USAID DOBRE partner communities in Ternopil Oblast have set out to help their residents get comfortable jobs and fill the local budget at the same time. In Vyshnivets and Zolotnyky, new business spaces will provide areas for villagers to sell products they grow or make themselves. In Lanivtsi and Pidvolochysk, such locations will support local entrepreneurs. In Shumsk, they will also promote the work of local artisans.
The USAID DOBRE Program is allocating more than $150,000 of assistance to its partner communities in Ternopil Oblast to implement these plans. After all, local economic development is essential to the region’s communities today: like many others, they suffer from rising unemployment.
In the new business space, the Lanovetska community will be selling its craft products, souvenirs, and delicacies, as well as conducting master classes for graduates of the local business school. The equipment purchased by the USAID DOBRE Program has recently arrived here: three trade pavilions and furniture for them. The community will improve the territory at its own expense, connect the outlets to electricity, and install an inclusive public restroom.
“This is the 12th project we are implementing with the assistance of the USAID DOBRE Program,” says Mr. Roman Kaznovetskyi, Mayor of Lanivtsi. “The business space will help newly established community entrepreneurs sell their products or services and create new jobs. It is important because by encouraging people to start their own business, we also provide them with additional opportunities to start.“
Local artisans initiated the creation of a creative and economic space in the Shumska community. The USAID DOBRE Program is purchasing four pavilions for this purpose: three for local entrepreneurs and one to support handmade producers.
Shumsk Mayor Mr. Vadym Boyarsky adds that the project will also support internally displaced persons who temporarily or permanently live in the community. The center will organize creative workshops, exhibitions, and other artistic events for Ukrainians from the affected regions to help them relieve psychological tension and regain their strength through creativity.
“We chose the location on an alley in the center of Shumsk,” says Mr. Vadym Boyarsky. “The community is contributing to this project by arranging the area for a comfortable stay of visitors. The owner of the adjacent land plot will also join the reconstruction and equip it in the same style. Over time, these works can give rise to another important project for the community – the improvement of the entire municipal park, the territory of which begins in this place.“
“USAID DOBRE knows the needs of each partner community, as we constantly work with community representatives in relevant working groups. Together, we try to overcome the challenges they face,” says Vitaliy Yurkiv, USAID DOBRE Local Economic Development Expert. “The most important thing that the economic spaces we create together with communities have in common is an improved infrastructure created for the comfortable operation of entrepreneurs and consumers of their goods or services. If this factor affects the outcome, entrepreneurs will be able to expand their business and create new jobs with corresponding revenues to the community budget. The lives of residents will also improve, as they will be able to buy goods and services in comfortable conditions.“
The Zolotnykivska community plans to solve a long-standing problem with the local market for selling agricultural products. Every week, spontaneous trade takes place here where neither sellers nor buyers have proper conditions. People even trade on the roadway of the main road in Zolotnyky, putting themselves in danger.
Amidst creating a business space, the community plans to organize a full-fledged pavilion-type market with trading tables and a roof. Five parking spaces will also be organized here for trade from vehicles.
The Vyshnivetska community is already approaching the opening of its business space called “Delicacies from the Village.” Equipment from the USAID DOBRE Program has recently arrived here – two spacious pavilions, refrigerators, tables, shelves, and air conditioners. The community has equipped the area in the center of Vyshnivets at its own expense and will connect the kiosks to electricity.
“Villagers who grow their own vegetables, keep livestock, bees, and so on, will be able to trade in the new space,” says Mr. Volodymyr Kravets, head of the Vyshnivetska community. “Until now, they have been limited in this capacity because the local market is open only on Saturdays. People are forced to trade in unspecified places to sell their goods, in the snow or rain, or to sell them to buyers at low prices.”
A new economically active location is also being arranged in the Pidvolochyska community. It will become part of the public space in the city park.
“We have a lot of initiative people who would like to work in the services sector, as evidenced by their appeals to the village council. But they face the problem of lack of space for such activities,” explains Mr. Vitalii Datsko, head of the Pidvolochyska community. “At the same time, we want to develop a recreation area in the park, providing residents with the quality services they need.“
The Pidvolochyska community has no considerable industrial facilities on its territory that would provide residents with jobs. Therefore, they want to solve the current unemployment problem by developing small businesses. That includes creating new adapted locations. In the new pavilions, local entrepreneurs plan to provide fast food services, rent bicycles and children’s electric cars, sell souvenirs, etc. The community will prioritize renting space in the pavilions by veterans to help them adapt to civilian life more quickly.
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The USAID Program, “Decentralization Offering Better Results and Efficiency” (DOBRE), is a nine-year program, implemented by Global Communities and funded by the United States Agency for International Development. DOBRE has worked closely with 100 consolidated communities (CCs) in ten Oblasts of Ukraine to help them realize the benefits and meet the challenges brought by decentralization. DOBRE provides technical and material assistance to CCs to help them govern openly and accountably and meet the needs of their citizens; and supports citizens’ active engagement in decision-making and policy making. DOBRE’s support encompasses strategic planning; spatial planning; financial management; public service delivery; local economic development; capacity building; good governance practices; and gender- and youth-responsive policies.
In the period 2022 – 2025, DOBRE will be working directly with at least 60 CCs of Ukraine to help them cope with the consequences of the war, recover and rebuild, and resume their trajectory of positive, sustainable development. Partners with Global Communities in the DOBRE Program Consortium include the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center; the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy, and the Malopolska School of Public Administration at the Krakow University of Economics, Poland.