Third phase of joint EU/UNDP Project “Community Based Approach” was officially launched in Poltava oblast. The presentation took place on 9 October during regional seminar under participation of acting head of oblast council, first deputy head of oblast council Volodymyr Marchenko, head of oblast state administration Viktor Buhaychuk, UNDP in Ukraine Senior Programme Manager Oksana Remiha, Community development specialist of EU/UNDP Project “Community Based Approach” Olena Ruditch, heads of rayon state administrations and rayon councils; and heads of village and city councils.

The launch event gathered together regional and local authorities, civil societies, private sector and media to discuss cooperation for promoting community-led local sustainable development further to improve the living conditions of people in Poltava oblast.

Thanks to the cooperation with EU/UNDP Project “Community based approach”, and thanks to the experience which was gained during the implementation of the first two phases, we established a local oblast competition for development projects of local communities in Poltava oblast, which is now very popular among our communities. This is a European approach, as communities define development priorities for their territories by themselves, they arrange financing of this microprojects and monitor implementation”, - stressed acting head of oblast council, first deputy head of oblast council Volodymyr Marchenko.

Viktor Buhaychuk, Head of Oblast State Administration also marked that “Implementation of CBA Project is of high interest for oblast, as it will help to raise energy saving level. Thus thanks to the Project we will make warm our health-posts, schools, kindergartens”.

During the launching of the Third phase of the CBA Project a Partnership Agreement was signed with Poltava oblast state administration, Poltava oblast council and UNDP. The main goal is the willingness of local communities and local authorities to implement the community based approach in a full-scale. In terms of the agreement 8 rayons will be selected based on the results of a competition for participation in the project for the next 4 years. The Application form can be found: http://www.cba.org.ua/three/ua/news/announcements/2616-application-form-for-rayons-for-partnership-with-cba.

Third phase of the Project will support local authorities in dissemination of best practices and experience in participatory planning and further dissemination of the community based approach in Poltava oblast.  The Project activities will focus on rehabilitation of social and communal infrastructure in the area of energy efficiency, health care, environment, water supply, rural economy.

Third phase of CBA project will be implemented during 2014-2018 with a total budget of 23.8 million Euro, provided by the European Union (23 million Euro) and UNDP (800,000 Euro). Its objective is to promote sustainable socio-economic development at local level by strengthening participatory governance and fostering community-led initiatives across Ukraine