|
|
The Regional Governance and Development (RGD) Project is a five-year (2005-2010) cooperation project of the Canadian Urban Institute (www.canurb.com), supported by funding from Canadian International Development Agency (www.acdi-cida.gc.ca).
The project promotes civic engagement in regional governance, providing opportunities for citizens and communities to shape their common future and to put their region on the path towards sustainable development. The project is working at several levels. It helps strengthen regional development policy in the country by providing advice to the Ministry of Economy and sharing know-how from other jurisdictions in Europe and North America. It supports two pilot oblasts -- Zaporizhzhia and Zakarpattya -- to launch participatory processes that give a voice to civil society in regional planning and decision-making. And it promotes open, accountable and effective government institutions at the regional level, responsive to the needs of citizens and working strategically towards its developmental goals.
The experiences in the two pilot oblasts are intended to foster model approaches to good governance in Ukraine that can inform the country”s policy and practice into the future.
Project progress to date is encouraging. The most recent CIDA RGD Monitoring Report anticipated that:
“At its completion, the RGD Project will have built the knowledge, skills and capacity of individuals at various levels of government (municipal, rayon, oblast) for strategic planning and project proposal development up to international standards. The project will also have contributed to increased levels of dialogue, communication and, in some cases coordination, among individuals at these different levels of government and across sectors. Local experts trained by the RGD Project, are now capable of facilitating participatory strategic planning exercises. This expertise will remain and can be used to support continued efforts in strategic planning in current pilot regions or in other regions of Ukraine.”
|
|
|
|
