On March 13-14, a two-day training “Strategic Planning in Communities. DREAM Platform. Grantwriting” was held in Sumy Oblast for communities in the region. The training was jointly organized by the Sumy Regional Military Administration and the Agency for Regional Development of Sumy Oblast and Support of the UCORD Project.
Currently, Ukraine is undergoing a process of updating development strategies, and mutual coordination of national, regional, and local planning documents is critically important. That is why the organizers dedicated part of the training to aspects of strategic planning at the local level.
“We have updated the Regional Development Strategy of Sumy Oblast until 2027 in accordance with the State Strategy. Updating the document became necessary due to today’s challenges, military operations and their consequences. It is important that the vision of development is also developed at the community level,” said Taras Savchenko, First Deputy Head of Sumy Regional Development Office, in his welcoming speech.
An effective tool for supporting strategic planning in communities is Regional Development Agencies, which can provide expert and mentoring support and be a platform for broad involvement of all stakeholders in the planning process.
Helping communities with strategic planning and project implementation is one of the priorities of the Sumy Oblast Regional Development Agency, a co-organizer of this training. Here is what its director, Vitaliy Rastorguev, says: “In the face of modern challenges, strategic planning is becoming not just a desirable, but a necessary tool for the development of our communities. It allows not only to set priorities, but also to effectively use available resources. At the same time, without qualified project managers capable of implementing these plans in life, even the most ambitious strategies will remain only on paper. Therefore, training such specialists is a key task of our agency to ensure sustainable development of both rural and urban areas, as well as the region as a whole.”
During the training, we considered the specifics of SWOT analysis, talked about developing an action plan for implementing the Strategy, legislative changes that should be taken into account during planning, sources of funding, evaluation, and monitoring. The training participants were also told about support programs for small and medium-sized businesses, available grant opportunities for the agricultural sector, and current opportunities for international cooperation.
In addition, community representatives received recommendations on working with the DREAM electronic platform – a state recovery management ecosystem that creates a single digital path and “single window” for all reconstruction and modernization projects initiated by communities in Ukraine.
The Swiss-Ukrainian project “Cohesion and Regional Development of Ukraine”, UCORD, is implemented with the support of Switzerland through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, by NIRAS Sweden AB.
Photo: Sumy Regional Military Administration and Sumy Oblast Regional Development Agency