External Review of the Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme, Ukraine

The ongoing decentralisation process that has been initiated in Ukraine over the past years endows local authorities with more democratic legitimacy and political powers. But it also delegates more financial and operational responsibilities to the local level. However, many municipalities are not yet aware of this and/or lack experience particularly related to strategic planning and management of human and financial resources.

The Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme (MGSDP) was conceived as a pilot project to test mechanisms for strengthening local governance to achieve sustainable institutional, social, economic and environmental development in urban areas of Ukraine. Strategically MGSDP focuses on building institutional capacities from local to national levels to enable them to implement sustainable development initiatives. The stakeholders are citizens, NGOs, enterprises, municipal institutions and the municipal authorities who participate in a democratic planning and decision-making process. MGSDP combines a product (municipal infrastructures) with a process (social mobilisation) offering an excellent entry point for community participation. As such, the programme meets a great demand in the municipal communities in Ukraine.

The scope of the review mission was:

• to look into the process adopted by the MGSDP within its strategic framework and operational guidelines,
• to assess the programme’s activities and make recommendations for improvements,
• to analyse role, capacity and constraints of the partners involved in the process of and make recommendations for the enhancement of the programme’s effectiveness,
• to assist in preparing a donor proposal taking into consideration the current needs and the future scope of the programme.