Mykolaiv office of UST creates a platform for cooperation between civil society and local authorities in recovery processes
Mykolaiv volunteers, public organizations, and local authorities discussed cooperation in the recovery processes of the region. The participants of the meeting agreed to create a platform to coordinate actions, improve cooperation, and exchange information.
Olena Koltyk, head of the Ukraine Support Team (UST) coalition, during her speech at the event, spoke about the main principles of the coalition’s work and noted that a developed civil society is the key to the development of a democratic country. The problems in decision-making on recovery issues by the authorities at the central level with insufficient understanding of the needs of local communities were also highlighted. “It is very important that the public, despite the war, does not lose its voice,” she added.
Dmytro Tarasenko, Head of the Mykolaiv office of the UST coalition, proposed to start the practice of dialogues on a permanent basis. The creation of a structured and effective communication mechanism will allow all stakeholders to effectively interact in the recovery processes of the Mykolaiv region.
Simon Muschyk, a representative of the Stabilization Platform, emphasized, that the strengthening of public and state structures is a basic prerequisite for sustainable stabilization of society. Cooperation between all participants is extremely important. The participation of a wide range of parties, especially civil society, increases the legitimacy of initiated projects, which are supported and their implementation is monitored. A key factor is transparency in terms of financial support, as well as open access to all processes.
“The already acquired experience in the Mykolaiv region can become a valuable example for other regions,” Simon Muschyk emphasized.
Mykola Marinov, deputy head of Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, spoke about several approaches to the interaction between public and donor organizations. He also noted that prior to the creation of international cooperation working groups in each oblast at the initiative of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine, the function of prioritizing the needs of communities in the Mykolaiv Oblast was performed by the UST team.
Next, the speakers of public organizations shared their own experiences and voiced the main problems and proposals for the cooperation of interested parties. Attention was drawn to the fact that currently, the state authorities do not have enough resources to clarify all methods of interaction and support, and this implies the involvement of assistance from public organizations and coalitions.
In particular, Yevhen Gilin, a representative of the NGO “City of Strength”, raised the issue of spontaneous coordination of actions, in which several organizations are involved in solving a common problem, while not coordinating actions among themselves. He suggested sharing experience, and lessons learned, and introducing openness and transparency of activities, which should become an absolute requirement when interacting with a donor.
Nataliya Gorbenko, representative of the “Shchedryk” Charitable Foundation, spoke about successful cases of institutional interaction with international donors using the example of the fund. She shared information about the presence of a project office and specialists who already know how to work with grant opportunities and reporting according to international standards.
The fund encourages everyone who cares to join, as well as to concentrate on the development of the economic component, and Natalya and her team in particular pay a lot of attention to grant opportunities for small businesses, free retraining of employees of enterprises in connection with the loss of jobs at destroyed or stopped enterprises. The speaker expressed her desire to sign a memorandum of cooperation.
The event was attended by:
- Olena Koltyk, Head of the UST coalition,
- Dmytro Tarasenko, Head of the Mykolaiv office of the UST coalition,
- Simon Muschyk, Representative of the Stabilization Platform,
- Mykola Marinov, Deputy Chief of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration,
- Ihor Filippov, Deputy Director of the Mykolaiv city mayor’s department,
- Oleksandr Korolev, Director of the Department of Economic Development and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Head of the Humanitarian Staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
- Yevhen Babkov, Director of the Regional Development Agency of the Mykolaiv Region,
- Evgeny Gilin, Representative of the NGO “City of Power”,
- Serhiy Tatarenko, Representative of the NGO “Development of Ukraine”,
- Ihor Yakovenko, Representative of the NGO “My Direction”,
- Vitaly Butuchel, Representative of the NGO “Hope is”,
- Natalia Horbenko, representative of Charity Foundation”Shchedryk”.
The public discussion “Cooperation of public organizations, local authorities, and donors in the recovery of Mykolaiv region” took place on September, 28, in Mykolaiv and was organized by the Mykolaiv office of the Ukraine Support Team (UST) in partnership with the Regional Office of International Cooperation. The project in the Mykolayiv region is implemented by the NGO “BRDO” with the support of “Stabilization Platform” on the order of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany.
