9 april 2021

USPS and the Agency for Legislative Initiatives conduct a community needs assessment

Photo from the archives of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives

The Ukrainian School of Political Studies and the Agency for Legislative Initiatives are actively planning new educational programmes. In particular, we are currently assessing the needs of communities in order to make future educational programs as relevant and useful as possible for Ukrainian communities.

On Wednesday, April 7, we held an online meeting with alumni of the School of Community Leaders of previous years to learn more about the challenges that communities across Ukraine face on a daily basis.

Each community has its own background and outcome after the first phase of decentralisation reform. But we are genuinely inspired by the examples of our alumni who work hard every day to make their communities better. In particular, during the event, alumni of the School of Community Leaders had the opportunity to hear motivational stories from Volodymyr Shmatko, the mayor of Chortkiv and 2018 USPS alumnus, Alina Koval, chairwoman of the commission on regional development in the Khmelnytsky regional council and 2012 USPS alumna, Oleh Dzemyuk, head of the Vorokhta village community, alumnus of the School of Community Leaders 2017 and USPS 2019 programmes.

After the motivational speeches, community representatives shared the problems they are currently solving in their communities.

The most common problem for communities is the lack of staff. Young doctors and teachers do not want to return to the regions, so encouraging young professionals to work in small communities is a real challenge that takes a lot of effort. The issue of employment and resocialisation of veterans is also an important one for communities. The lack of a permanent opportunity or platform for communication and exchanging experiences between communities was another important issue discussed during the meeting.

This year’s School of Community Leaders program will focus on four key issues – education, medicine, security, and the environment. It was essential for us to receive comprehensive feedback from community representatives to make the curriculum as relevant as possible to specific community issues.

So let’s move on to the main ideas expressed by our alumni and guests during the meeting.

Svitlana Matviienko, Executive Director of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, explained how this year’s School of Community Leaders would differ from previous programmes:

This year we want to do what communities really need. We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of sharing experiences in medicine, education, security, and the environment with mentoring. By launching this project with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation, we sought to mobilise proactive citizens in the political process and encourage them to participate in local elections. In 2015, after the first School of Community Leaders, we already saw how much people got involved in these processes. We hope that our work has contributed to this. But now, it is important to help and share experiences with communities that are just beginning their development after the 2020 local elections.

Svitlana Matviienko

Executive Director of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives

Inna Pidluska, Deputy Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation, told the participants about the fundamental things that shape successful projects:

I must say about a few important things that have a place in all projects and proposals of the Agency. I call it the "Power of Four S". Actually, it's two S and two C. The first is community: not everyone manages to create and develop a community in projects, constantly increasing the number of its members. The second is systematisation: there is always a systematised consistent sum of activities based on ideas and proposals with a clear understanding of the desired results and changes. The third thing is the synergy created by the Agency's projects. As donors, it is important for us to support projects that create synergy. The last one is consistency. This is not the result of a single project or action. For me, consistency is an understanding of what and why we do. If we put in the strategy of understanding how to achieve consistent positive results, the chances of success increase sharply.

Inna Pidluska

Deputy Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation

Volodymyr Shmatko, alumnus of the 2018 USPS programme, the mayor of Chortkiv (Ternopil region), has been leading and developing the Chortkiv community for the second term. During the online meeting, he shared with the participants his own experience of building a successful community:

I am convinced that people who want change definitely need to participate in local elections. It is important going with teams and clear programmes and not just getting involved in political interim projects.

Volodymyr Shmatko

Mayor of Chortkiv, 2018 USPS alumnus

Volodymyr says that changes are possible if they are implemented with like-minded people. The value of a man is in equality. As soon as we realise the importance of these categories and take the right steps to strengthen them – every leader, or representative of any level of government, will have confidence in themselves and their actions. This is the first important point.

The second is to have a strategy of action that must be perfect and clear. Actions without planning are worthless. We must focus on the result that will be the basis for the future. Every community must have a vision, a development plan. Community leaders need to understand that qualitative change is the result of well-planned steps.

Under the current circumstances – low birth rate, high mortality rate, high level of migration – it is worth realising that the success and strength of the city depend on the living conditions and prospects that it provides people. People are the value and the basis of the success of every community. The real challenge for local governments is to improve the existing living conditions in the community. It is crucial for community leaders to realise the value of a person because the future and success of the community depend on it. Basic services, infrastructure will be useful when people use them.

Alina Koval, 2012 USPS alumna and chairwoman of the Khmelnytsky Oblast Regional Development Commission, is one of the “pioneers” of decentralisation reform in Ukraine. After all, the Khmelnytsky region was one of the first regions where the reform began. What is the success of decentralisation and what is needed to continue the reform – Alina Koval told during the event:

Life before and after decentralisation are two different worlds. It is obvious to me how much communities have come to life, gained power, opportunities, and significance. We dared to reform in times of danger and war. Khmelnytsky region was one of the first projects. I volunteered for decentralisation reform and pushed for other reforms in our region. Then there were problems at the legislative level, and there was no common understanding between the implementers on the ground and the capital's representatives.

Alina Koval

Chairwoman of the Khmelnytsky Oblast Regional Development Commission

Alina Koval told that the powers of communities have significantly expanded, and administrative services have been transferred to the local level. Communities were allowed to change management approaches, create their own development strategies, implement them, and work for the success of communities and residents’ comfort. And at this point, it is important not to be afraid but to unite and act further to reach the set tasks evolutionarily. The decentralisation process will take a long time. Still, already now foreign partners and colleagues recognise the success of this reform in such a short time and take this model for themselves. However, we still have problems to solve. Powers have been expanded, but resources are limited. So we should continue to act.

Oleh Dzemyuk, 2017 School of Community Leaders and 2019 USPS alumnus, and now the head of the Vorokhta village community (Ivano-Frankivsk region), had problems at the stage of community creation. Residents of the villages of Vorokhta and Tatariv did not want to join the Yaremche community, but local authorities initially had other plans. Oleh shared how he managed to win back a separate community and what needs to be changed next:

In October last year, I was elected as head of the community. In my position, I have many challenges and problems to solve. For example, our education and medicine have been neglected for many years, and there is still no Administrative Service Centre in the community. But now, having separated into the Vorokhta community, we know our needs and have the opportunity to implement them as we see fit, as the people of the community want. We actively employ the community residents so that there is no labor and social migration, and instability of families. There are people motivated to work and live here – and this is very important because, in such circumstances, our community will have a future. We want more and will move in that direction.

Oleh Dzemyuk

Head of the Vorokhta village community, 2019 USPS alumnus

This meeting and the feedback we received from our alumni are extremely valuable to us. They will help to better design training and mentorship programmes specifically for the needs of Ukrainian communities.

The Agency for Legislative Initiatives will now begin analysing several local communities, focusing on environmental protection, access to medicine, and education. The Agency will use the research results to improve the future training and mentorship programmes of the School of Community Leaders. In particular, for the formation of the programme of the School of Community Leaders in 2021.

Such meetings each time demonstrate the importance of developing relationships between communities for their further cooperation and show us what a friendly and strong community we have been able to build over the years of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies and the School of Community Leaders.

The School of Community Leaders programme is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation.