A small town that is not afraid of big projects is the experience of Chortkiv

For a week, 15 community representatives from Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Odesa, and other regions of Ukraine visited Ivano-Frankivsk, Chortkiv, and Kopychyntsi as part of the Project Management Academy project by Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine, where they saw from the inside how various successful project management models work at the local level.

Today we’re going to talk more about Chortkiv.

Solar panels on kindergartens, schools, and the water utility, insulated facades of apartment buildings, an inclusive social dormitory and social taxi, a silver age university and permanent youth camps for Chortkiv youth abroad, and an updated fleet of municipal vehicles and buses – all of this has been achieved thanks to Chortkiv’s clear focus on international cooperation.

How is this possible?

Chortkiv is a small, picturesque town in the south of Ternopil Oblast, where no more than 35,000 people live in the town and 7 villages of the community. Despite its distance from the frontline, many residents of the community left for abroad during the war. This was facilitated by significant labor migration of the male population in the community before the war.

The city has several plants and factories, the largest of which is a manufacturer of electrical wires for cars, SE Bordnetze-Ukraine LLC, but it is obvious that without international cooperation it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to achieve such significant results on our own and in the midst of war.

The mayor of Chortkiv, Volodymyr Shmatko, personally devotes a significant portion of his time to international cooperation and communicates with all mayors on his own, travels abroad a lot and actively participates in international events. He also pays a lot of attention to “reporting,” but not in the classic sense of glory, but constantly publicly and personally telling partners how their assistance is used for the benefit of the community.

The mayor has a reliable back office – the Agency for Local Development is responsible for implementing key international projects in Chortkiv, and it is headed by an experienced project manager from Berdyansk, Oleksandr Karpenko. During the war, the city council managed to attract more than 10 people who were forced to relocate to Chortkiv. In the community, they fundamentally avoid referring to their new colleagues as internally displaced persons or refugees. The mayor emphasizes that all Ukrainians should feel comfortable and at home in the city. For the community, this is now a huge resource, especially at a time when many residents of Chortkiv have gone abroad.

International cooperation for the future

Chortkiv has 16 partner cities that provided significant assistance to the community during the war, both with municipal equipment and by hosting children from the community for recreation and rehabilitation. 

Each of the partners is working in a specific area, actively applying for available national funds from EU countries, where possible. For example, the Swedish city of Karlskrona is being worked with through the programs of the Swedish Institute (SI) and the International Center for Local Democracy (ICLD). With the German city of Bad Soden-Salmünster through the German government program GIZ and Engagement Global.

They are establishing partnerships not only with geographically close communities in Europe, but also with Canadian and American cities in the future. The mayor’s goal is to double the number of international partners in the near future and actively participate in European Union programs.

Loan funds for small communities

The experience of the city’s cooperation with NEFCO was interesting for the internship participants, in particular because Chortkiv is probably the first small community in Ukraine that is not afraid to take loans from international lenders. The mayor admits that it was not easy to start cooperation with credit institutions, but when donors see concrete results and a responsible attitude, everything becomes possible.

“Donation is about charity, loans are about win-win, it’s about long-term planning and responsibility,” says Mayor Volodymyr Shmatko.

“For me, allocating funds for the complete thermal modernization of the lyceum from the local budget is simply not realistic. Along with the loan, we receive a portion of grant funds, so this cooperation is very beneficial for us.”

Clear focus on energy efficiency

The city is a participant in the Covenant of Mayors-East and has voluntarily committed to reducing carbon emissions. As a result, the city is using grant funds to carry out thermal modernization of educational institutions and municipal facilities, install solar panels to optimize the operation of wastewater treatment plants, and ensure the resilience of critical infrastructure during the war.

This clear focus helps Chortkiv achieve concrete results in international cooperation and reach new international levels in this particular area. In particular, this is especially important in the context of Ukraine’s movement towards the EU, where the Green Transition and carbon reduction are now almost the main topic of local development.

The mayor also emphasizes the importance of a systematic and integrated approach to international cooperation.

“Reconstruction is not about repairs. You have to convince partners that the project brings systemic changes in the community.  Projects for the integration of new community residents should also benefit other community members. International projects should be a booster for the local economy and direct money to local businesses,” Volodymyr Shmatko shares his thoughts.

The project Academy of Intermunicipal Cooperation and Project Management by Cities4cities is implemented with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI).

As a reminder, the Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine initiative has launched the Cities4Cities ACADEMY training platform. The platform also offers an online course “International Cooperation for Communities,” which has already been completed by 1000 community representatives.

Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine are partnership initiatives that joined forces in September 2022. Cities4Cities was founded by the city of Sindelfinden (Germany) under the patronage of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. United 4 Ukraine was launched by SALAR International and the city of Lviv (Ukraine) with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).