A total of 200 districts (eight in every region in average) will be selected based on the level of socio-economic hardship facing them and their willingness to support local development with community participation. Target communities (five in each target district in average) will be selected based on the similar criteria of socio-economic hardship and willingness. In total, the Project expects to support at least 1000 communities.

Using social mobilisation tool, the selected communities are organised into ‘community organisation (CO)’ founded on norms of good governance. Capacity of the COs is built in such a way that they are able to make joint decision with local authorities, mobilise resources, implement local priorities and   sustain the result. Capacity of other partners from public and private sector is also strengthened in the area of participatory approach to local development. Various training tools are used for this purpose. 

A networking approach is adopted to bring together communities, local/regional authorities, private sector and civil societies so that they can hold regular dialogue on envisioning about the development direction in their area, mainstreaming of community plans and deciding about implementation of local priorities within the framework of public-private partnership.

The Project provides small grant to COs to implement their priorities on a self-help basis and within the framework of public-private partnership, whereby each partner shares a portion of the development cost.  The established mechanism is that half of the budget must be financed with contributions of local community members (not less than 5%), the private sector, and the central and local budgets while the Project will contribute up to remaining half of the cost.  The community takes responsibility to maintain, with support from the local authorities, the resulting output and reap benefit from it on a sustained basis.

Knowledge gained from the Project implementation will be utilised to make policy recommendation to enable community-financing within the framework of local development in Ukraine.

Target Groups and Beneficiaries
The Project target groups are villages, urban villages and small towns (up to 10,000 residents). Among Project beneficiaries are: Village Councils/City Councils, Rayon authorities, Oblast authorities and national government will also benefit from the Project.

Expected results

• Self-organisation skills are developed within participating communities (1,000 at least)
• At least 1,175 sustainable community initiatives are implemented through co-financing from the project, community residents, national and local budgets
• Worked out mechanisms of community-based planning in 200 pilot rayons
• Revival of the national network of primary health care points and improvements in water supply management, environmental protection, energy efficiency and local transport services
• Good practice systematized and disseminated among communities, local/regional/national stakeholders

Duration, Donors and Budget
The Project duration is 3.5 years and the budget makes Euro 13.3 million, including the European Commission’s contribution of Euro 12 million and the United Nations Development Programme’s contribution of Euro 1.3 million.

CBA Partners
At the national level, the Project is supported by the relevant ministries of the Ukrainian Government with Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers (Department for Regional Policy) as the focal government agency. Other national partners are Foundation for local self government of Ukraine under President of Ukraine and Ukrainian Association of Local and Regional Authorities. At regional level, oblast state administration and oblast councils serve as the partners. At local level, raiyon state administration, raiyon councils, village/city councils and local communities work as partners of the Project.