Location/ Dates: The event took place in Kielce (Poland), from 07.09.2015 to 11.09.2015.

Short description:

The day of 07.09.2015 was dedicated to the arrival of participants and accommodation of all guests participating in the project. After welcome dinner, the information meeting was held with the presentation of the main assumption of the project and Europe for Citizens Programme.

The day of 08.09.2015 started with the official opening meeting at the City Hall of Kielce. It was headed by the Deputy Mayor of Kielce – Mr. Tadeusz Sayor. A representative of youth group from Kielce participating in the project welcomed his peers and presented a multimedia presentation about the main assumption of the project. All groups saw the major attractions of the city of Kielce visited during the project. Young people took part in the integration fun – they were learning to play the drums. It was conducted by the Museum of Toys and Play. The youth visited the Museum for Dialogue of Cultures, where through multimedia presentations, each group presented its country, culture, traditions, music and other interesting facts from their region as well as regional costumes. Town twinning citizens had the opportunity to expand their knowledge about other countries. Then, they visited the main monuments of the city listening narrated history. The day ended with a meeting with the teaching staff and students of one of the Kielce secondary schools. Students took their foreign peers for a guide on the premises of the institution while the teaching staff and guardians of foreign groups had an opportunity to exchange insights about the functioning of schools in various cities and the expectations in the context of further cooperation. The evening ended with a joint entrance to the swimming pool.

The day of 08.09.2015 was dedicated for the trip to Cracow. The first point of the programme was the city sightseeing. A guide got participants familiar with an extraordinary history of the city and the most interesting legends. The whole group visited Europeum - one of the National Museum's branches with the Western art collection. After the return do Kielce, participants went together to the pool.

The day of 08.09.2015 was dedicated to the movie screening of "Ida". In 2014, the film won the LUX prize awarded by the European Parliament, as an express of appreciation for the promotion of European culture and values. After the screening, the youth participated in the film studies, led by the Professor of the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce. Next on the agenda were art classes entitled "Artistic Zoo", carried out by the representatives of the Youth Culture House in Kielce. The project participants were divided into groups, whose task was to present the characteristic symbols of their country and how they see the European Union. In the afternoon youth participated in the classes conducted in Geopark Kielce by the local high school's teacher. The participants were divided into small groups consisting of the representatives of the partner cities. Each of mixed group had to think about the concept of multiculturalism and threats to be faced by young people, the citizens of Europe. Then they jointly undertook the task to find effective solutions to mitigate these phenomena. The topics of conversation were e.g: prejudice against race, religion, xenophobia, violence and unemployment. At the end of the meeting all participants received certificates of participation in the project and talked about the future plans of cooperation. In the evening, bowling and farewell disco was organized. It helped to deepen the integration of multicultural group.

The day of 08.09.2015 was devoted to the last meeting with the participants, summary and departure.

13 October 2015

The project aims to strengthen Ukraine’s municipal sector by increasing capacities in 16 Ukrainian cities to advance local democracy and economic development.

The Project will strengthen local democracy through implementing an open government model and ensuring transparent and effective decision making by local government, create enabling conditions for the creation and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, with a focus on women entrepreneurs, facilitate decentralization of authorities and integrated development planning at the local, regional and national levels.

PLEDDG will also promote green municipal environment for Ukrainian cities, trade and investment between Canada and Ukraine and contribute to Canada-Poland coordinated engagement with Ukraine.

PARTNERS:

Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing of Ukraine

Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine

Association of Ukrainian Cities

Oblast administrations and oblast councils of 4 regions: Vinnytsia, Zaporizhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava

16 partner cities in 4 oblasts

Partners:

1. The Association of Polish Cities
2. The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities
3. The Association of Ukrainian Cities
4. The Association “Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine” (AEECU)

Budget: 14 908,53 EURO (64 297,50 PLN)

Project Cities: Korosten, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Bila Tserkva, Ternopil

Duration: 15 months (01.01.2017-31.03.2018)

Project objectives:

Improve the competences of personnel from Polish and Ukrainian cities participating in the programme in terms of preparation of investment projects in the field of energy efficiency and prevention of climate change using Norwegian experiences

Prepare model documents enabling Ukrainian cities to properly plan and carry out investment projects in the field of energy efficiency and disseminate the documents after the completion of the project.

GIZ has two registered offices in Germany, one in Bonn and one in Eschborn, near Frankfurt am Main. Regional offices in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Munich/ Feldafing support Germany’s federal and state government departments in the field of international cooperation. The company also operates from about 90 offices around the globe, some of which the company shares with other German development organizations. Furthermore, GIZ is a member (in the sense of shareholder) of EUNIDA. The "European Network of Implementing Development Agencies" is an association of European national implementing agencies operating in the field of international cooperation.

GIZ sees close and trusting cooperation with organizations operating in the field of international cooperation and sustainable development as absolutely pivotal. Cooperation with a number of different partners enables GIZ to ensure that its contribution to realizing international cooperation objectives complies with the German Government’s standards in terms of coherence, efficiency and effectiveness.

For more than 30 years, capacity development has been one of the key services delivered by GIZ and its predecessors. GIZ supports people in acquiring specialist knowledge, skills and management expertise. It helps organizations, public authorities and private businesses to optimize their organizational, managerial and production processes. And, of course, GIZ advises governments on how to achieve objectives and implement nationwide change processes by incorporating them into legislation and strategies.

GIZ's diverse expertise is in demand in around 120 countries worldwide. On behalf of the German Government, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been supporting Ukraine’s transition to democracy and the rule of law since 1993. GIZ currently implements projects and programmes on behalf of five German ministries, the European Union (EU), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) at around 20 locations in Ukraine, with more than 300 local and international staff.

The current priority areas of German development cooperation activities with Ukraine are: democracy, civil society and public administration, decentralization, energy sustainable economic development, etc.

In addition, GIZ is assisting the Government of Ukraine to manage the crisis in the east of the country. In particular, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ is providing support to municipalities that are hosting displaced persons. GIZ is also working with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health on HIV/AIDS prevention, for example by supporting the country-wide ‘Don’t give AIDS a chance!’ campaign.

Based on its experience gathered in other countries (e.g. Germany, Romania) GIZ has been supporting the local authorities and other relevant stakeholders by implementing approaches of Integrated Urban Development in the Ukraine since 2009 in the framework of its project “Municipal Development and Rehabilitation of the Old City of Lviv”. The project, as a pilot one with a possible replication at a larger scale or at the national level, covers four core cities: Chernivtsi, Poltava, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr. It becomes of paramount importance that cities understand methods and standards of modern city development as they are defined in the concept of integrated or sustainable urban development.

The “Integrated Urban Development in Ukraine” aims at preparing Ukrainian cities for decentralization and local self-government by supporting them in applying integrated urban development approaches in line with European guidelines and values as laid down in the European Charter for Sustainable City Development (the Leipzig Charter). A good understanding and application of planning standards and procedures helps define priorities for development and investments, provides a solid yet adaptable frame for decision making and thus contributes to the needs oriented allocation of resources in line with the interests and needs of the citizens.

The Leipzig Charter recognizes that sustainable urban development must warrant economic prosperity, social balance and a healthy environment. It recommends to put the cities at the center of development, to make greater use of integrated urban development policy approaches and to pay special attention to deprived neighborhoods.

Sustainable Urban Development is an overarching concept in which infrastructure is one part, yet a part that needs alignment with other functions of cities. The project allows demonstrating best practice in how to design and manage such overarching concepts and implement projects. It Integrated Urban Development in Ukraine allows demonstrating how to match long-term urban knowledge, planning and management as well as urban infrastructure financing.

The Origins of the Intercultural City Concept

The concept of the Intercultural City originated with the British think tank Comedia (Council of Europe). In 2004, with support from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Comedia conducted a two-year research programme entitled "The Intercultural City: Making the Most of Diversity". Its aim was to understand how the combination of different cultural skills and attributes leads to new and divergent thinking and what are the conditions that most encourage this. It also considered the extent to which cultural diversity was a source of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship and how this could become a positive force releasing new energy and resources for the development of cities.

The project was directed by Phil Wood who is now a principal advisor to the CoE/EU Intercultural Cities programme. This research was conducted in the UK, United States, Australia, New Zealand and Norway. As a result, a network of intercultural cities was created.

What is an intercultural city?

An optimum Intercultural City would be one that has taken a self-conscious decision to seek out, identify and acknowledge such cases, as well as to establish a policy objective of consolidating and building upon them; as well as a developmental strategy that has appropriate resources to support it.

Intercultural cities have a diverse population including people of different nationalities and origins, and with various languages or religions/beliefs. The city actively combats prejudice and discrimination and ensures equal opportunities for all by adapting its governance structures, institutions and services to the needs of a diverse population, without compromising the principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

In partnership with business, civil society and public service professionals, the intercultural city develops a range of policies and actions to encourage more mixing and interaction between diverse groups. The high level of trust and social cohesion help to prevent conflicts and violence, increase policy effectiveness and make the city attractive for people and investors alike.

In this case, the city authorities also make a formal statement sending an unambiguous public message of its commitment to intercultural principles and are actively engaged in persuading other key stakeholders in the city to do likewise.

The Intercultural Cities Programme and its Index

The Intercultural cities programme supports cities in reviewing their policies through an intercultural lens and developing comprehensive intercultural strategies to help them manage diversity positively and realize the diversity advantage.

It enables network exchanges between cities, fosters the testing of new methodologies, and stimulates policy innovation. The intercultural cities index assesses cities' performance in relation to the intercultural integration model. The results of the Index help cities make evidence-based judgments about the impact and outcomes of their policies and resource investment. Currently, 77 cities have undergone their intercultural policies analysis using the Intercultural City Index.

Vinnytsia – as a member of the Ukrainian ICC Network (ICC-UA) – particularly appreciates the methodological and expert support offered by the Intercultural Cities Programme (ICC) of the Council of Europe. Cities-members of Ukrainian Intercultural Cities Network (ICC-UA), including Vinnytsia, were ICC Index tested in the summer 2016 for the first time (Vinnytsia Index: https://rm.coe.int/16806acd27).

The Intercultural Cities Index consists of a number of indicators that allow: to illustrate what intercultural integration means in practice and how it is implemented in specific cities; to assess where the city stands in the different policy and governance areas and assess progress over time; to realize where efforts should be concentrated in the future and identify "good practice" cities and city learning clusters; to learn from other cities about sources of good practices in these particular areas; to test different hypotheses about the relationship between intercultural policy and specific policy outcomes such as economic performance and safety.

The Ukrainian Network

Being designed, developed and first applied in 11 European pilot cities within the last few years, this approach resulted in adoption and/or reformation of policies related to the needs of the cities' diverse communities. It encouraged establishment or further development of relevant governance mechanisms and institutions that work today to ensure inclusion and equality and to enhance citizens' participation. Some cities are full members of the international network with privileged access to all international activities and dedicated expert support. Moreover, 5 national networks have been created in Europe – Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Norway and Portugal that increases outreach and impact.

The Ukrainian network of Intercultural Cities (ICC-UA) includes a group of cities that recognize the importance of the diversity advantage concept for the development of their communities. These cities take strategic approach to the implementation of the ICC's urban model of intercultural integration within their jurisdictions and beyond. Along with other ICC national networks, the Ukrainian network of Intercultural Cities has launched its new phase in 2015 following the Recommendation CM / Rec (2015)1 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and aiming to review relevant policies and develop intercultural strategies for all cities-members of the updated network. Participating cities of ICC network are Lutsk, Melitopol, Odesa, Pavlohrad, Sumy, and Vinnytsia.

Vinnytsia joined the network of intercultural cities in the middle of 2016. On 14 April 2016, the Mayor of Vinnytsia Serhii Morhunov and the national coordinator of the Ukrainian Intercultural cities network Kseniya Khovanova-Rubicondo signed a Memorandum on the Accession of the city to the Ukrainian Network of Intercultural Cities (https://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/-/vinnistya-joins-the-ukrainian-intercultural-cities-network ).

More: https://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ICCities, https://www.facebook.com/groups/icc.ua/

Partner: Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine (MinRegion) Supported by: European Commission, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Implemented by: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) Objective

U-LEAD contributes to the establishment of multilevel governance which is transparent, accountable and responsive to the needs of the population.

This includes:

enhancing the capacity of key actors at central, regional and local levels to implement the regional policy and decentralisation reform as well as improving the delivery of local administrative services for the benefit of the citizens of Ukraine. These focus areas are reflected in two programme components: