On April 28th, together with Cedos think tank, within the framework of Ukraine Calling 2021 were held two panel discussions on local development and regional policy in Ukraine and beyond. The panels were part of a series of public events organized in collaboration between Cedos and the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) to create a space for open discussions between key local and regional development actors from different countries and provide them with an opportunity to share knowledge and experience.
The first panel discussion, moderated by urban geographer and housing policy analyst at Cedos think tank Pavlo Fedoriv, focused on academic perspectives on local and regional development, and consisted of presentations by researchers. During the discussion, the participants presented their vision of how local development affects the existing regional inequality and what are the main stages in the development of regional policy in Europe. In particular, Dr. Olga Shevchenko (Head of the Sector for Regional Development Strategies at National Institute for Strategic Studies, Ukraine) revealed some of the main concepts of regional policy in Ukraine. Dr. Igor Ksenicz (Assistant Professor of the Department of Study of Cultural Identity, Institute of European Culture in Gniezno, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań) compared approaches to regional policy in Ukraine and Poland. 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) emphasized the possible advantages Ukraine over the EU in terms of bureaucratic obstacles to regional policy. Dr. Vlad Mykhnenko (Associate Professor of Sustainable Urban Development and Research Fellow at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University) based on the data, came to the conclusion that regional disparities in Ukraine are growing every year. In addition, the researcher stressed that regional development is not realistic without first solving national problems, such as the judicial system in Ukraine.
References mentioned during the panel:
Igor Ksenicz (2018), “Od reformy do reformy? Współpraca władz lokalnych i regionalnych Polski i Ukrainy w latach 1999-2014”, ZALESIE GORNE, 324.
Neil Brenner (2004), ”New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood”, Oxford University Press, 304.
Vlad Mykhnenko & Manuel Wolff (2019), “State rescaling and economic convergence”, Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53 (4), 462-477.
Vlad Mykhnenko & Adam Swain (2010), “Ukraine’s diverging space-economy: The Orange revolution, post-soviet development models and regional trajectories”, European Urban and Regional Studies 17 (2), 141-165.
The second panel discussion, moderated by co-founder and CEO of Euro Creative (France) Romain Le Quiniou, focused on the experiences of civil society and the executive branch in local development. Deputy Mayor of Vinnytsia (Ukraine) Mr. Andrii Ocheretnyi and Mayor of Poznań (Poland) Mr. Jacek Jaśkowiak shared aspects of their approach to the regional policy of these cities and to working with representatives of civil society. Ms. Bella Tskhelishvili (Coordinator of Eastern Partnership projects at Platforma (Belgium)) presented the “Bridges of Trust“ project and spoke about the priorities of the new European program for 2021-2027. Ms. Lizaveta Chepikava (architect, urbanist, and project manager at the Minsk Urban Platform) spoke about the challenges facing civil society after August 9, 2020 (the day of the presidential elections) in Belarus in general, and about the challenges of the activities of neighborhood communities in particular.
Here you can view the full record of the discussion panels:
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.
#CivilSocietyCooperation #localdevelopment #thinkingbeyondborders #experiences #implementing
