authorities. However, she is very close to the proposed base organization, and, therefore, the programme representatives may consider meeting alternative candidates for the position or selecting a different person as the project manager at the base organization.

Artemovsk

Meeting with mayor of Artemovsk
The programme representatives met mayor of Artemovsk Oleksiy Reva who welcomed the programme and promised his support and cooperation. The mayor produced the impression of an open minded leader. His previous experience of working with internationally funded development projects included the USAID-funded Community Partnership Project and participation in a TACIS project. The priority issues he identified included issues of children without proper parental care, the disabled (particularly, the blind), large low-income families, lonely pensioners, small business development as a method of countering unemployment, and the youth. The mayor initiates monthly consultations with the leading local NGOs on those issues.

Meeting with NGOs in Artemovsk
The meeting with NGOs of the Artemovsk community highlighted their visions of key needs of the community to be deficits of NGO involvement in making policy and the local level, lack of people’s awareness of their rights, and environmental issues. NGOs in Artemovsk, and particularly the proposed base organization (“Bakhmat”) are much stronger institutionally and in terms of their project/grant history than other NGOs the programme representatives saw in other communities of the Donetsk region. Their previous experience in organizing public hearings on environmental issues (including the clean-up of former military sites) may be useful for further work of the DU programme. Most of NGO that took part in the meeting also had previous experience of working in coalitions (like the “Coalition for a transparent society”). However, if Artemovsk is selected as the programme implementation, it will be important to make sure that a wider circle of NGOs working with socially vulnerable groups are involved. The non-political nature of the programme and the focus on partnership with local authorities should also be clearly communicated to the NGOs.

Meeting with a candidate for the position of a local coordinator
The programme representatives also met with a candidate for the position of a local coordinator, member of the local branch of the MAMA-86 national environmental NGO, Inna Chekanova. Her knowledge of NGO development and good working contacts with the mayor and his staff may be instrumental in the project implementation. Her past experience includes working with the current mayor at a local industrial plant. However, the issue of a would-be project manager/director remains open, as leader of the proposed base organization is currently involved in a number of other projects and his availability for trainings and other events within this programme may be limited.

UGLEDAR

Meeting with mayor of Ugledar and potential local base organisation Impuls
The mayor of Ugledar Viktor Khanin is a young, ambitious and open-minded leader who has been exposed to information about the opportunities that arise from participation in international programmes. He cooperated with the Community Partnership Programme (USAID) and with the Action Donbass/DFID and SESP. His involvement in the Community Partnership Project helped him in establishing good working relations with mayors of other towns and cities and strengthen his position in associations of leaders of local self-governance (i.e., the Association of Ukrainian Cities). He has been to a variety of training programmes and now is dedicated to disseminating his new knowledge to local elected representatives and his staff through training and presentations. He and his senior staff also draft analysis and recommendations to the national legislation but lack knowledge of advocacy mechanisms to make those recommendations heard. The key issue the mayor and his staff are currently working on is establishment of local people’s self-organization bodies that would strengthen the role of local initiatives in addressing the community’s everyday needs. His relations with representatives of the NGO sector are a mixture of understanding of the need to have them, lack of trust in their capacity and friendly patronage (through “trying to free them from the routine of reports, bookkeeping” but encouraging their initiatives). His motto seems to be “there is no need to be afraid of my interference with everything. After all, I have the total responsibility”. Meanwhile, he is enthusiastic about introducing lectures on local self-governance and preparing his fellow community members for more informed participation in local affairs (i.e., public hearings).

Mayor Khanin invited representatives of the leading local NGOs to the meeting – and therefore made it necessary for the programme representatives to meet the mayor and the NGOs separately again. Initially the mayor was strongly focused on only one NGO he presented as the potential partner for a project – the Impuls, and seemed reluctant to talk about other NGOs. To help ensure better understanding of the nature of Democratising Ukraine as a programme that involves cooperative efforts of the whole community, the programme representatives had a follow-up discussion with Mr. Khanin and his senior staff. The programme’s strong expectation to develop a fruitful cooperation with another DFID-funded programme, Action Donbass, was communicated to the mayor. The experience of the programme’s communities in the Lviv region on building coalitions of local NGOs/CSOs for drafting and implementing community-based micro projects was used to describe the potential benefits of joint efforts within the DU programme for individual NGOs and the community as a whole.

Meeting with a potential local base organisation, Impuls, and a candidate for the position of a local coordinator
The programme representatives met activists and staff of the proposed base organization, a SESP member “Impuls” and its partner credit union “Impuls Plus”. While there are 43 registered NGOs in the town, the mayor recommended “Impuls” as the strongest of the working NGOs. The key focus of “Impuls” is small business development and delivery of business training to the unemployed and other interested individuals. The organization has a relatively strong institutional capacity, equipment provided by DFID and office space leased free of charge by the local authorities. It has its own newspaper, “Impuls”, registered as a mass medium in mid-2003 but never published yet. It’s leader, proposed as a potential project manager, is new in her job. A few days before the meeting she substituted in that position the previous leader of “Impuls”, Fedir Sorokin, apparently freed to make it possible for him to qualify for the position of a local coordinator. While the candidate is a dynamic personality and a knowing NGO activist, he may be better suitable for the position of a project leader/manager; therefore, it may be needed to identify a new candidate for the position of a local coordinator should Ugledar be selected as one of the programme’s communities.

Other active organizations in Ugledar include the Veterans’ Union, the Union of Disabled ex-Miners, and the Afghan Veterans’ association. It may be suggested that the programme representatives met leaders of those NGOs to have a more accurate picture of the situation in Ugledar and prospects for developing an effective community-based project.

TELMANOVO

Meeting with mayor of Telmanovo and local NGOs
The programme representatives met a recently appointed mayor of Telmanovo, Serhiy Oleksiyenko, and leaders of the major local NGOs – “Alliance”, “Antey-Unit”, a local branch of the Donetsk League of Professional and Business Women, a local Women’s Council and a local Greek association. Following the presentation of the DU programme made by Yulia Tykhomyrova and Igor Popov, the mayor welcomed the programme, briefed the programme representatives on the situation in the town, expressed interest in including Telmanovo as one of the DU programme communities and promised support and involvement of local authorities. In his view, the key issues to be addressed in Telmanovo are unemployment, particularly among women and young people, and generally low incomes that make a large number of local residents socially vulnerable. Other problem issues are public health (AIDS, drug abuse) The NGO leaders that took part in the meeting highlighted issues of focus and activities of their organizations. The branch of the Donetsk League of Professional and Business Women has been involved in a project on countering family violence and trafficking in women. They also delivered small business trainings. Some of them have had previous experience of working in partnership – particularly the two leading organizations, the “Alliance” and a member of the SESP network “Antey-Unit”. Both of the organizations focus on assisting the poor and vulnerable, the “Alliance” focusing on older community members and the “Antey Unit” working primarily with the youth. The issues highlighted by the participating NGO activists included youth unemployment, the need to improve access to information on social services, rights and entitlements, the need to organize training programmes, development of volunteerism, business planning.

Meeting with a potential local base organization and a candidate for the position of a local coordinator in Telmanovo
The programme representatives had a discussion with a candidate for the position of a local coordinator – Vasyl Sheltyk, director of the community house of culture, a known and respected personality in town, who coordinates community integration activities like a local choir, children’s leisure clubs, folk groups (up to 1,700 residents of the town’s 7,000-strong population). He has the necessary organizational capacity, connections with NGOs, the media and local authorities, and resources to represent the DU in Telmanovo and coordinate activities of a would-be local coalition.

The programme representatives also visited the office of the proposed base organization, the “Alliance” and its partner organization “Antey Unit”. At some point the two organizations were parts of a single entity that started as a self-help group that emerged through the DFID-funded Community Initiatives Development Project. Later on, specialization – the focus on children and youth for “Antey-Unit” and work primarily with adult groups for the “Alliance” - resulted in the emergence of two independent organizations. The organizations demonstrate relatively good institutional capacity and stable operation which will make either of them a strong partner in the would-be coalition. The organizations maintain good relations with other local NGOs and with the local government agencies (i.e., the employment centre). We also met their leaders – Liudmila Rotkina, leader of the “Alliance”, and Olga Minayeva, leader of the “Antey Unit”. The selection of a project leader will need to be made at a later stage if Telmanovo is selected as one of the DU communities. Although due to objective reasons (unfavourable weather and road conditions) the programme representatives had limited time for the discussions, we could see potential of the organizations met and prospects for cooperation with local authorities.

Some comments
The NGOs in the communities of the Donetsk region that were visited by the programme representatives generally have some record of interaction with local self-governance bodies and governmental agencies and have been exposed to trainings of various kinds, but their institutional and project management capacities will need to be strengthened. They will also need to learn how to work in partnership and strengthen their outreach capacity.

Only a few NGOs have some experience of implementing long-term projects. Thus, project management, reporting, financial management, working in partnership skills etc. will need to be enhanced through an intensive learning and capacity-building effort that the DU programme offers.

Although some of the NGOs met during the trip stated they had gone through a number of training and seminars, and some even deliver training seminars themselves, it appears that their skills in such field as project development and management, work in partnerships etc. may be enhanced through the learning component of the DU programme.

Most of activities of the NGOs met during the field visit focused primarily on organizing events for the vulnerable groups and the NGOs’ other clients, the distribution of gifts provided by local sponsors and running awareness-building activities. Some of the NGOs, primarily those of the SESP network, delivered training seminars. None of the activities discussed would allow us to judge about the role of the NGOs in a dialogue with local authorities in making their target groups’ voice heard.

Cooperation with Action Donbass and SESP will be a very important added benefit for the DU Programme. Further communication between the Democratising Ukraine and Action Donbass/SESP leaders and representatives, particularly leaders of SESP member organizations in the target communities, will help facilitate better mutual understanding of the two programmes’ goals, approaches, and the potential for achieving synergies between the programmes. The knowledge and support received by the SESP member organizations from DFID may add to the strengths of this programme. It is also important to use the pro-active, inclusive and partnership-based approach of the Democratising Ukraine programme for facilitating cooperation and dialogue within the target communities between SESP member organizations and other NGOs/CSOs.

Ukrainian as a spoken language for trainings and communication within the DU programme would be quite acceptable in the Donetsk region. Therefore, it would be possible to promote exchange and learning between the Lviv and Donetsk communities.

Senior local officials whom the programme representatives met during the field visit were all welcoming and enthusiastic about cooperating with the DU programme. The materials about the programme and the DFID, prepared and presented by the programme representatives during the visit, will help promote the local officials’ informed involvement in the micro projects at later stages.

As political aspects of local developments may have substantial impact on interaction within the communities, it is important to stress the non-political nature of the programme and encourage the would-be micro project participants to make sure the project is not used for political needs. The clear reference to the programme ethics and prevention of the conflict of interest should be stressed.

The Programme representatives who participated in the field visit agreed to have a special meeting for analysing possible risks for the work in the visited communities of Donetsk oblast. Specifically, the risks related to general local environment in the context of the forthcoming presidential election, capacity of local NGOs/CSOs, potential for interaction with other initiatives being developed in the communities will be analyzed and assessed with the help of the risk assessment instrument used at the start of the DU Programme.

To make the final decision on selection of communities of the Donetsk region to work in, a follow-up visit will be organized to some of the communities by June 2004.




March 4, 2004

On March 4, an extended meeting of Strategic Board of the Programme "Democratising Ukraine Small Project Scheme" took place and strategic consultant of the Programme Christine Forrester participated in it. Five project proposals from communities of Brody, Chervonohrad, Drohobych, Sambir and Sokal of Lviv oblast were reviewed during the meeting. Though the Strategic Board of the Programme noted high quality of the submitted proposals, it was recognised that communities of Brody, Drohobych and Sambir need additional assistance from the Programme to improve their projects. Thereby the Programme plans to deliver additional consultations on project design to these communities.




February 19, 2004

Initiative groups of the communities of Brody, Chervonohrad, Drohobych, Sambir and Sokal (Lviv oblast) continue designing of their micro-projects to be further implemented within the Programme "Democratising Ukraine Small Project Scheme". Strategic Board the Programme met on February 19, 2004 for preliminary review of the communities' project proposals. During the meeting, general requirements for all micro-projects and specific recommendations for each of the micro-projects were produced. Communities have to submit their reworked project proposals by February 26 to be reviewed and approved by the Strategic Board.




December 8-13, 2003

During December 8-13, 2003, a Programme three-day "Project Design" training will take place in Lviv region (Brody, Drohobych, Sambir, Sokal, Chervonohrad). The training will cover the following moments: project design process, formulation of the problem, project goal and objectives, principles of budgeting, monitoring and evaluation as integral parts of the project logical scheme, sustainability of the project. If you have any questions as to the schedule of the training in the regions, please contact Programme Community Development Manager Oksana Pavlova at Pavlova@ccc.kiev.ua. All active community members that plan to take part in the project realisation are invited to take part in trainings.




December 2-4, 2003

During December 2-4, 2003 the Democratising Ukraine Programme will meet the local coordinators and other representatives of Brody, Chervonohrad, Drohobych, Sambir, and Sokal communities to discuss the further steps of community projects development. The meetings of other DFID programmes and Lviv region authority representatives are also planned within the trip.




November 24-29, 2003

During November 24-29, 2003 the training "Effective Communication and Successful Work in Coalitions" and consultations on designing an agreement of cooperation will be held in the communities of Lviv oblast (Brody, Chervonohrad, Drohobych, Sambir, Sokal). It is expected that as the result of training and consultations the communities will receive skills and knowledge in effective communication for successful work in partnership, develop and sign an agreement to implement a joint partnership project aimed at the development of their community. With all questions concerning the training schedule and other please contact Oksana Pavlova, Programme Community Development Manager, Pavlova@ccc.kiev.ua

The participation in the training is open for all interested community members.


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