26 January
DONETSK

”Our Idea and Our Cause Won’t Die or Perish… “

On 26 January, the Kyiv Hotel in Donetsk welcomed the DU Programme participants, and the like-minded people from the NGO sector and local governments. They arrived to have a round-table discussion on the modern technologies of community development, possible adaptation of the international expertise to the Ukrainian conditions in order to promote the civil society in Ukraine.

The DU Programme, which has so far been working for three years to enhance the civil activity of the public in Donetsk and Lviv Oblasts, has made quite impressive progress. A lot has been done to achieve one of the principal goals of the Programme, which according to DFID Deputy Programme Manager Olga Sandakova, is to help the public become partners with government, so that the latter could from inside respond to the community problems. This is manifested by the very fact of the authorities’ participation in the round table – like in many other Programme events – and their real interest in the questions under discussion. According to the invited officials, the Programme has been useful both for the grass root and for those at the helm of local governments; the joint Donetsk - Lviv workshops have been especially valuable. “This practice has proven that there are common problems that can be solved by joint efforts”, stated one of the local authorities representatives.

However, assistance to the public in developing co-operation between them and government is only one of the directions of the Democratising Ukraine Programme, the other vector being directed at helping the people to solve their problems by themselves. Those aware of the existing problems are not infrequently lacking the knowledge and resources to take concrete conceptual actions. Yet another problem is involving so-called marginalised groups (the youth, the unemployed, people with limited abilities) in the decision-making processes.

The second wave of micro-projects (the second level resources), which has already started in Lviv Oblast is being launched in Donetsk Oblast, focuses at initiating sustainable mechanisms of involving the largest population strata in the processes directly influencing their lives.

Christine Forrester, Strategic Programme Consultant, believes the issue of involving the public did not come out of the blue, it has been taken care of since the very beginning and some outcomes have been achieved owing to the co-operation with NGO coalitions rather than with individual NGOs. Developing a dialogue with government is not receding to the background of the second level resources. “The second wave only brings in some new mechanisms”, says Christine Forrester.

The new phenomena aimed at achieving community goals will include drafting the compacts (social contracts between the public and government, they will formally consolidate the relations of the two poles, with a view to enhancing the probability of solving social problems through dialogue rather than protest and mutual accusations), setting up community development Funds and Social Enterprises, and organisation of self-support groups.

The pith and marrow of these new institutions is not in their setting up, but in their development, says Christine Forrester. The task is to make these organisations meet the needs of those they are called for to serve.

Wrapping up the round-table discussions, Yevhen Poberezhny, DU Micro-projects Manager, mentioned: “Most of the Programmes’ initiatives are innovative and run the risk of failing; so, the success depends on some subjective factors, on persistence of all and every one.” The crux of the matter is that in a year, when the Programme is over, the processes launched by the communities of the two regions should not stop but pick up speed and scale, moving from the local to the national level.

Olena Golyuk,
Communications and Outreach Manager, DU Programme




26 January
DONETSK

Business with a Social Mission

Donetsk became a venue for the workshop on social entrepreneurship of three communities from Donetsk Oblast on 26 January. They are planning to set up social enterprises in the course of implementing the second level resources supported by the DU Programme. The purpose of the workshop, conducted by Christine Forrester, the Strategic Programme Consultant, was to help its participants better realise the nature of social enterprise, discuss the principles of its work and ways of effective development.

Every successful social enterprise works on the general principles of business organisations, explained Christine Forrester. A social enterprise (SP) is a business offering products (services) for money. The basic difference between a traditional and social businesses is in the mission, which is first and foremost social than commercial one. SPs strive to generate profit from business in order not be hinged on grants, but where they fulfil certain functions (say, training and employing people with special needs) they may need additional support to do this job. Profits earned by SPs are reinvested in their business or transferred for community needs.

For an SP to be a success, it must produce goods and offer services meeting the standards expected from a commercial provider of services that enjoy demand in a certain community.

As examples of British SPs Christine Forrester mentioned the enterprises offering a number of services for those who returns from prison, engaged in construction, refuse processing, trade, energy supplies, publishing periodicals, etc.

By the way, one of Donetsk Oblast communities in actively working to set up an SP which will be publishing Moy Gorod (My Newspaper) Newspaper in the town of Vuhledar. The other communities that are supported by the Programme are also planning to launch similar activities. To make the planning successful, legal advice and support in doing the market research and writing business plans will be offered to the community members interested in setting up effective and efficient SPs.

Olena Golyuk,
Communications and Outreach Manager, DU Programme




PRESSING ISSUES CAN BE DISCUSSED ONLINE NOW (IN UKRAINIAN ONLY)

At the request of many people involved in the Democratising Ukraine Small Project Scheme the Programme team has developed an electronic mailing list – discussion group for all Programme participants and stakeholders. The web resource became operational in the beginning of December.

In our opinion, the mailing list is an important and convenient tool for sharing ideas about community development, activities of the non-governmental organisations, partnership with local authorities, etc. As the experience of many NGOs demonstrates, this type of communication has proved to enhance the effectiveness of the coalition work, to disseminate best practices and models of the Programme in other regions of Ukraine.

The Programme team together with regional and local co-ordinators, staff members and coalition representatives as well as other interested parties will subscribe to the list.

To send a message to all group members please write to: dobrobut@googlegroups.com

To view all message please go to: http://groups.google.com.ua/group/dobrobut

To subscribe to the mailing list please write to: kuchynsky@dobrobut.org.ua




8 December
KYIV

Some aspects of community development

Recently the representatives of the communities and other participants of the Democratising Ukraine Programme had an opportunity to share experience on enhancing the role of the community in local self-governmence and to learn about Northern Ireland’s experience in creating community development foundations.

The main goal of the information-sharing event that took place on 6 December at the Bratislava hotel was to introduce practical experience of the community participation in addressing local problems. Working in groups the participants reviewed the examples of community advocacy campaigns and shared ideas about the existing problems.

Lauri McCusker from Northern Ireland and Christine Forrester (Programme Strategic Consultant) came to the Bratislava hotel the next day. They shared their experience in establishing and building community foundations and ways to adapt the international principles of community foundations in Ukraine.

According to the definition proposed by Christine and Lauri, a community foundation (CF) is an independent foundation which operates on a clearly defined territory and is supported by the entire community. In addition to fund raising activities (search for potential donors) and accumulation of funds for community development, the CF has to link groups with various interests on a certain territory. Among factors that can promote creation of the CFs in Ukraine the participants indicated local expertise, trust, capability, ability to take risks, independence, innovation and effect of experience sharing.




5 December 2005
LVIV

New community projects launched in Lviv region

On 28 November communities of the cities of Sambir, Chervonohrad, Sokal, Brody and Drohobych presented new projects to be carried out within the framework of the Democratising Ukraine Programme. Upon presentation of the projects, signing of the contracts to implement the projects of the second level took place.

In order to address social problems in Lviv region it is planned to work on establishing community foundations (Sambir), social enterprises (Sokal), self-help groups (Sokal, Chervonohrad, Brody) and to organise a social-economic development forum (Drohobych).

Among priorities, the representatives of all communities indicated development and signing the Compacts (joint agreements between the local authorities and non-governmental organisations) as the first step to carry out new projects.

The following traditional methods will be applied to encourage the local authorities and non-governmental organisations to work together in a new way: round-table discussions, public hearing, trainings and forums.

In addition to other activities the communities plan to conduct information campaigns on a large scale in order to enhance the effectiveness of the projects. These campaigns will include production of brochures, launching web-sites (in some communities) and information events to attract the representatives of local mass media etc.

During the event Lyudmyla Yelcheva, Programme Director emphasised the successes achieved by the communities of Lviv region. In her opinion, the indication of the success was that the local authorities had become more open and receptive to the initiatives developed by the community and got more involved in the Programme’s projects. However, the coalition work has to be improved; in particular, vulnerable people should take more active part in the decision-making and implementation of the projects supported by the Programme.




6 October 2005

DFID Conference on Civil Society/Community Development

The issue of civil society development in Ukraine and achievements of the Democratising Ukraine Small Project Scheme in the respected field were discussed at the conference dedicated to the civil society and community development and initiated by the Department for International Development of Great Britain (DFID).

The conference was one of the events delivered within the framework of the DFID strategy and aimed to stipulate information sharing in social policy and social development; the conference served as a good opportunity to introduce the community development tools, to discuss their advantages and challenges with their implementation and their compliance with the institutional conditions existing in Ukraine and to review broader concepts such as civil society, social policy and providing services.

The significance of the event was emphasised by the presence of representatives of the civil society, authorities and international donors of high level. The Department for International Development of Great Britain was represented by Mike Battcock, Head of Section and Programme Manager, Civil Society Team, Teresa Durand, Social Development Adviser, John Stuppel, Head of DFID Ukraine and his deputies Olga Sandakova, Paola Pavlenko, Olga Mrinska and Governance Adviser Alexandra Zayarna.

The DU Programme was represented by the following advisors Ihor Popov (Committee of Voters of Ukraine) and Inna Pidluska (Ukrainian Centre for Independent Political Research), Christine Forrester, Strategic Programme Consultant, Lyudmyla Yelcheva, Programme Director, Vitaliy Kuchynsky, Programme Manager, other representatives from the DU core team, representatives of the communities from Lviv and Donetsk regions and other people.

Participation of the following Ukrainian government officials was greatly enjoyed. They were Olexandr Yarema, representative of the Department of Youth Policy of Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Children and Youth, Alla Nastych, representative of the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of Ukraine, Councillors to the Vice Prime-Minister on Territorial and Administrative Reform Anatoliy Lutsenko, Volodymyr Shevchenko, Oleg Kylymnyk and other representatives of respectful international and national non-governmental and donor organisations. However, not all invited people managed to attend the event. But those who had come demonstrated friendly attitude to the Programme’s objectives and great enthusiasm in establishing co-operation with its implementers in order to address the most pressing problems of the Ukrainian society.

The participants discussed a number of important issues starting from their perception of theoretical grounds of civil society development and to identifying specific actions, tools and methods to carry out the Democratising Ukraine Programme that addressed the issue of community development in the regions and was aimed to strengthen the impact of the communities on the local policy making. And consequently the Programme would contribute to civil society development in Ukraine.

CONFERENCE MATERIALS, PRESENTATIONS AND PHOTOS MAY BE FOUND HERE >>>


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