U-LEAD with Europe on LinkedIn: #urc2024 (2024)

📢 Voices of Ukrainian self-government were heard in Berlin!During the #URC2024 conference, Yulia Posternak, head of the Kulykivka municipality, shared her thoughts on the main challenges faced by local self-government today. The main challenge is the lack of people. Watch the video for more details.

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🌟 Teaching hromadas to develop with integrity 🌟 On June 10 and 11, the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) and RMTeam International, as the implementing partner of the House of Integrity project, held a two-day event that brought together representatives of local governments, the public and the business community of the Trostyanets, Drohobych, Yasinia, Opishnya, Hoshcha, Pustomyty, Boryslav and Suvoriv municipalities. At the beginning of the event, the participants heard welcoming remarks from Oleksandr Starodubtsev (NACP), Soren Herbst (U-LEAD) and Mariam Simonova (RMTeam). 🌍 📜✨ Under the guidance of expert facilitators Oleksandr Filonenko and Olena Yuzkova, the participants learned to find the idea of their municipality, manage it from the standpoint of ethics and morality, create and present a roadmap for development. The theoretical knowledge and practical examples will be useful to them in building virtuous municipalities. Special attention was paid to the creation of small groups. Their task will be not just to generate ideas, but to create meanings that will unite the municipality and inspire change. 🌱 These small groups will become centers of innovation and catalysts for development. After all, joint efforts and cooperation are the key to creating a sustainable and prosperous future for municipalities.

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🔧🏛️ Repairs, good governance, fighting corruption and more - during URC2024 the State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany Jochen Flasbarth comments on the functions of the municipal level in reconstructing Ukraine. ✊

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📢 Call to Action: Every hromada with a partnership by URC 2025! 🇺🇦🤝 Today at URC2024, Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany Svenja Schulze made a Call to Action: By the URC2025 in Italy, every hromada shall have at least one municipal partnership for recovery! 🌍✨ This call was formulated based on an interactive map which was developed by U-LEAD with Europe and that demonstrates the allocation of municipalities in Ukraine who have at least one international partnership. 🔍🗺️ While the number of municipal partnerships with Ukraine is very impressive, in total there are 2239, the map also shows that around 2/3 of Ukrainian municipalities are still lacking a partner. Moreover, Minister Schulze, together with Fabrizio Rossi, Secretary General of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, announced the development of a matchmaking app with which municipalities around the world will be able to seek and find appropriate partners in Ukraine, and vice versa, to cooperate in various areas and with time develop mutually profitable projects. 📱🔄 The app will be launched during the second half of 2024. 📅🚀 "Municipalities are the cornerstone of resilience for Ukraine. So we need all these partnerships, we need all mayors on board, we need all hands on deck to deal with the challenges Ukraine has!" - emphasized Schulze during the presentation. The matchmaking-mapping is the result of the joint work of CEMR and U-LEAD. 📧📝 If you want to keep updated on the matchmaking app, please register at the landing page https://lnkd.in/dFkp8pQk 🌐🗺️ Link to the mapping: https://lnkd.in/drPWVKBv

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How is the performance of the anti-corruption commissioners assessed? 🤔This was discussed by Viktoriia Hermanenko, specialist of the NACP's Integrity Policy Development Department 🏛️, and Kateryna Datsko, advisor to the Integrity House project 🏠, during a working meeting on annual reporting on the activities of authorized units for the prevention and detection of corruption. 📊At the beginning of the meeting, the participants were greeted by Serhiy Derkach, Deputy Minister of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine 🇺🇦, and Soren Herbst, Head of the Multi-Level Governance Support Unit of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme. 🌍The event was attended by more than 40 anti-corruption commissioners of central executive authorities. 👥The key goal of the meeting was to receive and process requests from anti-corruption commissioners 📝, as well as to work out the use of reporting tools 🛠️ so that in the future anti-corruption commissioners could perform their work efficiently. ✔️In addition, the event included a process of municipality building among anti-corruption commissioners 🤝 so that colleagues could support and strengthen each other in their professional activities. 💪“It is valuable that in the dialogue with anti-corruption professionals, we were able to look at the implementation of the tasks of preventing and detecting corruption from the point of view of their implementers 👀 and identified priority areas for further work of the municipality,” Kateryna Datsko said. 💬The event was held within the framework of the House of Integrity project 🏠 with the support of RMTeam International 🌐 in partnership with the U-LEAD with Europe Program 🌍, the NACP 🏛️ and the Ministry of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine. 🏢

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✨ Take off for #URC2024! 🚀 🌍🏛️ We are thrilled that this year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference puts the local dimension of recovery where it belongs: in the center of the debate. With U-LEAD with Europe being committed to empowering municipalities since 2016 we experience first-hand how strong hromdas have become a cornerstone of Ukraine’s resilience and recovery. 💪 U-LEAD is prominently supporting this year’s URC. 🛠️🌟 Through the “League of Local Leaders”, we support 25 Ukrainian municipalities in becoming a strong voice of local self-government during the conference and in the reconstruction and modernization effort as a whole. This corresponds to U-LEAD’s continued commitment to a locally-grounded path of decentralisation reform - the reform that has sustained Ukraine in the time of war and will be even more crucial as Ukraine comes closer to EU accession. 🤝🌉 By sharing its experience from the initiative “Bridges of Trust”, we make available crucial insights to increase the effectiveness of international municipal partnerships. Our cooperation with the Council of European Municipalities and Regions has already supported the establishment of 160 international partnerships with hromadas. 📝🏗️Several beneficiaries from our Project Preparation Facility will be engaged in various formats of the conference. With the PPF U-LEAD supports hromadas as they engage in the preparation of local reconstruction projects. With this help, project proposals for reconstruction increase in quality, take account the concerns of local citizens and have higher chances to receive national and international funding. You want to know more about the fundamental role of hromadas for Ukraine’s recovery? 📚Read the most recent article from our Programme Director Bastian Veigel and Lead Advisor Iain Mackie published in Internationale Politik: https://lnkd.in/d85GJNMf 📰 And follow the LIVE-stream discussion on these and the related topics during the URC2024: 🌐📺https://lnkd.in/eeqAZ243

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✨📢 On the threshold of #URC2024, GIZ Ukraine highlights the urgent need to rebuild Ukraine."Reconstruction is vital as people continue their daily lives amidst the war. Protecting rebuilt infrastructure is crucial, hence the priority on a secure sky.Since 2016, U-LEAD with Europe has supported local governments in Ukraine, helping them navigate post-election operations, COVID-19 challenges, and now the war. We are inspired by the resilience of Ukrainian municipalities, including Bakhmut, Popasna, Irpin, and Bucha, in their recovery efforts.U-LEAD is the EU’s investment in Ukraine's human capital. We build local government capacity, foster lifelong learning, and promote municipal exchanges and partnerships," says Olena Tomniuk, Deputy Programme Director, U-LEAD with Europe. 🤝 🇺🇦 This underscores the importance of ongoing support and collaboration in rebuilding Ukraine.

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📢 ✨ Add this important date to your calendars: On June 11-12, Berlin will host Ukraine Recovery Conference – 2024 (URC2024)! For the first time, this key event will be held in an EU member state. The URC2024 focuses on the rapid recovery and long-term reconstruction of Ukraine after the Russian aggression, emphasizing a “whole of society” approach and ensuring the participation of a wide range of stakeholders. 🔗💻Those interested will be able to watch the conference online. The broadcasts will be available on the conference website - https://lnkd.in/eeqAZ243 🇺🇦 Join the important discussion!

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🤝 We continue to empower municipalities!🚋 In May a total of 18 toolkits and 58 vehicles, including compact wheel loaders and minibuses, were delivered to municipalities in Chernihiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipro, Kherson, Kyiv and Zhytomyr oblasts. This was implemented in the framework of the "Strengthening Local Resilience: Support to Emergency Repairs in Municipalities" initiative of U-LEAD with Europe which is made possible due to Special Funds provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The initiative was launched in 2023 to strengthen the capabilities of Ukrainian municipalities for quick repairs and local mobility. In particular, for this cause, the toolkits include not only different sets of tools, but also power instruments like chainsaws as well as generators that are handy in the current conditions of regular power outages. Originally, the initiative foresaw the delivery of 100 vehicles and 100 Toolkits in total. However, an additional 140 Minibuses were added to the package to further boost transportation capacities of smaller settlements. 📸 On the pictures you can see one of the packages of the vehicles being loaded for delivery in Germany in the last days of April.

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