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In 2018, Zhmerynka City Council received a financial grant from the Democratic Governance and Development Initiatives Support Fund as part of PLEDDG Project and is currently implementing a project aimed at putting sorting and separate waste collection activity into practice as well as developing Zhmerynka citizens’ environment preservation skills. The youth and budget sector employees have become the project’s pathfinders.

Successful development of Ukrainian territorial communities and meaningful transformational process relies on people ready to work under new conditions both professionally and in terms of their worldview. It is vital that they have knowledge of new technologies in local economic development management and relevant skills to apply it in the context of a certain community. PLEDDG Project provides a comprehensive assistance for its partner cities to build an efficient cooperation across all levels of governance and enhances the capacity of Ukrainian municipal sector through extending cross-sectoral dialogue, integrated planning of local economic development, and strengthening of public service capacity based on customized training programs.

“Social Enterprise “Business Training Centre” Public Union, Poltava, employs people who found themselves in difficult situations. The organization won a financial grant to purchase new equipment in the framework of the Small and Medium-sized Entrepreneurship Support Fund of PLEDDG Project. Besides, PLEDDG team provided advice to the organization and organized training sessions. The key objective of this support is to provide assistance in finding solutions to problems such as social inequality and social isolation, economic instability of the disadvantaged members of the local community.

The Third Ukraine Reform Conference took place on July 2-4, 2019, in Toronto, Canada. It is an annual international event dedicated to an expert discussion on the progress of Ukrainian reforms and the further priority steps and prospects. The Government of Ukraine is responsible for annual organization of the Conference. The two previous conferences were held in such European capital cities as London (2017) and Copenhagen (2018).

On June 3–6, Women Deliver 2019 took place in Vancouver, Canada. It was the world’s largest gathering on gender equality and the health, rights and well-being of women and girls. Its aim was to catalyze active men and women committed to gender equality in the world to share their knowledge and put forward solutions to numerous global challenges. The speakers were delivering presentations and talking about such issues as health, nutrition, education, and empowerment of women and girls in political and economic life. The event brought together more than 6 thousand of men and women: leaders, lawyers, and authors.

Odesa hosted the XV Ukrainian Municipal Forum on June 18–20, 2019. The Ukrainian Municipal Forum is a nationwide annual event held by the Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC) in order to provide an effective platform for training, to share experience, ideas, and Ukrainian and international best practices of local government and local economic development, to discuss threats and risks for the local government reform and territorial organization of authority in Ukraine, and for government agencies and the Association of Ukrainian Cities to work out a common attitude to developing local government, improving the legal framework, further decentralizing authority, and enabling the economic development of communities.

The “Association for Protection of Rights and Assistance to People with Disabilities “Open Hearts” NGO, which is implementing the project “Creating inclusive conditions for employment of young people with severe disabilities based on Social Workshops’ greenhouse business” in the framework of PLEDDG ’s SME Support Fund, have equipped a greenhouse in the territory of Social Workshops in Dorozhne village of Vinnytsia region.

The call for proposals for funding from PLEDDG SME Support Fund is now closed. All submitted proposals are now being processed. An update on the next grant cycle will be communicated through PLEDDG website and PLEDDG’s official pages on Facebook and Twitter.

On May 15, 2019, Kyiv hosted an annual PLEDDG Project Steering Committee Meeting. At the meeting a PLEDDG Project progress report for 2018-2019 was discussed and an Annual Work Plan for 2019-2020 was presented and approved.

On April 12, 2019, in Ivano-Frankivsk a studio of the Creative Women Start-up Accelerator was officially opened. The event was attended by partners and potential investors. Iryna Vandych, Regional Coordinator of PLEDDG in Ivano-Frankivsk, spoke on behalf of PLEDDG.