SECRETARIAT GENERAL DIRECTORATE GENERAL II - DEMOCRACY CENTRE OF EXPERTISE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM Strasbourg, 31 January 2011 The Council of Europe Programme Strengthening the Capacity of Local Authorities in Ukraine (funded by the governments of Denmark and Switzerland) Annual Report (April-December 2011) Prepared by the CoE Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform in co-operation with N. Starostenko, Programme Manager, “Strengthening the Capacity of Local Authorities in Ukraine” 1 INTRODUCTION The Council of Europe Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform has launched the Programme to Strengthen the Capacity of Local Authorities in Ukraine (“CB Programme”) in April 2011. The Programme is funded by voluntary contributions from the governments of Denmark and Switzerland, on the basis of the CoE-Ukraine Action Plan intended to provide assistance to the country to fulfil its obligations to the CoE. The Centre of Expertise also runs another Programme, “Strengthening Local Democracy and Support for Local Government Reforms in Ukraine” (funded by the Swedish Sida), which provides legal assistance in the process of decentralisation reforms to central government. Both programmes complement and reinforce each other to cover both practical and legislative components of the reform. The present Report provides an overview of the implementation of the CB Programme between April 2011 and January 2012. The inception phase (April-July 2011) is described in more detail in the Inception Report, adopted by the Steering Committee meeting in July 2011. PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION AND EXPECTED RESULTS Goal. Provide support to the establishment of a strong and effective local self-government system by implementation of the European innovative approaches to governance at local level, developed by the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform. Objective. Build the capacity of local authorities in the following areas: public ethics benchmarking, performance management, local finance benchmarking, development of leadership potential of local mayors. Approach. Leading international and local experts in collaboration with local authorities adapt Council of Europe toolkits to local legal, social, and economic conditions. Subsequently, pilot local authorities implement adapted tools in order to drive up performance. During the implementation of the individual components in the Programme its effects on poverty elimination, economic growth, gender equality, energy efficiency, climate, and environment are also taken into consideration Duration. April 1, 2011 – March 31, 2014 Financing. Government of Denmark (DANIDA) and Swiss Confederation. The Programme budget for 36 months amounts to approximately 1.200.000 euro. Partners. Ministry of Regional Development, Housing and Construction of Ukraine, associations of local authorities, the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine Participants. 24 cities from 14 oblasts 2 Key components of the programme: 1) a practical follow-up to the (very successful) Public Ethics Benchmarking Programme; 2) a Performance Management Programme, which would help local authorities to develop and make use of performance indicators in order to improve the quality of public services; 3) a Best Practice Programme, which would create a systematic approach to identifying, celebrating and disseminating the best local initiatives and achievements; 4) a Local Finance Benchmarking Programme, which would help both central government and local authorities to understand their strengths and weaknesses and improve regulations and practice; 5) a Leadership Academy Programme, which would help senior local government officials (both elected and appointed) to improve the quality of their institutional leadership, i.e. their local authority's capacity to create a vision for its future and to make it happen though the involvement of the community and strategic management of services. Moreover, the programme envisages offering help, in the form of expertise, to potential Ukrainian initiatives to implement the European Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level and its European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE). KEY ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2011 1. Launch and Inception phase completed; local staff and experts recruited; participants selected by July 2. Initial adaptation stage of the innovative European LSG models, developed by the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform. Representatives of participating cities took part in the first rounds of trainings and learnt the concepts, approaches and basic tools of European models. Starting from July 2011, leading international and local experts have been adapting European models of public ethics benchmarking; performance management; local finance benchmarking; leadership skills development to legislative and socio-economic conditions in Ukraine. Draft manuals for Ukrainian local authorities in performance management and local finance benchmarking, based on this work, will be developed in 2012 and presented to central authorities and associations of local authorities for further dissemination among other cities. 3. Capacity building activities began with participation of local authorities from 24 cities and 2 regions (oblasts). One of the key strengths of the programme is that all models could be adapted and used under the current Ukrainian legislation in cities with different status, population number, level of economic development, financial resources. In 2011, capacity building was carried out primarily through training of the local experts and municipal servants. Specifically, the Programme conducted three trainings for sustainable group of 24 participants on “Performance management” during September-November, a training on “Local Finance Benchmarking” for 17 participants in October, two sessions of “Leadership Academy” for 38 local leaders (mayors, deputy mayors) during September-November, the training on public ethics with participation of representatives of 6 cities and 4 oblasts, the international colloquy on public ethics for 60 participants, including the Civil Service Agency, local, international experts and representatives of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, representatives of government, NGOs, and national associations of local and regional authorities. 3 4. Work on the improvement of the public services quality delivered by local authorities: adaptation of the performance management mechanisms in 16 cities. The goal is to increase efficiency and transparency of public services delivery through development and use of the performance management indicators in the following areas: city web-site, administrative services, tariff policy based on a dialogue with population. After the initial stage applied to small services, performance management approaches to measurement of the efficiency of public services delivery can be used for other services as well. The results of Ukrainian cities work in performance management will be used for developing toolkits for disseminating best practices across Ukraine. 5. Development of leadership skills of local leaders in the framework of the Leadership Academy, including collaboration with non-governmental organisations, public participation, ethics benchmarking approaches, team building, establishment of experience exchange networks. The participants have already been using the self assessment tools for city council staff, communication tools with the third sector, negotiation approaches. The Leadership Academy course, promoting key local government institutional leadership qualities, will then be adapted and provided by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and other local training providers in Ukraine. In order to train the professors of the NAPA to use the methodology, two professors are working as co-trainers together with international trainers from the UK and Germany and learning to use innovative approaches to education of local leaders. 6. Establishment of partnerships with the Ministry of Regional Development, Housing and Construction of Ukraine, the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, the Association of Ukrainian Cities. Cooperation with the key stakeholders will allow the programme to fit into the priorities of Ukrainian government and associations of local authorities. 7. Building international networks of partner institutions. Establishment of collaboration with the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) on the Best Practice Programme (BPP) will allow to promote international approach to the contests. The goal of BPP is identification, celebration and dissemination of good practices and innovative initiatives. The Ukrainian delegation participated in the in the European Public Sector Awards (EPSA) 2011 Ceremony in Maastricht and agreed on collaboration with senior management of EIPA. PROGRAMME ACTIVITIES (APRIL – DECEMBER 2011) Action plan of the programme with activities split by month is presented in Annex 1. Table 1. Activities carried out during the Inception Phase in calendar order (April-December) Activities Outputs delivered Inception phase (April-July) 1. Agreements on the funding of Agreement between the CoE and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Programme Denmark was signed on November 3, 2010. Agreement between the CoE and the Swiss Confederation, represented by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, was signed on March 24th, 2011 2. Beginning of the Programme The actual implementation