Have you have already heard about our new project – DMD?
In the ECMI`s case, DMD stands for DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT of Local Self-Government bodies within the context of the current Decentralisation process in Ukraine.

DMD supports the ongoing process of decentralisation in Ukraine by fostering the local self-governance and democratic empowerment of its citizens. The project aims to provide participants in Ukraine with ideas and practical instruments to enhance the social and economic development of their regions in Ukraine. As the ECMI believes that minority communities are an asset to regional development, the project will focus on ethnically-diverse communities and minorities in this context.

Empowerment of grass-root level is a major challenge but the communities that can acknowledge the ethnic diversity and learn how to manage it adequately, would eventually be more successful in their socio-economic development. Following this guiding idea, ECMI will be running a number of activities in the three regions of Ukraine: Uzhgorod, Chernivtsi and Odessa, focused on the capacity building of local self-governments.

Through several training courses, workshops and a study-visit to Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) the participants will be introduced to successful examples of local self-governance in Ukraine and positive international practices from minority regions.

Today, our international and Ukrainian experts are in Chernivtsi to open the first module of the trainings. They will provide the participants with information about positive practices and will guide the exchange of experiences and ideas. Module 1 will introduce the representatives of the Ukrainian hromadas (“communities” in Ukrainian) to the Diversity Management practices of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein and will discuss the future prospective of Ukraine as an EU member state involved in the building of cross-border Euroregions.

Follow the event live on our Facebook channel:

https://www.facebook.com/ecmiup/

https://www.facebook.com/ECMIFlensburg/ 

“We are excited to introduce our Ukrainian partners to the international experience and successful models of diversity management, which they could adapt to their needs and realities to foster the socio-economic development of their communities. We are expecting that the benefits from the process of amalgamation will become as visible in Ukraine, as in the EU states!”, shared Dr Zora Popova, ECMI Senior Analyst and expert to the project. “Decentralization provides people with opportunities to build their own future, to become agents of progress, to make decisions about their own lives!”, she continued.  Dr. Zora Popova highlighted the role of the ECMI in this context: “The ECMI is there to support and guide the process, to provide positive examples from other European states that stakeholders might be interested to examine, learn from, and possibly adapt to their local realities.”

The participants come from diverse backgrounds in Ukraine (i.e. public officials, local entrepreneurs and representatives of civil society, different ethnic communities and NGOs).

DMD is supported by GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit) and the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.

Source: ECMI InfoChannel @ European Centre for Minority Issues.