The national conference “Amalgamated Communities: from Creation to Smart Growth” will be held on February 24, 2017.

Organizers:

• The Civil Society Institute within the project “Supporting development of amalgamated communities in Khmelnytskyi region” with the financial assistance of the U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Programme.
• The Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine.

Co-organizers:

• The Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support Project DESPRO.
• The EU Project “Local Self-Government Reform Support in Ukraine.”
• The Council of Europe Programme “Decentralization and Territorial Consolidation in Ukraine.”
• The Swedish-Ukrainian Project “Support of Decentralization in Ukraine.”
• The Reanimation Package of Reforms.

The conference is aimed to consider a number of issues related to the growth of capability and resource potential of amalgamated communities through common activities of the local self-government bodies, active citizens, and businesses. The Ukrainian business should find new partners and market outlets, while amalgamated communities – new technologies and opportunities provided by the Ukrainian businesses.

Up to 300 persons are expected to attend the conference.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister for Regional Development, Construction and Municipal Economy, representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine, amalgamated communities, international donor organizations and projects are expected to take part in the event.

The format of the Conference covers the following:

• The Civil Society Institute and its partners within the project “Supporting development of amalgamated communities in Khmelnytskyi region” will present the results of their work;
• The amalgamated communities will have presentations in the form of exhibition promo stands or banners highlighting their investment potential and capacities of their local economies, as well as success stories;
• Presentations of businesses operating in different sectors related to the functioning of communities (construction, water supply, lighting, sports);
• Public discussion of the issues related to:
• the institutional capacity for planning local economic development;
• engaging businesses to the development of amalgamated communities;
• harmonizing the laws on education, healthcare, and environmental protection;
• effectiveness of international donor aid;
• the development of a further vision of the reform implementation based on the proposals of the conference participants.

The conference should place new tasks on the reform agenda, ensuring smart growth of the amalgamated communities all over Ukraine and launching a new format of relations between the amalgamated communities and the businesses.

Full program of the conference is available HERE.

To attend the conference, please contact CSI Program Manager Oleg Vatamaniuk at csi@csi.org.ua, powerreform@gmail.com or by phone 067 861 10 64.