Work with the Municipalities
Municipal Recovery Planning
The RFA Projects supports Ukrainian municipalities in developing gender-responsive, citizen-oriented recovery plans that are environmentally sustainable, inclusive and aligned with national policies. For this, RFA works with municipalities on determining needs of various citizens and use this data to incorporate citizen perspectives into comprehensive Local Development Strategies and Action Plans. This process ensures that all issues are captured, particularly those that involve vulnerable and marginalized groups. We also provide guidance and mentorship to municipality sectoral teams to foster greater ownership of the vision.
When working with local governments, RFA applies a “learn-by-doing” approach using tools aligned with the government legislative framework for local planning. To ensure the planning documents are operationalized, inclusive, actionableand measurable, the project team assists local governments in establishing a management body tasked with the implementation of the Local Development Strategies and Action Plan and facilitating the first cycle of the Local Development Strategies and Action plan implementation, monitoring and adjustment if needed. For this purpose, RFA supports the development and launch of a transparent monitoring system to assess if planned activities are under implementation as intended, and whether those actions are effective and deliver meaningful impact for citizens.
Although the RFA Project will work with only 35 municipalities directly, the goal is to advance the benefits of this work across many more municipalities across Ukraine. That is why the project team is developing and testing a set of planning templates, tools, and methods for the Government of Ukraine and other development partners to disseminate this knowledge and best practices to municipalities nationwide.
Considering the massive scope of recovery needs and limited financial resources available to municipalities, and to tackle capacity gap of local governments in attraction of external available resources, RFA Project supports partner municipalities in resourcing, in particular through the establishing of local project management offices. Their purpose is to coordinate the design and implementation of recovery projects in line with the municipality’s Local Development Strategy and people’s needs, ensuring the recovery became a reality for citizens.
Development and Implementation of Recovery Initiatives
The RFA Project provides support to municipalities to design and manage governance, social and economic recovery initiatives (RIs) identified in municipality-developed action plans to enhance equity and participation of citizens.
RFA will work with municipalities through a “learn–by–doing” approach from the design stage, including sourcing funds, through to implementation and monitoring for effectiveness. The project team focusses on initiatives in the areas of inclusive education, improving access to social and medical services for various population groups – such as veterans and children with disabilities – as well as initiatives that create better economic opportunities for the municipalities.
RFA assists municipalities to leverage existing resources from other technical assistance projects, international financial institutions, state budget or the private sector to implement RIs.
Finally, the Project strengthens the capacity of local governments to monitor and report on RI implementation, as well as incorporate emerging lessons learned. Monitoring RI implementation empowers local governments to identify challenges and adjust strategies as needed, thereby enhancing the overall efficiency and success of the recovery process.
Developed within the framework of the Recovery for All (RFA) Project, funded by Global Affairs Canada and implemented by Alinea International Ltd.