NALAS continues building bridges of cooperation with Ukraine

The kick-off event of « New Wave of Cooperation » gathered participants from the previous project “Bridges of Cooperation”, U-LEAD GIZ staff from both the Kyiv as well as regional offices, new partners and NALAS Secretariat. It took place online on 4 July.

Continuing in joint efforts of building bridges of cooperation between EU host and Ukraine beneficiary local governments, the existing 8 tandems from Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria were complemented by tandem partners from Montenegro and North Macedonia. The key of the partnerships between local governments is the co-called Shadowing Programme, a mechanism for exchange and transfer of knowledge between peers, based on coaching, mentoring, and on-the-job learning.

This Shadowing Programme leverages the expertise of both host and beneficiary parties to enhance the capacities of Ukrainian local governments through a short-term project intervention. The aim is to lay the foundation for a potential comprehensive project intervention, building on tangible results achieved through inter-municipal partnerships and decentralised cooperation

The project intervention continues along the line of a common need identified by all 10 Ukrainian local governments during the previous “Bridges of Cooperation” pilot phase and the “New Wave of Cooperation” intervention among jointly defined key priority topics. The actions will provide support to Ukrainian local governments in the cross-cutting issue of EU accession process, preparation, and management of local development projects to support Ukraine’s reconstruction and reform process.

Furthermore, increasing capacities and skills in EU fundraising will help to address the acute challenges in specific sectors facing local authorities and local communities in terms of service delivery in a country experiencing aggression and a full-scale war.

Sharing the positive results and potential of the Shadowing Programme at the European level with a broader EU audience — including stakeholders from EU Member States, EU candidate countries, EU institutions, and the international donor community — will demonstrate the value of this knowledge transfer and learning-sharing tool. The testimonies of EU host and Ukrainian beneficiary local governments involved in the programme will highlight its potential as a significant option for future bottom-up reconstruction and reform efforts in Ukraine.

(Picture by Anastasiia Santsevych on Unsplash)