On December 10, 2015, in Kyiv (Pushcha-Vodytsia), the first training session on a topic of local economic development (LED) was conducted for representatives of local self-government bodies of PLEDDG partner cities. The training took place over three days during which time the participants were introduced to LED principles and global experience of LED evolution.
PLEDDG partner cities were trained by a group of qualified specialists in the local development and including participation of Canadian experts.
Experts of MLED Project (www.mled.org.ua) jointly with the specialists of the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine (NAPA) developed the educational program on LED which involves such topics as democratic governance, marketing and branding of the territory, support of the local business and entrepreneurship development, development of labour resources, role of investments, etc.
PLEDDG Project jointly with NAPA teaches new cities with the help of educational program on LED. Two training groups consisting of 24 persons each were formed for the educational process.
The first training session on LED was devoted to fundamentals of LED and peculiarities of participatory democracy. Lecturers of NAPA Volodymyr Vakulenko and Natalia Grynchuk taught participants about key concepts, principles and opportunities of LED, explained the process of local economic policy formation and way of regulatory legal governance of LED in Ukraine. Additionally, participants deepened their knowledge on the peculiarities of participatory democracy and discussed instruments for collection and analysis of data with the purpose of regarding interests and needs of women, youth and internally displaced persons. The Canadian experience in the sphere of local economic development and democratic governance was represented by specially invited Canadian expert Kent McMullin. Kent McMullin is an experienced expert in the issues of business and democratic governance development. He lives and words in the city of Edmonton, one of the most developed and economically successful Canadian cities. Grant Hopcroft, municipal expert in the issues of democratic governance from London city, Canada also participate in the training.
The educational program also provided participants the opportunity to work in groups where they actively discussed problematic issues, exchanged experience and jointly solved problems.
PLEDDG Project will conduct a series of training sessions on LED for representatives of local self-government of 16 Ukrainian cities from 4 partner oblasts of the Project (Vinnytsia, Zaporizhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Poltava oblasts). The next training session is planned for January 2016. Educational program over, participants will obtain certificates of PLEDDG Project and NAPA on passing the educational course in local economic development.
