Upon the initiative of the team of the Lviv Regional Institute for Public Administration of the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine and the Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support Project DESPRO, commissioned and assisted by the leadership of the Luhansk, Donetsk and Lviv Oblast State Administrations, on March 10 - April 15, 2020, another regional e-course “Managing Projects for Local Development” was held on the web-platform of the Community of Practice for Sustainable Development. The start of the course concurred with the beginning of the quarantine measures, so the geography of its participants was expanded to all those wishing to take the course from all over Ukraine. Thus, together with 211 participants - representatives of local self-government and executive authorities, deputies of local councils, community leaders and activists of the public sector from Luhansk, Donetsk and Lviv, 30 more participants – representatives from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Rivne, Zaporizhia, Zakarpattia, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Chernihiv and Chernivtsi oblasts – enrolled in the course.

The e-course curriculum involved mastering the basics of Project Management in the public sphere, identifying problems and needs of the community, team building and finding a solution, project planning, identifying resources and risks, presenting the project and ensuring the sustainability of project results. The core of the training was independent preparation by the participants of community development projects, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

100 participants expressed their willingness to demonstrate their acquired skills in preparing project, so they submitted their project concepts for peer review and evaluation among other course participants. The process of peer review and mutual evaluation is not only a mosaic of projects and their results, but it is also an intercultural dialogue, a desire to help one another both at the level of individuals and organizations. Therefore, by the end of the course, each participant has independently developed a concept for the project aimed at the development of their community, and also has got the opportunity to improve it taking into account the recommendations of other course participants, which is an example of an initiative for the whole Community of Practice.

The place for the participants to interact, communicate with each other, jointly create new initiatives was the General Forum “We are here. We are all... We are the ground for future decisive events”, where everyone could tell about themselves, share ideas or experience of ‘streamlining’ the community and so on. Despite a number of objective and subjective factors that determine the different development of the oblasts in the country, the participants initiated and jointly discussed a number of topics at the forum, namely: support for small and medium-sized businesses in an amalgamated territorial community; harmonious upbringing and education of the youth in communities; the formation of a positive attitude to a healthy lifestyle; land resources of the territorial community; issues of public safety; combating domestic violence; social cohesion; gender equality; systematic activities of the authorities aimed at developing the community in order to improve the conditions and living standards of its residents and the like.

The modern eLearning and interactive format and applied orientation of the training course, as well as zeal, diligence and perseverance in mastering training materials and completing tasks have yielded good results: 128 participants have successfully completed the course, and 100 project concepts were developed for solving community problems in accordance with community-defined development goals within the national system of Sustainable Development Goals, which impressed with their diversity and relevance.

The project concepts elaborated by the course participants are aimed at solving problems related to the creation and development of a capable amalgamated territorial community, planning of territorial development, establishment of transport links and arrangement of transport infrastructure, as well as expansion of the network of urban video surveillance. Solutions are also proposed on how to establish cooperation between government and the community, and to provide accessible public services. The centres of culture, leisure, arts, libraries, youth clubs and platforms, historical and cultural projects were not ignored by the course participants either, just like projects for the development of sports infrastructure, major overhaul or updating of the material and technical facilities of schools and pre-schools, medical institutions. Several projects are dedicated to creating a distance school for children with special educational needs, raising the level of active citizenship and national-patriotic consciousness and awareness of student youth in the city.

The participants also propose solutions to such problems as helping disadvantaged groups of population; they draw attention to stray pets and the need for animal shelters. There are project concepts developed related to modernization of a water pipe and implementation of an effective mechanism for solid waste management, as well as other projects on developing environmental culture trends (from creating eco-centres and eco-town – to promoting green tourism and forest conservation). For the first time, a lot of interesting project concepts have been developed aimed at establishing innovation centres, creative ‘hubs’, SME support centres, involving both youth and seniors to entrepreneurship activities. A number of projects is dedicated to addressing the challenges of fighting and preventing the coronavirus (creating a temporary mobile infectious hospital, a social platform to combat COVID-19 and its implications in order to help the population, especially those at risk or in need of temporary assistance), etc. 

The e-course participants not only gained / expanded their knowledge and competences in the field of project management to mobilize resources and effectively solve community problems, to establish dialogue and networking for further cooperation for sustainable development, but also contributed to the overall development of the Community of Practice (which counts today 10,000 participants): shared their own experiences and disseminated best practices.

In their feedback on the training, the e-course participants thanked for the opportunity to upgrade their skills; they emphasized the relevance and convenience of the eLearning form, high-quality content and support provided throughout the course, and expressed their wish to continue to study in other e-courses of the Community of Practice for Sustainable Development. One of the participants described the Community with the slogan: “The World of Your Freedom” is the world of different thoughts, ideas, actions, and responsibility.

Share your experience, study the experience of others, enrich yourself with knowledge! We are creating a better future together!