Decentralization and rescaling of political and economic governance in Europe are the most prominent socio-spatial processes in the last decades. The decentralization reform in Ukraine brings multiple changes and is supposed to activate local endogenous development giving people the resources and responsibility for local issues while enhancing cohesion. Opening a series of public events dedicated to the local development and regional policy organized by Cedos in cooperation with the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), we would like to create a space for an open discussion between the key figures in the field of regional development in Ukraine and abroad, and thus provide an opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience between representatives of diverse sectors from different countries. The first event will be held on April, 28th, 10.00 am CET and will consist of two panel discussions.

I panel. Thinking About Local and Regional Development: Academic PerspectivesWe will tackle different concepts of regional development and how they are embedded in the specific regional policies. Specifically, we will look at “local development” as a relatively recent theory and approach, and try to map out its origins, goals and possible implications both for the local economies and people’s welfare and well-being.What can a local development approach propose for the regions? What problems does this approach address, and what is missing? What does it say about the existing regional inequalities?

These questions will be discussed with:

Dr. Igor Ksenicz, Assistant Professor of the Department of Study of Cultural Identity, Institute of European Culture in Gniezno, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań;
Dr. Olga Mrinska, Ambassador and a Trustee of Regional Studies Association in Ukraine and Associate Director, Senior Evaluation Manager at European Bank for Reconstruction and Development;
Dr. Vlad Mykhnenko, Associate Professor of Sustainable Urban Development and Research Fellow, St. Peter’s College, University of Oxford;
Dr. Olga Shevchenko, Head of the Sector for Regional Development Strategies at National Institute for Strategic Studies, Ukraine.

This panel discussion will be moderated by Pavlo Fedoriv, urban geographer and housing policy analyst at Cedos think tank.

II panel: Implementing Local Development: Experiences from the Civil Society and Executive Authorities Turning to the examples of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other EU member states we will draw a comparison between the local development and their implementations based on the experience and observations of the representatives of the executive authority and civil society organizations. Special attention will be given to the role of transnationality and cross-sectorality: what is the influence of foreign state or business investments and whether they contribute to the development of the receiving cities and regions? Is there a place for international cooperation for regional prosperity besides the economic field, and what can be done to foster it? How specialists from different fields can contribute to more holistic solutions by cooperation?

Panelists:

Mr. Jacek Jaśkowiak, Mayor of the city of Poznań;
Mr. Andrii Ocheretnyi, Deputy Mayor of Vinnytsia;
Ms. Bella Tskhelishvili, Coordinator of Eastern Partnership projects at Platforma (Belgium) — a network of local and regional governments;
A representative of the Minsk Urban Platform — an interdisciplinary activist organization from Minks, Belarus.

This panel discussion will be moderated by Romain Le Quiniou, co-founder and managing director of Euro Creative (France) — a think tank, focused on Central and Eastern European developments.

The event will be held online in English and Ukrainian. A simultaneous translation will be provided.

In order to participate in the event and be able to ask your questions directly, please register at this link: bit.ly/local_development. The deadline for registration is April 27, 18:00. We will send all access instructions before the event. Live-stream of the event will be also available on Cedos Facebook page and here.

This event is a part of the project “Ukraine Calling. Cross-Sectoral Capacity Building” funded by the German Foreign Office within the programme of Civil Society Cooperation.

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