Ukraine Crisis Media Center hosted a presentation of the information resource “Handbook of the Territorial Community”. It was created within the framework of the project “Sustainability and Development – Methodological Recommendations for Territorial Communities” with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
This resource will provide professional expert, methodological, methodological and informational support to local governments in their main areas of competence, as well as be useful for local activists, media and provide territorial communities with the necessary tools for their development and recovery, taking into account current challenges and opportunities.
Anatoliy Tkachuk, the project’s chief consultant and expert on local government, decentralization, and regional development, noted that the idea of creating the Territorial Community Handbook came about at a time when Ukraine was under the influence of a powerful force in the form of the United States Agency for International Development.
Thanks to it, various projects were implemented in dozens and hundreds of Ukrainian communities. “And we decided that it would be nice to have a certain database so that any territorial community, regardless of whether it has access to international technical assistance, could develop many of the documents that are currently required by law from local governments. That’s how we came up with the idea to create a resource, using primarily the developments of the Civil Society Institute,” he said. The key idea was to collect in one place the methodological materials necessary for local governments, to enable users of the resource not only to access the methodological material, but also to see the theoretical basis, legal regulation, what a policy document may look like, how to learn it and where to read more about it.
Yuriy Tretyak, an expert on local self-government and regional policy, introduced the key components of the resource. “In our Handbook, we have provided a section where you can already get acquainted with several parts. The first one describes the evolution of cohesion policy in the EU and the system of legislation. This is important because every territorial community and every Ukrainian region after joining the European Union will actually operate within two legislative frameworks – Ukrainian and European. And it is necessary to clearly understand what opportunities EU legislation creates and how to apply them for the development of Ukrainian regions,” the expert emphasized. The second aspect is the issue of developing programs within the cohesion policy. “And here we need to understand that without creating an appropriate institutional infrastructure to ensure cohesion policy in Ukraine, it will not be possible to take advantage of such opportunities,” Yuriy Tretiak warned.
Джерело: Український кризовий медіа-центр
