On January 26, a regular expert session of the Mayors’ Club was held. The participants had the opportunity to listen and talk to the speaker Igor Ivanovich Lepyoshkin regarding the topic, “Strategic Planning of Territorial Communities Development”.
Mr. Igor Lepyoshkin is a regional development advisor, an employee of local governments and non-governmental organizations, and a university lecturer in economics. Since 2002, he has been working in the field of local and regional development, in particular, he worked on international technical assistance projects in various expert and managerial positions. Over the past 15 years, he has worked in ITA (International Technical Assistance) projects funded by many donors, including the Support to Structural Change in Coal Regions of Ukraine and U-LEAD with Europe (GIZ) projects; the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance (PLEDDG); Local Economic Development of Ukrainian Cities (MLED) projects; and USAID’s Local Investment and National Competitiveness and Economic Development of Ukrainian Cities projects. The work of these projects included assistance to local governments and national/regional authorities in the areas of strategic planning, local economic development, support for the development of small and medium-sized businesses, investment attraction, etc. He assisted in the development and implementation of more than 60 strategies for the development of cities/towns in Ukraine.
The following points were discussed at the meeting: changes in the systems of strategic and program documents at the national level, the system of strategic and program documents of the territorial community, and the development of community development strategies. The stages of strategic planning and the importance of SWOT analysis were analyzed and discussed in detail with the participants. The speaker also emphasized the importance of strategic vision and demonstrated its formation using examples.
Yuriy Bova, Mayor of Trostyanets, raised an urgent issue regulated by Resolution No. 590 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which sets out the procedure for the State Treasury Service to exercise its powers in a special regime under martial law. Yuriy made a proposal to amend the resolution to improve the system and provide permits for the design of facilities identified in community strategies. The conference participants also suggested that the Mayors’ Club should submit a corresponding application.
To add, Volodymyr Udovychenko, who is the Mayor of Slavutych and President of the Mayors’ Club, shared his experience in writing a strategic development plan.
Speaker Ihor Lepyoshkin announced that he is open for consultations and provides assistance to members of the Mayors’ Club.
Please note that participation in the event and full access to the materials of the expert sessions and videos are available only to members of the Mayor’s Club- mayors of cities or communities, as well as their teams.
If you are a mayor of a city or community but are not yet a member of the Mayors’ Club, please follow the link and register at: Mayors’ Club Membership Form – Mayors’ Club (mayorsclub.org)