The Congress project “Strengthening multilevel governance and local democracy to support Ukraine’s recovery” has successfully concluded the “Initiative. Participation. Impact” programme. Designed for civic leaders and civil society representatives from across Ukraine, the programme focused on strengthening core competencies in civic participation, project management, systemic fundraising, and effective citizen engagement.
Following an open call, 20 participants joined the programme with distinct project ideas addressing local community needs. Over five weeks, the programme combined five thematic training sessions with practical support from experts. Through individual consultations with Council of Europe consultants, participants transformed their initial concepts into structured project proposals, refining problem statements, objectives, expected results, timelines, target groups, risk assessments, and sustainability plans.
A key highlight was the application of the Council of Europe’s game-based methodology, UChange. By simulating real-life community challenges, the game helped participants explore effective ways to collaborate with public authorities, mobilize residents, and build sustainable local initiatives.
The programme culminated in a two-day, in-person training session in Lviv on 9–10 July 2026, dedicated to presenting and refining final project concepts. Despite wartime security challenges, 14 participants attended the offline event to pitch their initiatives and receive expert feedback. Discussions centered on project clarity, feasibility, community relevance, resident engagement strategies, and long-term impact. Participants also received targeted recommendations to align their proposals with the Council of Europe’s principles of good democratic governance and local development priorities.
Based on the quality of the project proposals and the potential of the CSO leaders to strengthen local civic participation, develop their organisations, and contribute to the sustainable development of their communities, follow-up mentoring support will be provided to the selected participants.
The programme is implemented within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026 and the project “Strengthening multilevel governance and local democracy to support Ukraine’s recovery”, implemented by the Council of Europe Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
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