Local democracy pushes local development forward

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13.02.2018

Local democracy pushes local development forward. The main components of these processes are people and communities. Therefore, one of the first steps for the development of local democracy is definition of the statutes of territorial communities.

Also it's necessary to provide recommendations on how to effectively involve local people to use local democracy tools, - stressed Iryna Haiduchyk, Head of the Volyn Institute of Law, UNDP CSO-hub.

On February 12, 2018 a round table discussion devoted to working out next steps to improve the development of local democracy was held in Vinnytsa with participation of authorities, civil society and UNDP experts.

“Participants of the round-table confirmed that the issue of increasing citizens' participation in local policy- and decision-making requires an urgent attention. Different forms of local democracy (local initiatives, general meetings of citizens, public hearings, electronic petitions, etc.), which are defined by the Law of Ukraine "On Local Self-Government", require detailed elaboration in the statutes of territorial communities, which go with the foundations of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. It is also necessary to improve the legislation so as strengthen connection between deputies of local councils and voters, and to regulate increasing responsibility of deputies”, - shared the main results of the discussion Angela Malyuga, Head of the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government.

63% of Ukrainians take part in lives of their local communities. However, only 8% believe that they can influence the situation in their native town, reveals the UNDP study http://bit.ly/2BUgQLY. UNDP supports the development of local democracy as one of the key elements of the decentralization reform and will support strengthening of the civil society’s impact in policy- and decision-making.

More details about discussion by the following link: http://bit.ly/2EmSgFc