On November 20, a public dialogue “Side by Side: Creating the Future Together” was held. Its participants summed up the year, shared their own experience and practices of cooperation in the project, and voiced the project’s tasks and prospects for the next year. For this purpose, a panel “Vision for 2026” was organized.
The speakers were Mariana Tomin, Project Manager of the “Side by Side: United Communities” project, Tetyana Sila, Community Mobilization Specialist of UNDP in Ukraine, Olga Kuryshko, Permanent Representative of the President to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Svitlana Spazheva, Head of the Pokrovska Rural Territorial Community – Nikopolskyi District of Dnipropetrovsk Region, Vasyl Koval, Head of the Pidberiztsivska Rural Territorial Community of Lviv Region, and Antonella Valmorbida, Secretary General of the Local Democracy Association ALDA, who joined the discussion online.
The main visions discussed were the development of already established mechanisms and the internationalization of “Side by Side”. In particular, Mariana Tomin voiced a model of cooperation in the project, where a municipality from Europe will interact with a pair of Ukrainian communities that are already partners in the project “Side by Side: United Communities”. Antonella Valmorbidy heard that the plans of European local governments include the creation of new and development of existing partnerships and ties with Ukrainian communities.
The heads of the Pokrovska and Pidberiztsivska communities, Svitlana Spazheva and Vasyl Koval, who have extensive experience of fruitful cooperation in the project, noted that the interaction could be even more effective. Due to the Russian aggression, the front, unfortunately, sometimes moves faster than documents are signed, so the communities propose to simplify the coordination mechanisms and create a specific partnership support route in the near future.
It is worth noting that more and more communities whose territory is partially or completely under temporary occupation by Russian troops are joining the project. This shows that Ukraine is always ready to support its fellow citizens who have lost not only a roof over their heads, but also their native land under their feet. It is symbolic that the Ukrainian Crimea, which has been occupied by the Russians for 11 years, also became a participant in the project “Side by Side: United Communities” after the discussion.
So, the prospects of the project “Side by Side: United Communities” are expanding cooperation with European partners, as well as finding new and improving existing areas of cooperation in the project.
Let’s stand side by side!
The public dialogue “Side by Side: Creating the Future Together” was organized on the initiative of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine together with the United Nations Development Program UNDP Ukraine within the framework of the flagship partnership with the European Union (EU) “EU4Recovery – Empowering Communities in Ukraine”. The opinions, recommendations or conclusions expressed by participants during the event do not necessarily reflect the official position of UNDP, the UN, the EU or other partners.