Zhmerynka is now among PLEDDG partner cities that choose the path of sustainable and foreseeable progress. On October 10, the members of Zhmerynka City Council approved 2030 City Development Strategy (available in Ukrainian) which was developed in cooperation with PLEDDG.
The document meets the demands of the local community and business. The Strategy determines two key areas for development which are the strengthening of the town’s competitiveness and improvement of its citizens’ life quality.
Today Zhmerynka is an important railway communication point, however narrow specialization of the city makes it vulnerable to the changes within one specific industry. Under such conditions, the issue of the overall diversification of economic activity and the support for SME with special focus on women entrepreneurship becomes topical.
The lack of sustained cooperation of SME with local authorities creates many barriers on the way of establishing a favorable environment for the town’s development. The Strategy envisages the formation of an effective advisory body, providing its continuous operation and accountability in order to solve this problem.
To improve the citizens’ life quality, the Strategy stimulates the creation of both eco-friendly and energy efficient urban environment as well as infrastructure improvement, higher standards of administrative services and promotion of inclusiveness.
Among numerous existing strategic planning methods, PLEDDG’s approach is unique due to the following four components: community’s involvement at all stages of the development and implementation of the Strategy, with regard to gender equality aspects, achievement of environmental sustainability objectives, creation of competent bodies, and support in the process of meeting objectives, fulfillment of the strategy’s tasks and measures.
PLEDDG considers that strategic planning gives local authorities a comprehensive instrument which combines the analysis of current events, forecasts of social and economic development and scenarios of possible future, with the strategy for its achievement being developed. Besides, such planning helps to shape the overall vision of future directions and elaborate specific step-by-step development projects, understandable for a territorial community, stakeholders, and society in general. Not only the approval of the strategy provides an accurate and detailed plan of sustainable development of a city, it also helps to attract the resources required for the implementation of the programs and measures set out in the strategy at the expense of the national and regional financing and international donor assistance.