On 26 May, the round table discussion "On-Line Community of Local Self-Government Practices: Catalyst of Communities Development in Ukraine" took place in Kyiv which gathered the partners of the DESPRO Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralisation Support Project in Ukraine who shared the experience of their participation in the On-Line Community of Local Self-Government Practices, discussed the factors of success, and further possibilities of cooperation.

How to make the On-Line Community of Local Self-Government Practices a catalyst of changes in Ukraine? What values of the community should be the "glue" for its consolidation and what values should be the "magnet" for all parties interested in the decentralisation of power in Ukraine? These and other questions were discussed by the participants to the event. There were presented the experiences of the Community participants, their impressions of the e-learning courses, and the effect of such learning on the formation of skills required for the service in the bodies local self-government, also the lessons and success factors were presented by the DESPRO project partners: the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of Public Administration of the National Academy of Public Administration, the Lviv Regional Institute of Public Administration of the National Academy of Public Administration, and the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Agency for Regional Development.
For more details on the event (materials, presentations, and photo report) please follow the link to the On-line Community of Practices http://udl.despro.org.ua/course/view.php?id=23
What is required to join the Community? To have an active e-mail box and access to the Internet, be ready to share your experience, improve your professional level, join the efforts to develop and implement projects aimed at the development of communities.
You may sign up to the Community at http://udl.despro.org.ua/ by yourself at any time at your convenience.



For reference purposes:
The Community of Local Self-Government Practices was initiated by the DESPRO project as the on-line platform http://udl.despro.org.ua/ for learning and exchanging experience by representatives of bodies of local self-government, executive authorities, territorial communities, non-governmental organisations, and leaders of the municipal movement.
The on-line training on the matters of self-government of communities assisted by tutors and activist-facilitators of the Community, expert forums and legal advice, video lectures, free access to materials of the completed e-learning courses, news digests issued on a regular basis containing the updated information on the reform of local self-government and decentralisation, the ability to learn the experience and find ideas for the development of own communities, the opportunity to establish professional contacts with colleagues from all over Ukraine who are motivated to introduce changes, the portfolio of joint projects, a number of which have been successfully implemented by the participants - all these constitute the Community of Local Self-Government Practices.
Short link to the news: http://despro.org.ua/~jh9J1