In Chernihiv oblast the Third phase of joint EU/UNDP Project “Community Based Approach” was officially launched. The presentation took place on 2 October during regional seminar under participation of Chief of Staff of Chernihiv Oblast State Administration Serhiy Zhurman, Head of Oblast Council Mykola Zverev, International project manager of EU/UNDP Project “Community Based Approach” Jaysingh Sah, Monitoring and communication specialist of EU/UNDP Project “Community Based Approach” Svitlana Slabinska, leadership of rayon state administrations and rayon councils; and heads of village and city councils.

During the launching of the Third phase of the CBA Project a Partnership Agreement was signed with Chernihiv oblast state administration, Chernihiv oblast council and UNDP. During regional seminar an Action Plan for Project implementation in oblast was introduced. During launching it was announced about the start of competitive selection of rayons for participation in the Project. Now rayons will be able to submit applications for participation in the Project. After this the contest committee will define 8 rayons-winners which will participate in the third phase of CBA Project. The Application form can be found: http://www.cba.org.ua/three/ua/news/announcements/2616-application-form-for-rayons-for-partnership-with-cba

During the Third phase of the Project will support local authorities in dissemination of best practices and experience in participatory planning and further dissemination of the community based approach in Chernihiv oblast.  The Project activities will focus on rehabilitation of social and communal infrastructure in the area of energy efficiency, health care, environment, water supply, rural economy. The Project will support Ukrainian Government in implementation of decentralization reforms and in dissemination of innovative approaches for participatory planning and for promotion of sustainable social economic development on local level through the knowledge management hub and through implementation of the appropriate courses into curriculum of 20 universities.

Implementation of the first phase of CBA Project commenced in Chernihiv region during June 2008. First phase was succeeded by a second phase in July 2011. Over these two phases 62870 of men, women and children of the region have benefitted from improvement in 38 schools/kindergartens, 16 healthposts, 10 water supply, 13 street-lightning and so on. This happened through joint effort of the citizens, oblast/rayon/local level governments, CBA Project and the private sponsors.The main objective of the Third phase is that communities and local authorities will be ready for  a full-frame implementation of the community based approach

Third phase of CBA project will be implemented during 2014-2018 with a total budget of 23.8 million Euro, provided by the European Union (23 million Euro) and UNDP (800,000 Euro). Its objective is to promote sustainable socio-economic development at local level by strengthening participatory governance and fostering community-led initiatives across Ukraine