In May 2015, PLEDDG launched a competitive process to select cities to participate in their new project. 26 cities responded to the call for applications. Following a rigorous objective review of the applications, 24 cities were short-listed for further evaluation.
To evaluate and select PLEDDG partner cities, municipal experts and consultants from both Canada and Ukraine visited 24 candidate cities over 8 days.
The cities short-listed and visited were the following cities: Zaporizhia, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Energodar, Tokmak, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kalush, Dolyna, Bolekhiv, Navirna, Yaremche, Kolomyia, Burshtyn, Poltava, Kremenchuk, Komsomolsk, Myrhorod, Gadiach, Vinnytsia, Zhmerynka, Mogyliv-Podilskyi, Koziatyn, Khmilnyk, Ladyzhyn.
The group of Canadian and Ukrainian experts met with representatives of local self-government bodies, business community, NGOs and general public.