ENERGY EFFICIENCY: STORIES THAT MELT HEARTS

COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACH 

TO LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 

ENERGY EFFICIENCY: 

STORIES THAT MELT HEARTS

This publication has been produced in the framework of the Community-Based Approach to Local Development 

(CBA) Project, which is financed by the European Union and co-financed and implemented by UNDP. The contents 

of this publication are the sole responsibility of the CBA staff and cannot be taken to reflect the views of the European 

Union or UNDP. 

Community-Based Approach to Local Development (CBA) Project 

20 Esplanadna Str., Office 704-708, Kyiv 01601 

Tel.: +38 (044) 253 5975, Fax: +38 (044) 253 5973 

Web: www.cba.org.ua 

Facebook: facebook.com/cbaproject 

Prepared by: Inna Kosyanchuk, Iryna Polishchuk, Olga Prokopenko 

Design: Pavlo Shevchenko 

Community-Based Approach to Local Development (CBA) Project. The main objective is to promote sustainable 

socio-economic development at the local level by strengthening participatory governance and fostering community-led 

initiatives across Ukraine. Since 2008, the CBA Project has been working throughout Ukraine. Its third phase 

is being implemented during the period of 2014-2017. In its third phase, the CBA Project is strengthening capacities 

of regional and local authorities to practice participatory governance, as well as is intensifying community-based 

approach. The CBA activities focus on rehabilitating social and communal infrastructure in the priority areas of energy 

efficiency, health, environment and water management in rural and urban territories. It also promotes small 

farm and non-farm businesses in rural areas. From the outbreak of the conflict on the East of Ukraine, the CBA 

is providing housing support to the displaced population refurbishing 34 objects for temporary accommodation of 

about 3,500 IDPs. Besides, the CBA Project supports the Ukrainian Government in developing policies in the area 

of decentralization and shares innovative approaches and good practices on participatory governance and community-led 

local sustainable development through the knowledge hub and the curriculum of thirty seven regional 

universities. The Project is financed by the EU and co-financed and implemented by UNDP. 

The European Union is made up of 28 Member States who have decided to gradually link together their know-how, 

resources and destinies. Together, during a period of enlargement of 50 years, they have built a zone of stability, 

democracy and sustainable development whilst maintaining cultural diversity, tolerance and individual freedoms. 

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is UN’s global network development, advocating for change and 

connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP cooperates 

with more than 170 countries and territories, helping them find their own solutions to global and national development 

challenges.

CHERKASY REGION 

To reduce energy 

dependence of the area, 

to save energy carriers 

and amounts of money 

paid for them 

10

WHERE WE HAVE TRUST WE ALSO HAVE RESPONSIBILITY 

INSISTING ON SOLVING THE “OUTPATIENT PROBLEM” 

Such technological invention as the thermal pump 

due to which one can use the energy of the earth 

had not been known to the residents of the village 

of Brodetske until they intended to make an application 

for participation in the microproject competition 

of the EU/UNDP CBA Project. 

We were all glad to win. But the responsibility was 

fully that of the village head Mykola Bilous – since 

people trust him. And they characterize him positively 

as a person with a “sparkle”. 

At one of the regular meetings of the village residents 

relating to participation in the EU/UNDP CBA 

Project they had to pass a joint decision about correct, 

and, thus, effective use of available funds. 

– It seemed quite good – to finish refurbishment 

of the street lighting network, – says Mykola Bilous. 

– But the fellow village residents decided 

that it was topical to solve the “outpatient problem” 

– it was cold and not cozy there. And really, 

for the village our medical institution is of an exceptional 

importance. The village is small, but 

each person requires the medical assistant’s help 

from time to time. Elderly people suffer from high 

blood pressure, so they address the outpatient 

hospital for help. Young people have small children, 

so they also need the medical assistant’s 

help. You cannot go to the raion centre each time. 

To be frank, the village head was afraid of capital repairs. 

He knew that winter was going to set in while 

documents were being drawn up and materials 

would be brought. And uncompleted works in the 

winter period are not the thing one would like to 

have. On giving it a thorough thinking, he decided 

to look through special literature – maybe he would 

find some information worth attention, or maybe 

some idea would dawn on him … So he read about 

energy-efficient systems on the Internet. Mykola 

Petrovych got interested in it, so he agreed to start 

bringing the decision of the meeting into life. 

And, as they say, the village started being very excited 

about the fact that they were not only going 

to do repairs in the health post, but also to install a 

saving boiler – a thermal one. 

– Installation of such boiler requires warm floor arrangement, 

and you can only imagine what that is like, 

I told people what kind of chaos we are going to have”, 

– Mykola Petrovych recalls the first days of the repairs. 

– In a word, he was absolutely right, because the works 

were started only in December … Floor making, plastering 

works – moisture… Nothing to breathe with. He 

felt better when he felt that the result was going to 

show itself. They launched the boiler. It worked. Heat 

was supplied – they felt happier about it. 

The fellow village residents started shaking the village 

head’s hand: “So good, Mykola! Thanks for caring

for us!” And they were encouraging him to arrange 

a housewarming party since it was inconvenient to 

visit the medical assistant in the House of Culture 

where the health post was temporarily located. 

That was the story… 

Thus, thanks to cooperation with the EU/UNDP CBA 

Project a complex of repairing and construction 

works was done in the health post of the village of 

Brodetske. It has become more comfortable in the 

premises of the institution – warmer, water is supplied, 

a lavatory has been arranged. The most important 

result of application of innovative technologies 

using renewable energies lies in the fact that 

the health post premises will be heated with a heat 

pump “soil – water” with the capacity of 9.65 kW. 

Due to performance of a complex of energy-saving 

measures the temperature regime in the premises 

will stabilize and the air will get warmer – by 4–5 degree 

more. At the same time the village residents 

hope, not without any grounds, that reduction of 

the costs of the health post premises will reduce at 

the rate of 55 UAH/m 2 . 

And one more advantage of the modern installation 

is that it will work as a conditioner 

type. Therefore, in summer health post visitors 

will have a chance to communicate with a 

doctor as well as to enjoy pleasant coolness. 

OLHA SHARYHA, 

DEPUTY COORDINATOR OF THE RAION RESOURCE CENTRE 

OF KATERYNOPIL RAION STATE ADMINISTRATION 

Our centre is permanently looking 

for something new and useful for 

the raion. We submit applications for 

participation in all the projects. We 

have been lucky with the EU/ UNDP 

Community Based Approach to Local 

Development Project. Out of 

24 village councils only 12 submitted 

the corresponding applications, and 

the Project’s contest commission 

selected 4 projects for co-funding. 

The Project’s strategy is quite interesting 

- it is not important what 

the local authorities say, it is important 

what people say. It is people 

who determine the problem 

that requires urgent solving. For 

village inhabited settlements such 

cooperation is of great assistance. 

The third phase of the Project is 

planned till 2017, but all those 

who have tried working with the 

Project are now taking effort to 

complete the works in the facility 

ahead of schedule hoping to participate 

and win in the next Project.

CHERNIHIV REGION 





paid for them 

4

WE FOCUS ON AN ACTION-CAPABLE COMMUNITY CREATION 

AN ACTION-CAPABLE COMMUNITY WAS SET UP THANKS TO THE CBA 

The residents of New Basan of Bobrovytsya raion are 

proud of the fact that the village has long been known 

as the centre of education. The first one-set school 

was opened here back in 1868. The traditions of special 

attitude to education have been preserved in the 

village till present. In Nova Basan they are not only 

striving to give a high level of knowledge to children, 

but to ensure proper conditions for studies. Thus, 

quite recently new premises of the general education 

school for 500 students have been erected. And preschool 

children stay in the old educational and study 

complex consisting of three buildings built up in the 

60ies of the past century. Now the educational and 

study complex is attended by 30 girls and 32 boys, 

of teachers and servicing staff there are 20 persons. 

Each year teachers and parents maintain the building 

in proper condition arranging current repairs. But old 

buildings require not just repairs but refurbishment. 

The residents of Nova Basan have long been dreaming 

of having a European-standard kindergarten, which 

would have no counterparts in Chernihiv region. And 

here they are supported by the raion authorities. 

The head of Nova Basan village council Volodymyr 

Levchenko has shared people’s vision of the restored 

kindergarten: “It must have separate entrances for 

each group, rest rooms, play rooms, separate sanitation 

unions, showers, dining-rooms, a large gym, etc”. 

The residents of Nova Basan are also quite modern in 

their treatment of one of the most important issues – 

they care for providing the kindergarten with warmth 

for the children to feel comfortable, and also, taking 

into account the current rise in energy carrier prices, 

for parents not to pay for heat too much. 

So far two boiler-houses have been used for heating 

the educational and study complex. One of them 

is the gas one with the capacity of 100 kW – built in 

2013. During its construction all the heating lines 

were replaced in the territory of the educational and 

study complex. The second boiler-room is a solid-fuel 

one, it is located in the adjacent half-vault premises. 

The condition of the boiler-house is as follows: equipment 

is depreciated, the period of boiler operation is 

over, the system… gets not air-tight. 

Therefore, at the general meeting the village community 

decided to reconstruct the system of heat supply 

of the educational and study complex and to install 

a block and module boiler-house. That definitely requires 

quite a lot of money. And to find it is a very 

serious problem, which unfortunately constitutes a 

typical one for the current epoch. 

An inextricable tangle of village community problems, 

at first glance, is impossible to solve, and the problem 

is not to be solved. In addition to that we have outdated 

Soviet ideas about the role of the authorities and 

doubts in one’s own effort … 

And when people came to know that the EU/UNDP 

Community Based Approach to Local Development 

Project would help with solving the community problems, 

they treated this help with distrust: will anything 

really come out of that? But the dialogue with 

the community, identification of leaders among the 

village residents, their training, other measures have 

drastically changed the attitude of people both to the 

Project and to themselves. 

“The beginning of the third phase of the Project coincided 

with the beginning of the development of the 

new Competitive Ability Program in Chernihiv region 

of which community was the basic element. The EU/ 

UNDP Project aims to directly help and support specific 

projects and their implementation in communities. 

Representative and executive authorities in the 

region will support such initiatives. That is our success 

and way to the European Union”, – indicates the 

head of Chernihiv regional council Mykola Zvyeryev. 

Hence, on January 23, 2015 the public organization 

“Vidrodzhennya” was set up in Nova Basan, it uniting

90 % village residents. Svitlana Prykhodko was elected 

its head. The functional group consisting of active 

village residents was formed. During development of 

the microproject proposals for participation in the 

CBA Project energy saving in the educational and 

study complex was determined as the priority. 

Overall budget of the microproject made up 

343,700.00 UAH, including: 242,353.00 UAH – 

funds of the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 

to Local Development Project, 17,647.00 UAH 

– PO “Vidrodzhennya” and raion budget funds -- 

83,700.00 UAH. 

And work started. People are looking forward to work 

completion. They are waiting for the day when the educational 

and study complex will be heated in a new 

way. Since one does not have to care for the quality of 

heat supply for small children. At the same time the 

conditions of the educational and study process have 

improved. Over one light day one can organize the 

work of different hobby groups, hold different events 

in the educational and study complex. And it is very 

significant that there will be no overspending of fuel, 

budget money will be saved. According to the project 

estimates, money saving over the heating period will 

make up quite an amount – 152,75.00 UAH. 

“It is important to realize the main goal of such projects. 

We focus not at the final facilities only, but primarily 

on the creation of an action-capable community. 

For us it is important that the community itself 

from the very start to the end takes independent 

decisions and is active. In such conditions that will 

become a real impetus for further development of 

communities and civil society”, – says the village head 

Volodymyr Levchenko. 

And, obviously, Nova Basan has managed to create 

an active, action-capable community which wants to 

work at improving the living standard in the village. 

The public organization “Vidrodzhennya” intends, after 

this microproject is implemented, to move further 

on and to look for the opportunities to do works in 

road repairing in the village, repairing of local outpatient 

hospital, street lighting network restoration in 

the village of Nova Basan: 

The EU/UNDP Community Based Approach to Local 

Development Project has opened up new opportunities 

for people to develop and to solve problematic 

issues facing the community, - says Svitlana Prykhodko, 

head of the PO “Vidrodzhennya”. – From now on 

we will focus on difficulties. We have a lot of problems 

solving of which greatly depends on us. Participation 

in the Project has helped to open up our opportunities, 

to identify resources, to unite people in the task 

of overcoming social and economic problems in our 

inhabited settlement. 

LEONID SAKHNEVYCH, 

FIRST DEPUTY HEAD OF CHERNIHIV REGIONAL 

STATE ADMINISTRATION 

All those involved in the implementation 

of the Community Based 

Approach to Local Development 

Project on the local level will have 

a chance to apply the knowledge 

and expertise gained further on 

in other situations, while solving 

other problems, participating in 

other initiatives. In that way the influence 

of the public will increase, 

local problems will be solved. 

It should be noted that relations of 

the authorities with public organizations 

are getting better. Thanks 

to the European integration process 

Ukraine is mastering the illustrative 

samples and absorbing rich 

foreign experience of active functioning 

and uninterrupted development 

of civil society, its relations 

with the authorities, their democratic 

control as well as improvement 

of social institutional capacity.

CHERNIVTSI REGION 





paid for them 

8

SCHOOL INSPIRING TO STUDY 

WAY OUT FOUND BY JOINT EFFORT 

School, where teachers provide children with powerful 

motivation for gaining knowledge. School with 

favourable conditions for studies and for the development 

of students’ skills. School the premises of 

which are made in such a perfect Ukrainian style that 

it resembles a museum, – with embroidered towels, 

plant ornaments in corridors, artistically decorated 

rooms, considerable achievements of students and 

teachers. Not every educational institution, in particular, 

in rural areas can boast of this. And Dykhtynets 

general education school of the Іst–ІІІrd degrees of 

Putyla raion in Bukovyna area can take pride in it. 

The same as in its 150-long history. 

The educational establishment was founded back 

in Austria, in 1862, as a two-year school with the 

German language of studies, it having two teachers 

and 78 children. 

Over the years of its existence the school has undergone 

many reforms – into a primary school, 

then – into a seven-year, eight-year school, then – 

into a secondary school. 

In 1978 modern premises of the school were built up. 

Now it impresses not only with aesthetical classroom 

decorations, but with pedagogical skills of teachers 

that get embodied in students’ achievements: there 

are many winners of different Olympiads, contests 

among them. “That is the achievement of the whole 

teaching staff”, – says school headmaster Petro 

Chyrkach who has been heading the educational establishment 

for more than 20 years. He is happy that 

even all together they have managed to create comfortable 

conditions for children – and 312 students 

study here. Not only from Dykhtynets, but from the 

neighbouring villages of Kiselytsya, Zamohyla… 

Last year one of the comfort factors got under threat. 

– We had a complicated situation – our boiler actually 

failed. The temperature regime in the school was not 

the one it should be. Therefore, we decided to set up 

a public organization and to start looking for a way 

out together since there was no budget money. At 

the same time there appeared a unique opportunity 

– we started being assisted by the EU/UNDP Community 

Based Approach to Local Development Project, – 

tells Petro Illich. – And you know, though people here 

are not that rich, but when we announced that is was 

necessary to collect our share of funds for the boiler, 

there were no complications – both the community 

and parents of students were of help, also businessmen 

helped. The raion supported us. And the CBA 

Project helped us really a lot! Both financially, and 

with documents, and with other things… 

In the IІІrd phase of the Project within the microproject 

“Innovative energy saving” it was decided to 

install a pyrolysis boiler with the capacity of 300 kW 

in Dykhtynets school. Overall project estimate of expenditure 

– 336,609.00 UAH. The CBA Project allocated 

252,457.00 UAH for it. The contribution of Putyla 

raion state administration was 67,317.00 UAH. 

PO “Dykhtynchany” collected 16,835.00 UAH. And 

thus – at the beginning of this year we tested the 

boiler. So far it functions in the testing regime. 

According to preliminary estimates, it was planned 

to use 35–40 % wood less as compared to the one 

burnt in old boilers. But the effect has already sur-

passed the expectations. Over the testing period 

we have seen that not only have we burnt 40 % less 

of wood, but we have reduced electric power consumption 

almost twice. 

As the coordinator of the CBA Project in Chernivtsi 

region Oleksandr Kovalchuk has said, old boiler will 

be left in the school just in case – as a reserve one. 

– Putyla raion is the mountainous raion of Chernivtsi 

region. According to the rating, it is considered to be 

among the most depressive ones in the area since in 

fact it does not have any manufacturing activities, – 

tells Oleksandr. – Almost the only business for local 

residents is woods with its gifts: mushrooms, berries. 

People live on storing them. Therefore, reduction 

of heating costs constitutes a very important life 

activity ensuring factor. 

It is also important because people care for the 

forest, and see it not only the source of wood that 

could be stored for winter in it. People value forests, 

care for natural resources preservation, feel 

responsible for the environment they will leave to 

their heirs. They treat every tree very carefully, since 

forest won’t grow over five years … 

And students are extremely happy with it being warm 

and cozy in the school. “All children like warmth!”, – 

the headmaster of the school says. He hopes that using 

the experience acquired during cooperation with 

the CBA Project, it will be possible to continue with 

the school restoration on the co-funding grounds – to 

repair the roof and finish installation of windows. 

According to Oleksandr Kovalchuk, the main effect 

of the implementation of the microproject is, 

following the estimates, achievement of economy 

of the costs of consumer energy carriers. Also, 

an important factor is improving the level of the 

quality of education via creation of most comfortable 

conditions both for students and for school 

staff. Accompanying important factors of community 

development in the performance of the microproject 

measures were unitedness, adequate 

self-assessment and realization of the importance 

of development of the inhabited settlement. 

ROMAN CHOPA, 

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS OF PUTYLA 

RAION STATE ADMINISTRATION 

In the territory of the raion during 

all the three phases we have already 

implemented 10 microprojects. 

I assess cooperation with the 

Project at the rate of 11 points according 

to a 10-point scale! We are 

grateful to them for working with 

us in such a perfect way. I would 

like the system to be introduced on 

the state level as well. In my work 

I am trying to apply the principles 

the CBA follows. Taking over their 

experience, we would like to repair 

the road in my village of Foshky on 

the principles of community unity. 

We are trying to show people 

the benefits of such work, we try 

to work in the way for people to 

see how promising and good it is 

to collect the money of the community 

residents for road repairing, 

even beyond the framework 

of the project. EU/UNDP Community 

Based Approach to Local Development 

Project has provided 

a very positive experience to us.

DNIPROPETROVSK REGION 





paid for them 

8

TO MAKE THE INTENDED COME TRUE 

TO WORK EASILY, WITH PREVALENCE OF MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING, 

OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY IN ACTIONS 

In a certain time period for each of us school was our 

second home. So that is no wonder that as the priority 

task the community of the village of Kamyanske in 

Nikopol raion determined reconstruction of heat supply 

system of Kamyanske general education school. 

So far the school has 268 students. 

“Our educational establishment is the leader in the 

educational sphere in Nikopol raion. So, no wonder, 

that at the community meeting it was decided to focus 

cooperation with the CBA on the school, – tells 

the headmaster of Kamyanske general education 

school of the Ist–ІІІrd degrees Yuriy Kavaler. – Though 

the school is not old, it was built in 1994, but until recently 

there have been problems with heating in the 

premises: a part of the school was well-heated, but in 

a part of it the heating was bad. That problem must 

be solved immediately. Due to cooperation with the 

CBA now in the premises there have been installed 

two boilers that could be heated by wood, palettes, 

etc. That enables us to save money almost twice and 

to heat the premises on a uniform basis. Since in the 

nearest years we expect the number of students to 

increase: we have two kindergartens, from which a lot 

of children are going to enter school soon. Besides 

that, the school does not close its door to children 

during the day. We have the House of Creativity for 

Children, sports group attended not only by children 

of our inhabited settlements but other ones as well”. 

It is of interest that almost one fourth of students come 

from the neighbouring villages and urban villages and 

they are taking a lift to the educational establishment. 

The community managed to do current repairs before, 

but it failed to collect money for biomass boiler 

installation. Thanks to the EU/UNDP CBA Project 

the issue was soon settled. Thus, overall budget of 

the project made up 494,767.00 UAH. Out of this 

amount 211,370.00 UAH is the money of the CBA 

Project, 4,755.00 UAH was granted by the PO “Maybutnye 

Prydniprovya”, 25,000.00 UAH – Dnipropetrovsk 

regional council and 233,042.00 UAH is the 

raion budget money. 

And in Tsarychanka, Tsarychanka raion, reconstruction 

of external lighting networks in the central part 

of the urban village has been made. Now the residents 

enjoy energy-saving lighting in the streets of 

their inhabited settlement. 

All in all, there have been installed 17 ferroconcrete 

monolithic foundations for park supports, and, correspondingly, 

17 park supports. 18 light fixtures with 

LED lamps on already available supports equipped, 

etc. Now even in the dark part of the day in brightly 

lit streets of the urban village there are many people 

hurrying up for their own purposes. The residents 

tell that after the installation of lights they 

are already not afraid of going to the shop in the 

dark. Particularly topical the issue is in the winter 

time when it gets dark in the street almost at 4 p.m.

In the village of Kamyane Pole cooperation of the 

community with the EU/UNDP Community Based 

Approach to Local Development Project was also focused 

on the refurbishment of street lighting system. 

In the village with the duration of streets of about 

8 kilometres there function only several lights. At the 

same time, the corresponding equipment is highly 

outdated, and the very street lighting networks are 

worn out. The servicing of such networks is too labour-intensive 

and is performed by the specialists of 

Kryvyi Rih REM located at the distance of more than 

50 km from Ordzhonikidze village council. So, in the 

evening and night time the village is in the darkness. 

Since the majority of residents of Kamyane Pole are 

employed at Kryvyi Rih companies in shifts, many people 

have to go back home along dark streets. It is understandable 

that the issue of street lighting was topical 

and required urgent solving. Due to the EU/ UNDP 

CBA Project in the nearest future the streets of the 

village of Kamyane Pole will be lit and safe. 

The region is willing to continue with active cooperation 

with the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 

to Local Development Project. On getting the first 

positive experience of such cooperation the community 

already knows that it can solve its problems with 

the help of such Projects. The main thing is to be active, 

then all the intentions will be brought into life. 

NADIYA MOHIR, 

CHIEF SPECIALISTS OF THE GENERAL DEPARTMENT OF 

THE EXECUTIVE STAFF OF NIKOPOL RAION COUNCIL, 

COORDINATOR OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 

RESOURCE CENTRE IN NIKOPOL RAION 

The EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 

to Local Development Project 

for us, ordinary people, stands 

primarily for the opportunity to solve 

urgent problems and improve living 

conditions. Since the communities select 

the facilities which, in their opinion, 

definitely require either repairs, 

or reconstruction. Since local people 

know better what they need to repair 

already today, and what can still wait. 

A lot depends on how active the community 

is in this or that village or urban 

village. Though recently people 

have been joining the cooperation 

more willingly, since they know how 

beneficial it is. All the more that there 

are already the first – very significant 

– results of cooperation of active communities 

and the EU/UNDP CBA Project. 

In small inhabited settlements information 

about similar achievements 

is spread very quickly. Thus, on seeing 

that in one urban village due to fruitful 

cooperation with the CBA new windows, 

doors have been installed in the 

kindergarten and walls have been insulated, 

other communities, for which 

this problem is topical, have also got 

interested in the possibility of joining 

in the cooperation with the EU/UNDP 

CBA Project. Restored or new property, 

acquired by joint effort, becomes 

special and one treats it very carefully. 

Collective understanding of the value 

of what is used to improve the co-living 

conditions is being developed. 

Further on we would be very much 

willing to continue fruitful cooperation 

with the Project since a lot still 

should be done. In general, it would 

be good if there were as many such 

projects as possible, cooperation with 

which follows clear and understandable 

rules. It is easy to work when 

there is mutual understanding, openness 

and transparency in actions.

IVANO-FRANKIVSK REGION 





paid for them 

16

THE SUN WILL HELP TO SAVE 

THE COMMUNITY HAS BECOME MORE UNITED 

Nowadays the community of the village of Sivka-Voynylivska, 

Kalush raion, is implementing an ambitious 

project – installation of solar batteries for illuminating 

the streets and premises of the local school. 

Village residents keep persistently working at this. 

They are confident of their success. The innovative 

energy-saving facilities have added confidence. Many 

residents of Sivka-Voynylivska work in the village of Kopanka, 

at “Danosha” Ltd. A couple of years ago a biogas 

production plant was built by the company. That was 

one of the first large projects in the sphere of renewable 

energy in Western Ukraine. People have seen the 

advantages, and have decided to introduce its principles 

for ensuring the village activities. 

Thus, it was decided to install a solar power plant with 

the capacity of 3 kW and to replace 5 km of ordinary 

street lighting network with the solar one. Over the 

year that unit will generate almost 3,775 kW/ hours 

of electric power. The planned economy will make up 

over 12,752 UAH per year, which is quite an amount 

for a pre-Carpathian village. So far solar panels are 

being assembled. 

That is taking place with the involvement of the 

EU/ UNDP CBA Project that has also provided its financial 

support, allocating 333 thousand UAH for 

the microproject implementation. The community of 

the village of Sivka-Voynylivska, setting up PO “Viktoriya 

SV”, has made its contribution – 31,979 thousand 

UAH. And also some money was allocated from 

the raion budget – 224,619 thousand UAH, and from 

the regional one – 50 thousand UAH. 

“Working at the project, the community became more 

united, people learnt how to make joint decisions. 

People have become convinced that the Project yields 

significant results”, – says coordinator of the CBA Project 

in Ivano-Frankivsk region Lesya Popelyukh. 

In fact, at the beginning of the Project implementation 

some village residents were not sure of its efficiency. 

Many people could not believe that one can light the 

streets with solar power, somewhere in a remote village. 

But with time even those who used to be skep- 

tical about it saw that the Project would yield positive 

results. And that is still not all: all the electric power 

generated by the solar unit will be almost free-ofcharge 

for the village: it will be transmitted to the general 

power transmission lines, and accounted by the 

LUZOD system. Then it will be considered as paid by 

the village council for street lighting at the transportation 

tariff of LEM PJSC “Prykarpattyaoblenerho”. 

In Ivano-Frankivsk region such a scheme is already 

functioning effectively, In particular, in the village of 

Tyudov, Kosiv raion, the system of street lighting has 

been successfully reconstructed and a solar power 

unit has been installed. Its capacity is by one third 

smaller than the one planned in Sivka-Voynylivska, total 

1.92 kW/hour. Thus, the power generated by the 

solar unit is supplied to the general power transmission 

lines. At the end of the month the electric power 

generated is accounted as paid by the village council 

for street lighting at the transportation tariff of LEM 

PJSC “Prykarpattyaoblenerho” – 0.2 UAH per 1 kW. If 

more electric power is generated than used for street 

lighting, the excess can be used by the village council 

for any institution for the consumption of electric 

power of which is pays. By the way, in the village of 

Rozhniv, Kosiv raion, where sun is already working for 

the energy needs of the community, the money saved 

on electricity bills has been used to acquire a washing 

machine for the local kindergarten. 

The Project has enabled the community to believe 

that together with the authorities it can set an ambitious 

goal and make it come true. The plans of the 

residents of the village of Sivka-Voynylivska for the 

nearest future include looking for the ways to equip 

school, health post, other social and cultural facilities 

with solar panels in order to gradually transfer them 

to complete autonomous power supply. Since application 

of energy-saving technologies is one of the basic 

European social and economic standards. 

In the inhabited settlements of Ivano-Frankivsk region 

they are heading more and more confidently and 

powerfully towards energy independence: now solar

illumination in the ІІІrd phase of the CBA project has 

come to be in the focus of attention of many villages in 

the region’s raions: Kosiv, Horodenka, and most of all 

– Tysmenytsya. The heads of Prykarpattya raions are 

analyzing joint activities of the Project and communities 

and sharing their conclusions. 

“Implementation of the Project in the raion has led to 

a number of positive elaborations, – says the first deputy 

head of Tysmenytsya raion state administration 

Volodymyr Zanyk. – One of the main achievements is 

that the communities have come to understand that 

by their own effort they can change life for the better. 

The CBA Project provides an impetus towards self-organizations 

of communities and involving investment 

for solving local problems, contributes to sustainable 

social and economic development on the local level 

via support and co-funding of public initiatives in all 

the regions of Ukraine. So far the issue of energy saving, 

creation of comfortable, safe conditions in general 

education schools of the raion and introduction of 

new technologies constitutes one of the main tasks 

of the authorities the work of which lies in optimizing 

energy carriers consumption, reduction of the corresponding 

costs and reduction of the relative costs of 

fuel and energy resources”. 

The resident of the village of Torhovytsya Vasyl Nahirnyak, 

who used to be the school headmaster, 

is happy about the village community becoming 

more active and about the fact that now one can 

tell schoolchildren about energy efficient on the basis 

of the examples from their own village. “Now our 

school is like an Easter egg. And that is due to active 

involvement in the projects. Everybody has already 

seen that if we approach something jointly, there 

will be a result. And it is a pleasure that the Project 

allows our communities to use the money for the 

problem the community itself has selected. We are 

grateful to the EU/UNDP not only for financial help, 

but for teaching us how to work in projects”. 

…Prykarpattya (Pre-Carpathian area) is a picturesque 

unique nature, almost reserve areas of Ukraine with 

its unique forests and mountains, with rich folk traditions… 

But, as we can see it, soon one more peculiarity 

of the region can be added to the ones, which is high 

level of energy efficiency of the rural inhabited settlements. 

Of special importance that is for the villages of 

Ivano-Frankivsk region located high in the mountains. 

There some civilization benefits, like, gas pipeline, are 

inaccessible at all – due to peculiarities of the locality 

relief and small number of residents. And other 

ones – like, power transmission lines – cannot be installed, 

and, if necessary, repaired. Therefore, energy 

independence for the residents of Prykarpattya means 

not only a chance to keep up with the times with innovative 

solutions, but the possibility to ensure utility 

comfort and make significant savings at the same time. 

LYUDMYLA VYSHYNSKA, 

HEAD OF THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION “TORHOVYTSYA 

DEVELOPMENT AGENCY” 

Our public organization actively participates 

in various projects, thus involving 

additional money for the village 

infrastructure development. We 

have participated in the All-Ukrainian 

Local Self-Government Bodies Project 

with the project “Step by step towards 

a publicly active school”, in the 

regional project “School – a social and 

cultural centre of village community 

development”, have joined different 

international organizations. We have 

established close cooperation with 

the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 

to Local Development Project. 

It was this project that mobilized 

us towards establishment of a public 

organization, has taught us how to 

involve all the strata of the society 

in the implementation of projects, in 

joint work with the authorities, business, 

in establishing contacts with 

different international organizations.

KHARKIV REGION 





paid for them 

6

IN A MODERN WAY – INNOVATIVE, 

ENERGY-EFFICIENT AND ENERGY-SAVING 

HOPES TO LIVE AND WORK IN A HIGH-QUALITY WAY HAVE BECOME A REALITY 

Reconstruction of solid-fuel boiler-house of Merefa 

pre-school educational establishment (day nursery-kindergarten) 

No. 1 as a part of the city infrastructure has 

been acknowledged by the authorities to be one of 

the most important tasks, primarily, due to the need 

of high-quality functioning of the heating system of the 

pre-school establishment for children, improvement of 

the conditions of studies in the autumn and winter period, 

raising energy efficiency of premises, etc. 

Besides that, the boiler-house heating the institution 

is located at the distance of almost half kilometer, 

therefore it is almost impossible to follow a proper 

temperature regime in the day nursery-kindergarten 

in the winter period – something always fails. Though 

the heating pipeline was insulated, an additional 

pump was installed, but, unfortunately, the problem 

was not solved. On the other hand, energy carriers 

became more expensive. And on May 7, 2014, upon 

the recommendation of the commission for social 

and economic development matters, budget and municipal 

property decision was passed by the session 

of Merefa town council to elaborate estimates of expenditure 

for the reconstruction of that boiler-house. 

On August 1, 1965 the pre-school institution hosted 

its first students. Starting with that time the heads of 

the day nursery-kindergarten never stopped caring 

for the children as well as about improvement of the 

conditions of their stay in the institution. The head 

of the day nursery-kindergarten, an activist of the 

PO “Merefyanske dytynstvo” Olena Okhrimenko says, 

the building definitely calls for attention – a timely 

cosmetic repairs, replacement of dishes used by 

children, preventive repairs of the boiler-house, etc. 

– We were impatiently waiting for the start of the microproject 

in the boiler-house reconstruction for it to 

operate on solid fuel, – says Olena Mykolayivna. – All 

the more, we are waiting for the works completion 

and launching of “new heat” since comfortable conditions 

of the stay of the children in the institution constitute 

an important aspect of social and pedagogical 

direction of activities of pre-school educational establishments 

… Though I worked as the head of the day 

nursery-kindergarten only for three years, but I know 

the problems of the boiler-house quite well. It used 

to operate on gas. As for me, there were fewer problems 

back then. Though, probably, the resource was 

better then. I am not a specialist, so I won’t tell you 

exactly, but when we shifted from gas to palette fuel, 

there appeared more problems. The issues of delivery 

and others appeared. Recently the temperature 

regime in the premises of the institution leaved much 

to be desired. The parents’ concern about the health 

of their children was becoming more and more serious 

– they became “vulnerable” to different respiratory 

diseases. Now parents believe in that soon the day 

nursery-kindergarten will function as it should. 

PO “Merefyane dytynstvo” has contributed over 

68 thousand UAH for the reconstruction of the boiler-house. 

Merefa town council - over 830 thousand 

UAH. The funds of the EU/UNDP CBA Project are 443 

thousand UAH. 

In the boiler-house the assembly of two solid-fuel water-heating 

steel boilers ARS 150 with the capacity of 

155 kW each, produced by Korosten heat equipment 

plant, is under completion. General heat capacity of 

the boiler-house will make up 0.310 MW, while heating

capacity of the current heating system is 0.240 MW. 

The boilers are flue ones, gas-dense, they operate under 

pressure, are designed for getting network water. 

Fuel – wood, coal, briquettes, wooden strips. The heat 

scheme of the boiler-house envisages heat release in 

the form of water for the needs of the heating system 

with the temperature of 90–70 °С. 

– Prior to the end of the heating season the reconstructed 

boiler-house will be launched, – says coordinator 

of the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 

to Local Development Project in the town of Merefa, 

head of the welfare department of the town council 

Serhiy Yershov. – The contractor does its best in this 

respect. I would like to say that the experience of organizing 

co-funding of refurbishment, reconstruction 

of social and cultural facilities of the town is available, 

but we have started involving the grant money on 

such a high international level just recently. Certainly, 

that means higher responsibility to partners and 

community which will use the results of the microproject. 

The Project has provided an impetus to all 

of us towards active participation. Even the thinking 

starts going in this direction since we are entering 

the new level of productive co-activity. That is true: so 

far we have seventy microprojects and we are ready 

to take part in the competitions for grants. But that 

is the result of the fact that everybody starts thinking 

about how one could and should raise money for the 

implementation of innovative energy-efficient and 

energy-saving technologies. 

By the way, it was not that long ago, just a couple 

of years ago, that we partially faced some inertia 

in the thinking of people who either did not 

believe in the success of such microprojects, or 

were unwilling to join in the grant activities, because 

to win a grant one needed to prepare a lot 

of documents … And now we know that project 

activities have their own requirements, rules, conditions. 

The results even exceed the expectations. 

We learn how to live in a new way and how to be 

masters of our achievements. We are taking over 

the experience of our colleagues from the eastern 

and central Ukraine where cooperation with the 

EU/ UNDP Community Based Approach to Local 

Development Project is developed better. We are 

disseminating our experience in the region. We are 

mastering grant literacy and microproject promotion 

technologies. As the result – a much wider resource 

is accumulated due to the Project – communicative, 

intellectual, and professional. 

In order to ensure long-time stability of the results 

of the microproject (after completion of the boiler-house 

reconstruction) the achieved level of refurbishment 

will be ensured by the funds of Merefa 

town council, voluntary contributions of the educational 

process participants and their donations. And 

after implementation of the microproject “Reconstruction 

of a solid-fuel boiler-house of Merefa preschool 

educational establishment (day nursery-kindergarten) 

No. 1 located at the address: the town 

of Merefa, 2, Gorki St.” other measures relating to 

keeping the building of the establishment in proper 

technical condition, raising the level of comfort and 

energy efficiency; welfare of playgrounds for children 

including sports ones will be held, yard welfare 

will be arranged, capital repairs of the fire reservoir 

will be done, fire alarm will be installed. 

It should be stressed that implementation of the 

microproject will contribute to solving other problems: 

energy saving will become more efficient, 

economy of energy carriers will rise, the heating 

system will function in a more efficient way, the 

conditions of the educational and study process 

in the day nursery-kindergarten will improve since 

the temperature regime will be proper, will correspond 

to all the requirements and standards.

VENIAMIN SITOV, 

TOWN MAYOR OF MEREFA 

Over the recent year we have been 

implementing microprojects in 

different directions. For us everything 

is of importance in the town – 

starting with creation of favourable 

conditions for creative personality 

development up to meeting spiritual 

needs and aesthetic tastes of 

residents, from folk art development 

to refurbishment and reconstruction 

of municipal facilities. 

In fact, that has become an important 

encouragement towards 

involvement of alternative resources 

for Merefa development. From 

now on introduction of the municipal 

component – the EU/ UNDP 

Community Based Approach to 

Local Development Project in 

the towns of the area – will focus 

on solving the problems of energy 

saving and energy efficiency. 

May 14, 2015 was an important day 

for the whole community of the town 

of Merefa – a partnership agreement 

was signed on implementation 

of the IIIrd phase of joint project of 

the EU and the UNDP Community 


Project in our town. Then the 

coordinator of the regional unit of 

the CBA project implementation in 

Kharkiv region Dzhemilye Umyerova 

indicated that the agreement has 

a number of goals hidden in it. But 

accumulation of financial resources 

for the sake of implementation of 

projects and programs relating to 

ensuring social equality and partnership 

in the communities as well 

as encouraging community organizations 

to participate in the decision-making 

process and in the 

process of implementing projects 

dealing with people’s life quality improvement 

are the priorities. Therefore, 

the hopes and expectations of 

the Merefa residents concerning 

high-quality life and work are becoming 

the reality. That is thanks to 

the powerful impetus and significant 

financial support provided by the EU/ 

UNDP Community Based Approach 


If we speak about the importance of 

reconstruction of the solid-fuel boiler-house 

of the Merefa pre-school 

educational establishment (day 

nursery-kindergarten) No.1, availability 

of comfortable conditions of 

stay of children in the establishment 

– the same as in any other one where 

our future is being brought up, – is 

worth a lot more than this very microproject, 

though overall amount 

of money used exceeds 1 mln. 340 

thousand UAH. Only the preserved 

health of children in the cold season 

of the year will yield huge dividends 

for the state, let along the role and 

importance of the infrastructure of 

the establishment for physical and 

intellectual development of the future 

citizens of independent Ukraine. 

We are interested in cooperating with 



and we are expressing sincere gratitude 

to our international partners.

KHERSON REGION 





paid for them 

8

“SHOTIVSKA MRIYA” HAS IMPLEMENTED ITS DREAM! 

Provision of the steppe areas of Ukraine with high-quality 

water has always been a serious problem. Ivanivka 

raion of Kherson region is no exception here. Over 

many years water supply has been the most topical 

problem in the village of Shotivka which is located at the 

distance of 200 km from the regional centre. There are 

three wells and a water pipeline in the village. The length 

of the water pipeline here is 9 km, water is supplied to 

each village estate. But recently the water pipeline has 

been in a very poor condition. And when the degree of 

depreciation of the water supply system reached 90%, 

and water was supplied to the houses of village residents 

for 3.5 per day only – 1.5 hours in the day and 

2 hours in the evening, people came to realize that it 

could not last longer and started looking for solutions. 

And when there appeared the possibility to join in the 

ІІІrd phase of the EU/UNDP CBA Project Shotivka community 

decided to make its dream of improving water 

supply for the village residents come true. And in the 

way for water bills not to be burdensome for the consumers. 

Hence, they planned to implement an energy 

saving microproject – to reconstruct the water pipeline 

with a frequency modulator reconstruction. 

They set up the public organization “Shotivska mriya”. The 

community also contributed its money – 14,506 UAH – 

for the microproject implementation, also 53,582 UAH 

was granted by the village council. For a poor steppe 

village these were large sums, but people indicate that 

they realize that without the support of the CBA Project 

that granted 204,195 UAH for the microproject, obviously, 

they could not expect success. However, they started 

joint work – and they managed to do everything. The wish 

of the village residents to have a high-quality water supply 

service till winter also influenced the project implementation 

deadlines. The work started in August 2015 

and was completed already in November. 

Hence, thanks to the assistance provided by the EU/ 

UNDP, joint work of the community and involvement of 

the village residents, village council, raion authorities together 

they managed not just to improve water supply, 

but, on installing a frequency modulator, to save money. 

“During microproject implementation we replaced 400 

metres of pipes in emergency areas. Also, we installed 

a frequency modulator which enabled us to save significant 

amounts of money”, says the head of the PO “Shotivska 

mriya” Mykola Porublyov. — Now we pay less 

money since we use less electricity. Moreover, after the 

modulator was installed, we got the possibility to regulate 

pressure in the system, therefore there were fewer 

breaks of pipes. And due to the fact that electric power 

is saved, we have increased water supply limit”. 

After the implementation of the project water is supplied 

already not 3.5 hours per day, but for much longer. 

At the weekend people can enjoy water round the 

clock. The quality of water has considerably improved. 

“That is not just of social importance – for example, improvement 

of sanitation and hygienic conditions, but 

economic effect as well, — stresses the coordinator 

of the CBA Project in Kherson region Esma Umerova. 

— Application of the innovative component during the 

system refurbishment has allowed to save 1,000 kW of 

electric power already in the first month of the operation 

of the reconstructed system. And in the monetary 

equivalent that stands for almost 2,000 UAH”. 

This project enables Shotivka community to solve 

other urgent problems facing the village. For the majority 

of Shotivka residents the only source of their 

income is agriculture, but so far the problem of watering 

the fields in the steppe area has been quite 

serious. This summer, as Mykola Porublyov says, here 

in the night time — from 12 a.m. till 6 a.m. — water 

for watering the field will be supplied. And the tariff 

will be lower, thanks to a three-band electric counter. 

That will enable to save electric power by 30% more, 

and, thus, to pay less for water. “We have been greatly 

assisted by the CBA Project, cooperation with the 

coordinators was very well established. For Shotivka 

residents this experience will open up an opportunity 

to further effectively solve community problems”, 

— says the head of the PO “Shotivska mriya”.

NATALYA ROMANENKO, 

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, 

INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMERCE OF IVANIVKA RAION 


Currently, implementation of energy-saving 

measures in the raion is 

highly topical and absolutely important. 

Cooperation with the CBA project 

is very positive. Shotivka is a subsidized 

village. With the support of the 

Project people have managed to implement 

a microproject in innovative 

measures implementation — reconstruction 

of the water supply system, 

frequency modulator installation. By 

own effort they would have never done 

it. And thanks to the project the resources 

of the community, the village 

budget and the EU/UNDP were united, 

and thus the problem topical for the 

village was solved. Thus, the quality of 

life of the village residents got better. 

This is not the first joint project of 

the communities of Ivanivka raion 

with the EU/UNDP. In the third phase 

of the CBA project there participate 

4 raion communities. First, that 

unites people with different views, 

unites the villages. Second, that enables 

to develop village communities. 

They works towards a common 

goal, people are more responsible 

in their attitude to public property. 

A positive example of Shotivka has 

inspired the residents of a whole 

range of inhabited settlements of the 

raion to participate in the competition 

for cooperating with the Project. 

Our communities are very active, 

they monitor the situation and 

have seen that the community can 

solve its problems on its own, without 

just hoping for the money of 

the village council or raion budget. 

We hope to further have an opportunity 

to participate in such projects.

KIROVOHRAD REGION 





paid for them 

10

TO OVERCOME COLD AND DARKNESS BY JOINT EFFORT 

LIGHT SEASON IN THE VILLAGE 

Dark streets are dangerous streets, that’s what the 

residents of the village of Mykhaylivka, Oleksandrivka 

raion have decided, therefore they focused in their 

cooperation with the EU/UNDP Community Based 

Approach to Local Development Project – ІІІ on restoration 

of lighting in their inhabited settlement. Since 

now there are 40 street lanterns in the village, with ЖКУ 

150 lights with LED lamps with the capacity of 85 W. 

Still, this number for the village with 1,800 residents is 

too little. Besides that, not all the lamps function, some 

require refurbishment and repairs. That is why, with 

the twilight, a part of the village becomes dark. Thanks 

to the Project in seven streets of the village 14 systems 

of autonomous street lighting have been installed, with 

LED technologies and using RES (solar power): LEDlamps 

and PV solar panels. 

“In the territory of the village there are places where 

there are no power transmission lines, therefore those 

areas are dangerous for the residents in the dark time of 

the day, – say a member of PO “Mykhaylivka 2009” Oleksandr 

Savchenko. – In our school there are different hobby 

groups, and parents did not want their children to go 

there along dark, and therefore dangerous areas of the 

road. The community could not install lighting in those 

streets on its own. Thanks to the Project now there are 

lights in the streets, and equipment maintenance is very 

simple: it is enough to wipe the panels once a year”. 

Overall cost of the project was 385,619.00 UAH, of 

which 206,500.00 UAH was granted by the CBA Project, 

19,300.00 UAH – by PO “Mykhaylivka-2009”, 

99,819.00 UAH – by Mykhaylivka village council, and 

Oleksandrivka raion budget (including subventions 

of the regional budget) allocated 60,000.00 UAH. 

“Our community willingly joined in the implementation 

of the project in the financial respect since people already 

know that it is beneficial and pleasant to work 

with the UNDP”, – stresses Oleksandr Savchenko. 

In Checheliyivka, Petrivka raion, by joint effort of the 

local community and the UNDP capital repairs of the 

heating system of the local health post was done. The 

health post is located at the distance of 15 km from 

Petrivka central raion hospital, therefore the radius of 

residents servicing makes up 15 kilometres. A modern 

pyrolysis boiler was installed there. Since the very 

premises were put into operation back in 1967, the 

heating system there was also highly outdated. The 

premises were heated, the same as many year ago, 

with a stove. Therefore the scope of fuel consumption 

over the heating period made up 5 tons of coal and 

2 m³ of wood. And the temperature in the premises 

in the heating season made up 10-15 0 С. That is why, 

as visitors of the health post testify to the fact that in 

winter they were quite cold here. 

Thanks to heating using an alternative type of fuel the 

premises of the medical institution are now heated in 

a better and cheaper way. Since now to heat the boiler 

one can use both briquettes, palletes, and wood. Now 

there is a stable temperature regime in the premises in 

compliance with the sanitation norms – within 21-23 0 С. 

The community of the village of Lystopadove, Novomyrhorod 

raion, decided to focus in its cooperation 

with the CBA Project on carrying out innovative measures 

in Lystopadove general education school of the 

Іst-ІІnd degrees which has 60 students and 25 employees. 

To be more specific – on the reconstruction of the 

heating system and installation of pyrolysis boilers.

The school, though built in 1965, is so far in a satisfactory 

condition, which cannot be said about the heating 

system that required refurbishment. 

Inthe winter period the school was provided with heat 

from a heating unit located in the basement of the 

building of the educational establishment. The heat 

carrier was water-heated with a boiler functioning on 

solid fuel (coal, wood). That boiler was installed back in 

1965. Above the heating unit there were located attic 

covers this running counter to the requirements. All in 

all, the condition of the boiler-house was unsatisfactory 

(the equipment was morally outdated and failed 

on a regular basis, and the premises were left without 

heating), that is why it required urgent repairs. It was 

therefore decided to refurbish the equipment. The village 

residents were highly satisfied with their cooperation 

with the Project. Thanks to the pyrolysis boiler 

installed it is always warm in the school. 

Other inhabited settlements of the raion also intend 

to keep on actively cooperating with the UNDP. 

IHOR ZABAZHAN, 

FIRST DEPUTY HEAD OF NOVOMYRHOROD RAION STATE 

ADMINISTRATION, COORDINATE OF THE COMMUNITY 

DEVELOPMENT RESOURCE CENTRE OF THE “SUCCESS TERRITORY” 

We have been cooperating with the 

EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 


for quite a period already. Over 

this period we have managed to implement 

quite a number of projects. 

So far (during the third phase) we cooperate 

in energy saving and energy 

efficient. I must tell that when we just 

started cooperating with the UNDP, 

the communities did not quite believe 

in their efforts and were skeptical 

about the very Project and its 

methodology. But time passed, and 

people started seeing real results 

of the cooperation and believed that 

thus one can develop the territory 

where you live. That is why the CBA 

methodology has provided an impetus 

for communities to believe in 

their forces and to keep developing. 

Also, thanks to the CBA Project, 

the communities have learned how 

to develop and work with budget 

money and with socially responsible 

business. Let alone the fact 

that the community members have 

become more united. And the most 

important thing is that they are 

making their own, though small, 

contributions into the project implementation, 

and after the implementation 

they are more careful 

about the property. Since they 

have granted their funds to implement 

the projects successfully. 

Thus, the main thing the CBA Project 

has led to is the impetus for the 

communities to come to believe in 

themselves. We intend to further on 

continue our cooperation. This year 

we are implementing two transition 

projects in the energy efficiency 

sphere. Due to them our village 

schools will get modern heating. 

We are willing to and hope to further 

successfully cooperate. The main 

thing is the communities are willing 

to deal with the direction since thanks 

to the Project they have come to believe 

that one can achieve success 

and that it is on them that the development 

of their territory depends. 

I cannot but mention our regional 

coordinators. As I have already 

mentioned, at the beginning the 

communities were quite scary in 

their attitude to such projects. 

When coordinators came, only up 

to 10 people came to the meeting, 

and even they were absolutely skeptical 

about the possible cooperation. 

Currently, there is even competition 

for involvement in the Project, 

and before we had to encourage 

the communities to do something, 

while now we don’t have to do this.

KYIV REGION 





paid for them 

9

“WARM” ECONOMY 

TO HAVE IT WARM AND ECONOMICAL 

School is not just a temple of knowledge. Modern 

school is also a warm and comfortable house welcoming 

guests, a house where children and adults celebrate 

different holidays. That is the way the residents 

of the village of Nalyvaykivka located at the distance of 

7 kilometres from the raion centre Makariv see their 

school. That is why at the village meeting the community 

determined the local educational establishment as 

the facility which should be in the focus of attention. To 

begin with, it was decided to install a pyrolysis woodbased 

boiler. Such refurbishment is absolutely necessary, 

since the school was built 35 years ago. Over the 

last several years the premises have been repaired by 

the efforts of local residents. Thus, due to their efforts, 

old wooden windows were replaced with reinforced 

plastic ones, the slate roof was covered, a lavatory was 

built in the premises, etc. 

In spite of all the tasks of the heating system refurbishment 

remained unsettled for a long period of time. 

And it was only due to cooperation of the community 

with the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach to Local 

Development Project that the problem was solved. 

The teachers are convinced that after pyrolysis boilers 

installation it will become much warmer in the 

school premises, at the same time much money will 

be saved as the result of their operation. So far the 

village has over 800 residents. 87 children attend 

the school-kindergarten. 

To install the “economical” boiler in the educational and 

study establishment the EU/UNDP Community Based 

Approach to Local Development Project has granted 

333,000.00 UAH, CO “Modern village of Nalyvaykivka” 

– 53,842.00 UAH, Makariv raion state administration, 

Makariv raion council and Nalyvaylivka village council – 

180,000.00 UAH 

“To get some money is certainly, a good thing, but the 

key idea is to make the community active, – stresses 

the head of the CO “Modern village of Nalyvaykivka” 

Olena Hladka. – Thanks to the CBA Project we have 

come to see ways of solving our problems, learnt how 

to find partners and come to an agreement with them. 

First of all, we have come to believe in our own effort, 

in the fact that a lot depends on our willingness and 

activeness. Thus, we are optimistic about our future”. 

Since the budget of the raion is based on subsidies, 

it cannot fully finance the establishment, therefore, 

the community is ready to invest its own money and 

to solve urgent problems. The house of culture and 

the library were reconstructed by the community on 

its own, as well as local health post was equipped, etc. 

“Establishment of the community organization in the 

village territory is the step which makes the authorities 

and the community closer to each other, provides new 

active cooperation mechanisms, – stresses the village 

head Maryna Radchenko. – Now we are not just asking 

our sponsors for money, but we create microprojects, 

approve the budget and accumulate the money in the 

public organization’s account. We also honestly report 

to the community for each kopeck spent”. 

And in the village of Nenadykha, Tetiyiv raion, the community 

decided to focus on capital repairs of street 

lighting. They intend to install 14 solar-battery lights

on metal supports. Local residents are convinced that 

with appearance on lighting in the streets it will become 

safer both for children and adults. People will 

not afraid when coming back from home in the winter 

period when it becomes dark very early. 

The community of the village of Byryuky, Rokytne raion, 

has started dealing with improvement of the conditions 

of medical services provision. Here they decided 

to use cooperation with the Project in order to focus 

on pyrolysis boiler installation and replacement of 

windows and doors, insulation of the walls in the local 

health post. Thanks to those measures it will become 

warmer in the premises of the health post. At the same 

time budget money will be saved. 

Thus, cooperation with the EU/UNDP CBA Project 

in the raion is on. The village residents hope that 

it will continue, since they really have a lot of plans. 

YURIY SHOSTAK, 

DEPUTY HEAD OF TARASHCHA RAION STATE ADMINISTRATION 

Cooperation of Tarashcha raion with 



started in 2011 when the raion became 

a participant of the ІІnd phase 

of the Project, and is on till now. 

At that time the raion did not have 

any experience like that. Each step 

was new and gave its results. Joint 

participation of state authorities, local 

self-government bodies, unions 

in the implementation of community 

initiatives brought positive achievements 

both for social and economic 

development of territories, and for 

the citizens’ conscience. It proved 

once again that power lies in unity. 

Thanks to the CBA Project methodology 

which presupposes unity 

of all those not indifferent around 

solving the problems determined 

by the community: local residents, 

village, raion, regional authorities, 

business entities, it has become 

possible to attract over 2.8 mln. for 

the development of village territories. 

All the money was used with 

maximum efficiency and openness. 

A positive thing was that the raion 

communities are taking over the 

successful experience of cooperation 

with the EU/UNDP Community 


Project. A raion resource centre 

was established within the Project, 

it analyzes experience gained 

and transfers it to others. Encouragement 

of involvement of other 

communities in joint activities constitutes 

a positive result of the CBA 

project implementation in our raion. 

Using the opportunity, we would like 

to express our gratitude to the Project 

management for perfect methodology 

and cooperation, and to the 

Project coordinator in Kyiv region 

Svitlana Koval – for implementation 

of the Project in the raion, for 

organizing the work with communities 

and timely assistance provision. 

We intend to further develop 

the communities, and are looking 

forward to further cooperation.

LUHANSK REGION 





paid for them 

9

STRIVING TO ACHIEVE TWO ROZPASIYIVKA GOALS 

Nadiya Balaba, the head of the PO “Rozpasiyivskyy 

svitanok”, has told about the inconveniences for the 

residents of Rozpasiyivka related to the local water 

pipeline. “It was built back in the 60ies of the past 

century and was already “written off”. Though it was 

still providing water … And keeps providing it now. We 

partially repair it, but with what kind of difficulties are 

we doing that! The pipes are all broken! – tells Nadiya 

Petrivna, highly concerned about it. – Now water is 

supplied to us for two hours in the morning and for 

two hours in the evening. To store water we take into 

reservoirs we have at hand: barrels, pans … But in the 

spring and summer period serious problems start – 

people plant in their fields and gardens, start watering 

– a total problem! I live in a remote street, and it so 

happens that we are left totally without water. Then 

water is brought to us in a barrel”. 

When the residents of Rozpasiyivka got a chance, supported 

by the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 

to Local Development Project, to reconstruct the village 

water pipelines, using innovative technologies, 

the village residents were extremely happy about it! 

Before cooperating with the Project people had set 

up the PO “Rozpasiyivskyy svitanok”, had collected 

the necessary monetary share for the joint business 

– 57,909.00 UAH. The amount of 10,000.00 UAH was 

granted by the village council. The most substantial 

financial contribution was granted by the EU/UNDP 


Project – 203,726.00 UAH. 

Under the project assembly of a water well pump with 

immersed power engines is planned, along with installation 

of bar locks and reverse valves, filters, water counters, 

polyethylene fittings, steel water pipes laying, etc. 

A complex of works is quite substantial. And the main 

thing is that a frequency converter will be installed, it 

enabling to significantly save on water supply bills. 

“Implementation of the project will enable the community 

of Rozpasiyivka to create favourable sanitation 

conditions of preserving the health of the village residents, 

create high-quality conditions of water pipeline 

use. Water to the gardens will be supplied round 

the clock. As the result of implementation of the microproject 

in capital repairs of the water pipeline the 

costs of energy carriers for pump station servicing will 

go down, the need for permanent repairing works will 

decrease, – explains the coordinator of the EU/UNDP 


Project in Luhansk region Dmytro Kurochka. – The 

scope of consumed energy will go down, saving the 

budget money. The money saved can further be used 

for other village development projects”. 

Still, in winter the works had to be terminated – due 

to unfavourable weather conditions. “Our well is located 

in the place which you cannot enter and from 

which you cannot find the way out … One should wait 

until its gets dry, explains Nadiya Balaba. – When 

we implement the project, I hope, the situation will 

be very good. There will be water in the taps all the 

time. And one would be able to water the fields and 

gardens. So far we don’t know what the savings are 

going to be. Let us put the restored water pipeline 

into operation, and we’ll clarify it. We are very grateful 

to the Project for its assistance!”. 

It is the ІІІrd phase of the EU/UNDP Community 

Based Approach to Local Development Project that 

focuses on energy efficiency. In Rozpasiyivka we 

started striving to achieve two goals, and, unlike a 

well-known saying, we have managed to get both – 

since due to the CBA we will have both uninterrupted 

water supply, and money savings. 

Four more microprojects are being implemented in 

Luhansk region in the direction “Innovative energy 

saving”. They are all related to innovative energy-sav-

ing measures in street lighting of the inhabited settlements 

of the communities which are partners of 

the CBA. One means autonomous street lighting using 

solar panels. Now the equipment has been purchased. 

The village residents are waiting for warm 

days to come, then the work will start, assembly of 

supports and solar batteries will be launched, and 

soon the evening village streets will get illuminated. 

For local residents that is still a wonder. But they believe 

in success, they have actively joined in the implementation 

of microprojects with their money. 

The communities of the villages of Osynove in Novopskov 

raion, Novolymarivka in Bilovodsk raion, Stara 

Krasnyana and Zhytlivka in Kremin raion, Tymonove 

and Malooleksandrivka in Troyitske raion know that 

with the financial support of the EU/UNDP Community 

Based Approach to Local Development Project 

in their villages the most dangerous cross-roads and 

road areas will become illuminated, therefore, it will be 

safer. Besides that, after solar-module lighting installation 

one would not need to pay for electric power 

since the lights on solar batteries do not require connection 

to the power network. Therefore, permissions, 

quotas, different agreements are not necessary. Also, 

due to increase in the level of energy saving, one can 

save the money of the village budget spent on the 

lighting system maintenance, since it is much more efficient 

than the ones connected to stationary power 

lines. In Novolymarivka, says Dmytro Kurochka, they 

have already estimated how much they are going to 

save – 21,377.46 UAH. And one more invaluable result 

from the implementation of microprojects is the 

experience communities gain in joint problem solving. 

SVITLANA KOLYESNYK, 

THE HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC 

DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCE OF TROYITSKE RAION 


We cooperated with the EU/UNDP 


Local Development Project in the 

ІІnd and in the ІІІrd phases. In the 

ІІnd phase 4 communities were involved, 

in the ІІІrd one 2 more were 

added. The experience of international-level 

cooperation can hardly 

be underestimated. The projects 

gives knowledge to communities, 

public organizations – in terms of 

how to hold a dialogue with the 

authorities, how to plan territory 

development. People compile a 

territory development plan at the 

general meeting, submit it to their 

urban village council, coordinate 

their intentions with the authorities. 

Project coordinators provide clear 

methodological recommendations, 

professional consultations on microproject 

proposal compilation, 

search for donors. Such skills will 

come in handy for the communities. 

After the completion of the microprojects 

the communities, acquiring 

the experience and knowledge 

gained, will manage to further on 

independently plan their activities 

and solve urgent problems. Having 

some experience in project implementation, 

they will manage to bring 

their small initiatives into life on 

their own. They already know how to 

accumulate voluntary contributions 

of residents, companies and organizations, 

how to direct the money 

accumulated at the support of the 

facilities implemented due to the 

EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 


as well as other social facilities 

and other needs. Experience constitutes 

a precondition for success.

LVIV REGION 





paid for them 

9

OPPOSING PAPER RED TAPE 

TO WARM WITH SOLAR POWER 

The community of the village of Varyazh, Sokal raion, in 

cooperation with the EU/UNDP CBA Project, decided 

to focus on street illumination. With this in view it was 

necessary to install a solar power plant. It did this. So 

far the first phase of the solar power plant has been 

put into operation. Due to this it is possible not only 

to transfer street lighting to “green” power, but also to 

meet the energy needs of the community. 

On the set-off conditions in the nearest future Varyazh 

solar power plant will be able to transfer produced 

electricity to the local thermal power station. It is envisaged 

that the village solar power plant will generate 

enough energy to meet the needs of not that village 

only. The excess of power will be transmitted to the 

“Lvivoblenerho” network – for the needs of the region. 

Tedious work of active community representatives 

preceded this successful project. 

“We know that European experience is worth taking it 

into account. We have also heard a lot about different 

development programs. But almost nobody expected 

the CBA Project to come to our village. Once we had 

the general meeting of the village. There came some 

ordinary residents, teachers, state institution employees. 

We were talking about how Europe works, how 

money for such programs is raised, – the village head 

of Varyazh of the years 2010–2015 Yuriy Horodko says. 

– We did not notice any special optimism. Thus then 

we went around and tried to persuade people showing 

slides. It was many times that our Lviv coordinator 

Ihor Naraz came to us. He told us about the way it 

should be and that it was going to be that way. Soon 

the village residents started treating the CBA Project 

with understanding. Some representatives of the community 

started actively giving money for the participation 

in the Project, some were quite reserved about 

it, but the process was launched. Entrepreneurs got 

quite actively involved in the project – those working 

in the territory of the village council. But when we successfully 

completed the second phase of the Project, 

half of the village residents came to believe that such 

cooperation could give good results. That was an uneasy 

way we had to go for us to now be able to take 

pride in having a solar power plant in our village”. 

Today local residents enjoy the results of cooperation 

with the Project. Thus, the resident of the village 

of Varyazh Vasyl tells that due to cooperation of the 

community with the EU/UNDP now there is lighting in 

the village, and it is based on progressive technologies. 

“Primarily, progressive for our country since in Europe 

nobody would get surprised with them. The process 

of solar batteries installation was, in fact, long and uneasy. 

And that was because in this country there are 

still many elements of “paper” red tape”, says Vasyl. 

And the resident of the village of Varyazh Iryna, who 

used to be the teacher of the local school and the 

director in study matters, tells that she was pleased 

to see the things going on. “It so happened that for 

already ten years I have been living abroad, but from 

time to time I come to the village where my children 

live, – Iryna shares her impression. – And even before 

I saw the new lighting system I had heard a lot about it 

from my children who used to tell me that it was now 

safer to go around the village than before. The project 

has shown everybody that by joint effort one can do a 

lot of important things for the community”. 

Cooperation with the CBA Project is planned in other 

inhabited settlements of the region. Thus, in the 

village of Rohizno, Sambir raion, they would like to focus 

on capital repairs in the local health post and to 

install condensation gas boiler. 

And in the school of the village of Polonychna, 

Kamyanka-Buzka raion, they intend to take energy-efficient 

measures. They would like to replace heating 

and to install pyrolysis boiler. 

The kindergarten in the village of Dolynyany, Horodok 

raion, has not been left unattended. Here they intend 

to install a condensation gas boiler. 

So there is still much work ahead, and it will be implemented 

by joint effort of the community and the Community 

Based Approach to Local Development Project.

VIKTOR PRYTULKO, 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL COUNCILS 

AND COORDINATOR OF PROJECT ACTIVITIES IN SOKAL RAION 

Cooperation with the EU/UNDP 


Local Development Project has 

shown people that the funds for 

the community needs could be obtained 

not only following the Soviet 

principle when one needs to keep 

writing letters to the raion council 

with funding requests. Everything 

used to be settled in “high” offices 

and the community was almost not 

involved in it. Instead, the Project, 

by a specific example, has shown 

that community and various projects 

can cooperate. After the first 

experience of cooperating with the 

EU/UNDP CBA Project we started 

actively setting up community organizations. 

Now there are over 30 active 

public organizations preparing 

projects for different grant givers. 

Thanks to the Project people started 

to believe that a lot depends on 

them in the community. Now nobody 

has to be persuaded to participate 

in this or that project – communities 

are very actively involved in 

fund raising and work performance. 

Indeed, it was first difficult to persuade 

people that times have 

changed and now you cannot already 

rely on the authorities, but 

one needs to do something. During 

the second phase – when 4 councils 

participated in the Project in Sokal 

raion – it was complicated to hold 

the first community meeting which 

was deciding whether it would be 

worth participating, were trying to 

get clear about the village priorities. 

Then people still did not realize 

the benefits of such cooperation. 

There were suspicions that someone 

wanted to earn by it. In particular, 

when somebody heard that 

the community was to be involved 

in the process financially. Then a lot 

of skeptical ideas were voiced, like, 

the authorities have once again decided 

to deceive people. But when 

the community saw and felt the results 

of cooperation, people started 

actively joining in the cooperation. If 

we compare the level of community 

activity in percentage points, as of 

2012 that figure made up 10 %, that is 

each tenth person tried to do something, 

now it has grown up to 50%. 

Thus, there are almost half active 

communities in villages and towns. 

A great role was played in establishing 

cooperation of the EU/ 

UNDP CBA Project with local communities 

by the factor of geography. 

It was those people who used 

to earn money in Europe and had 

already seen the way people live 

in the world that became the acid 

test smoothing the issue. In parallel 

with the Project representatives 

they tried to explain people that 

cooperation of the community and 

such Projects as CBA is safe and 

beneficial. Such projects are actively 

implemented throughout the world. 

Still, everything is to start from the 

bottom. That is, if you want your inhabited 

settlement to do anything, 

you have to join in the process. 

And the fact that the community 

was to grant its small own money 

for project implementation contributes 

to people’s further subconscious 

becoming the guards 

of the newly created property. 

In short, the communities are satisfied 

with their cooperation with 

the CBA since they can see real 

results. Thus, we further intend 

to work with projects. Since the 

first and most important thing the 

EU/UNDP Projects has provided 

us with is an impetus for action. 

Not that much officials, but community 

members have learned 

from the Project implementation.

MYKOLAIV REGION 





paid for them 

13

HERE THE ROOSTER SINGS FOR THREE REGIONS 

There was nothing special in the life of the village of 

Krasnenke, Kryve Ozero raion, until the village head, 

Tetyana Kondratyuk, became lucky enough thanks 

to her persistence. Her attempts were rewarded in 

the form of winning the contest for cooperating with 

the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach to Local 

Development Project. 

- Participation in the Project has made village residents 

united. We have not had such a joint-work 

campaign for long. It is typical for Ukrainians to do 

good things jointly. But over the last decades there 

has been no place to show this trait. And here – it 

was like a gulp of fresh air! A couple of years ago we 

received the UNDP grant for the first time – we conducted 

some energy-saving measures in the village 

House of Culture, installed windows in the school. 

At that stage there appeared the first volunteers who 

came to the facilities and offered their help. Those who 

knew how to do it did reveals, those who could do painting 

works – did them. Participation in the next phases 

made people even more active. When it was necessary 

to have a bucket of cement or sand, the head of the village 

council did not have to think where to bring it from. 

Each of the 849 village residents has contributed as 

they could when the money for the development of 

estimates of expenditure for the project of street 

lighting reconstruction was being raised. “Across the 

river of Buh we have a village of Kirovohrad region. 

It is illuminated in the dark part of the day, while our 

village is not. It was even somehow offending. But it 

was impossible for the village budget to start with 

street lighting”, - says the head of the village of Krasnenke, 

Tetyana Kondratyuk. 

Jointly with the EU/UNDP CBA Project the community 

has built a bridge towards the village lighting. But 

it stands for the elementary care of people’s safety. 

Things have happened in the past. In the dark 

people broke their legs, fell from the bridge … Now 

students are not afraid of going from the highway to 

the village – the road is illuminated. Elderly people 

do not stay in their yards in the winter time either. 

They go to visit each other in the evening along the 

well-lit path. The village residents have started going 

to the club, to the library more often. 

- And the most important thing is that my village fellows 

have as if woken up, - says Tetyana Kondratyuk. 

– They have got united by the common business. The 

EU/UNDP CBA Project has taught basic things to them 

– how to do a good thing by joint effort. The slogan 

of the community is “Together we can do everything”. 

After the authorities, the community, business joined 

their effort, it appeared that even without the state 

budget money one can do a good thing. 

By the way, the village council has concluded social 

partnership agreements, Here they think that if business 

is in the village territory, it must also make a contribution 

into its development. Thanks to such agreement 

roads were repaired in the village last year. 

And the residents have also paid their attention to 

the fact that what is done by own effort is then appreciated 

more. Nobody thinks how to break something 

since their effort and money was invested into

it. The community now talks about continuation of 

the good thing. They are ready to give some money 

for the lamps to illuminate each street. And they 

have on their own calculated economic benefits of 

installation of 31 LED light fixtures. The savings for 

the village budget are obvious. 

- It is very simple to say that there is no money. But 

one needs to look for it! - says the head of the village. 

– The European Project has taught us how to 

look for ways around you and not somewhere in the 

distance. The community now has a different view of 

the village. It is picturesque, located on the right bank 

of Buh, close to the Odesa-Mykolayiv highway. People 

suggest researching the issue of “green tourism” and 

thus attracting tourists to our locality. The community 

has become interested in the village development. It 

is easy to work with the EU/UNDP CBA Project. I am 

not boasting, but just comparing the situation with 

other projects. It is easy, understandable for residents. 

It has a clear standpoint, there is co-funding. 

NADIYA BABANSKA, 

VILLAGE HEAD OF SUKHA BALKA VILLAGE COUNCIL 

Our community had an honour 

of participating in the contest, 

and it won the possibility of getting 

money from the EU/UNDP 

Community Based Approach 


We introduced energy-saving innovative 

measures while cooperating 

with the Project in the third phase. 

Thus, in the kindergarten “Cheburashka” 

accumulating heat accumulators 

(batteries) were installed. 

Hence, over the night when the reduced 

electric power tariff is valid, 

special accumulating elements 

reach the temperature of 700 degrees 

Celsius. And during the daytime 

they give It back for premises 

heating. Children finally have said 

goodbye to extra socks and jackets 

which careful mothers used to give 

them to make it warmer for the children 

during the heating season. After 

installation of the heat-accumulating 

heater the temperature in the 

rooms went up, and due to modern 

equipment it can be regulated. And 

there is some money saving. Until 

recently one had to allocate money 

from the budget for the boiler fireman’s 

salary and for purchasing and 

bringing wood and coal. It was calculated 

that the electricity is twice 

or three times cheaper for us, even 

with tariff rises. Besides that, stove 

heating is not such a safe thing. 

After the capital repairs of the heating 

system of the premises of the 

kindergarten its visitors do not care 

about power supply failures. Since, 

unfortunately, things still happen. 

The modern heat-accumulating 

heater can accumulate and store 

heat power during three days. Also, 

if the temperature in the premises is 

+21 degree Celsius and all of a sudden 

the system has collapsed, the 

next morning the heater will provide 

the temperature two-three degrees 

lower. The village community maintains 

the kindergarten and school 

in proper condition. At the general 

meeting of the village residents 

the issue of one-hundred-percent 

attendance of the pre-school establishment 

by young village residents 

was raised. Those currently 

attending kindergartens will soon 

become schoolchildren. Therefore 

we care for the school rooms to be 

comfortable and cozy. The village 

is not fighting for its young people.

ODESA REGION 





paid for them 

7

SCHOOL IS OUR FUTURE 

In Ulyanivka, Mykolayiv raion, it was decided that school 

is our future, hence cooperation with the CBA focused 

on the local educational and study complex “General 

education school of the Іst–ІІІrd degrees – pre-school 

educational establishment”. The most important task is 

to refurbish the heating system via installation of a block 

and module heating unit with alternative-fuel boilers. 

The school premises have long been in need of repairing 

and refurbishment, since the very building was 

erected about half a century ago. It did not undergo 

repairing. In fact, once the roof cover was changed. 

The school had problems with the heating system: it 

was designed incorrectly. Due to wrong functioning in 

the classrooms located from the side of the premises 

façade the temperature could be +25 ºС, while in the 

ones located to the other side, – +19 ºС. So it appeared 

– while some people stay in cold, the others stay in 

hot temperatures. Hence, the community decided that 

during the third phase of cooperation with the CBA 

Project one should focus on that problem. 

“The school and the kindergarten in our village are 

located in one premises. Our educational and study 

complex is attended by 101 students, and 30 children 

attend the kindergarten. We have inherited from the 

Soviet times the premises in need of repairing. That 

is why we have decided to focus the attention of the 

community and the Project on solving the problems 

of the educational and study complex, – says an active 

member of the functional group of residents self-organization 

“Palanida” Lyudmyla Bashkyrtseva. – That 

is not our first experience of cooperating with the 

EU/ UNDP. During the second phase we managed to 

replace windows in the school. The result of such cooperation 

is quite tangible: it has become warmer in 

the premises, there are no drafts, and, as the results, 

children come to fall ill less frequently. 

While in the village of Utkonosivka, Izmayil raion, 

which has 1,254 households and 4 thousand residents, 

the community decided to do capital repairs 

of street lighting. Here thanks to the EU/UNDP they 

managed to install 61 LED street lights. 

Street lighting was also improved in the village of Skosarivka 

, Mykolayiv raion. In the streets of the village thanks 

to the EU/UNDP CBA Project a two-band meter was installed, 

23 new street lights with LED lamps appeared. 

With such illumination, as they say in the village, there has 

considerably gone down the number of robberies. 

The plans include capital repairs of street lighting in 

the village of Nova Nekrasivka, Izmayil raion. Here by 

joint effort of the local community and the EU/UNDP 

they intend to install 40 lights with LED lamps. 

“Certainly, each of the villages still faces other problems 

people would like to solve by joint effort together 

with the CBA, but the majority of the communities 

focus on street lighting restoration, – says coordinator 

of the CBA Project in Odesa region Olena Pererva. 

– People are convinced that when there are lights in 

the streets, for example, in the winter period, when 

the day is short, parents are not afraid of the fact that 

their children go to school in the morning or come 

back home late in the evening. Thanks to street lights 

installation in the majority of villages roads to such

socially important facilities as kindergartens, clubs, 

health posts, etc. have been illuminated. With the appearance 

of lighting streets have become safer”. 

In the urban village of Kominternivske, Kominternivske 

raion, the community decided to focus on energy savings 

in the kindergarten. In the premises for children 

they intend to install a pelette boiler. Currently, when the 

whole country is fighting for energy resources savings, 

installation of such boilers causes significant savings. 

In the village of Sinne, Balta raion, cooperation with the 

Project focuses on energy savings in the local health post 

and installation of a solid-fuel boiler in the premises of 

the health post. Also, insulation of the attic is planned. 

So, cooperation of the community and the CBA will last. 

DENYS LYTVYNYUK, 

ACTIVIST OF THE PO “PROMIN” 

Cooperation with the EU/ENDP 


Local Development Project leaves 

only positive impression. Thus, 

prior to the beginning of cooperation 

with the Project street lighting 

in the village of Skosarivka, 

Mykolayiv raion, did not function. 

It was not possible to operate bare 

wires and age-old lights of the 

previous epoch. The streets went 

into the dark when twilight came. 

And the central street was no exception 

– even in spite of the fact 

that the old Odesa-Kyiv highway 

was going there. Buses stop in this 

street on their way to Odesa and 

to the raion centre of Mykolayiv. 

In winter the residents are afraid 

of going to the bus stop to take a 

bus leaving for Odesa at 5 a.m., 

and when it comes back, at 6.30 

p.m. the passengers are afraid of 

going home along the dark street. 

Now this part of the highway is 

well-lit, and it is convenient and 

safe both for the village residents, 

and for drivers to go along it. 

The community has also benefited 

considerably from the installation 

of a two-band meter. Money 

is saved, since the night tariff 

of electric power consumption is 

25 % lower than the day one. After 

installation of lights and meters 

we had a village meeting at 

which the community expressed 

the wish to continue cooperation 

with the CBA Project. Cooperating 

with the Project we managed 

to perform quite a scope of works 

for 25 % of the overall amount of 

costs, since the other part was 

granted by the CBA. People have 

come to realize that involving their 

small money and with the help of 

the EU/UNDP one can do a lot.

POLTAVA REGION 





paid for them 

7

EUROPEAN PARTNERS SUPPORTING “SPILNA DUMKA” 

Until 2014 every autumn teachers, students and 

parents of schoolchildren of Chernyakivka general 

education school of the Іst–ІІnd degrees of Chuhiv 

raion had to do a simple, but tedious job: for the 

winter period they had to cover the age-old windows 

of the building from the inside with polyethylene 

film in order to ensure at least some warmth in 

the education facility. In fact, such “tuning” was not 

only non-aesthetical, but “violated” all the sanitation 

norms necessary for proper studies. But they had 

to do this since the period of operation of wooden 

frames of the building constructed back in 1970 expired. 

The frames were destroyed. In some places 

they were almost in decay, it was next to impossible 

to fix the window panes. And in that school part of 

the premises the premises of the kindergarten “Romashka” 

were located. So, at the expense of parents 

of pre-school children’s parents and donors part 

of the windows in “Romashka” were replaced with 

modern, reinforced plastic ones. However, that did 

not fully solve the problem of heat in the building. 

– The most serious problem was energy saving in 

the school and the kindergarten “Romashka” with 

58 pre-school children and 57 school students. The 

school premises are almost 45 years old, the windows 

and the doors are very old, in decay, and they 

did not preserve heat. Though they were covered 

with the film, that did not yield any significant results. 

Permanent drafts caused harm to the health 

of children and teachers, – the headmaster of the 

school, Valentyna Khomenko, recalls. 

One could not even talk about the energy efficiency 

of the heating system! Even when winters were 

not cold, one had to use almost 25–30 thousand 

m³ of natural gas. But that had a significant effect 

only on the heating bills, while temperature regime 

in the whole premises did not always correspond 

to the norm, so children, in order not to get 

frozen, had to sit at desks in jackets and fur coats. 

And the teachers could only dream about replacement 

of old wooden windows, doors with energy-saving 

ones and installation of additional innovative 

heating in the kindergarten. Still, they were not just 

dreaming but looking for assistance in this. No wonder 

that here the CBA Project came in handy, since 

the village community of Chernyakivka which set up 

the VPO “Spilna dumka” has been cooperating with it 

for a couple of years already. In particular, in 2014 our 

project – “Innovative energy-efficient street lighting 

measures in the village of Chernyakivka village council” 

was implemented as well as energy-saving measures 

were taken in Kochubeyivka general education 

school of the Іst–ІІІrd degrees. On getting the desired 

results, people wanted to further change their village. 

Thus, in the ІІІrd phase of the CBA Project the community 

started innovative refurbishment of the 

school. Members of the VPO “Spilna dumka” claim 

that implementation of the Project gave the “second 

breath” to the school. The CBA Project provided for 

the microproject implementation 211,750.00 UAH, 

VPO “Spilna dumka” collected 14,251.00 UAH, the 

village council contributed 56,371.00 UAH. 

Everybody approached the tasks set with double responsibility, 

since they were taking care of the most 

precious thing – the future of children. All the works 

were performed by specialists on the high level. Ahead 

of schedule. And already in this academic year it has become 

warm and comfortable in the building. And parents 

and the public took an active part in the repair works, 

cleaning of the school premises and yard. Project implemented 

has been supported by the village residents. 

Due to capital repairs (replacement of old windows 

and doors with modern ones) it has become warmer 

in the establishment. And installation of heat pumps 

has enabled to follow the heat regime in the preschool 

educational establishment. 

The head of the pre-school educational establishment 

“Romashka” Iryna Drapak recalls the problems

with heating in the period when the school was 

closed for holiday. Now that’s an absolutely different 

thing: a good heat regime has been ensured in 

the kindergarten. Limited amount of natural gas was 

used for heating in the past to ensure functioning of 

the water heating system, and also some amount of 

electric power was used for electric convectors, but 

the temperature did not rise above +12 – +16 °С. 

This winter convectors were not switched on at all 

– the temperature regime was within the norm – 

heat pumps ensured 18–22-degree temperature. 

The limit of electric power was not surpassed, there 

is even some economy. By the way, parents of preschool 

children acquired and assembled shelters 

above heat pumps by their own effort. Both parents 

and staff of the kindergarten are very much satisfied 

with the results of joint work with the CBA-ІІІ. 

And cooperation of the EU/UNDP CBA Project with educational 

institutions of Chutiv raion is gaining impetus. 

Thus, now the microproject “Innovative energy-saving 

in the kindergarten of the village of Kokhanivka” is under 

implementation. The system of heating and hot 

water supply with be reconstructed via installation of 

a pyrolysis boiler and solar collectors. After installation 

of solar collectors and module boiler-house with two 

boilers functioning on solid fuel, replacement of 19 windows, 

10 doors, the air temperature in the kindergarten 

will rise on average by 6 °С. Electric power savings 

on water heating is almost 9 thousand UAH, and heating 

of the pre-school educational establishment over 

the winter season (160 days) – 13 thousand 750 UAH. 

SERHIY ODARENKO, 

HEAD OF THE VGO “SPILNA DUMKA” 

Over the period of its functioning 

the VGO “Spilna dumka”, supported 

by UNDP within the CBA-ІІ and 

CBA-ІІІ Projects has implemented 

three energy-saving projects. Two 

of them were innovative – it was 

for the first time in our raion that 

a inexhaustible solar power started 

being used for street lighting, and 

heat pumps started functioning in 

the kindergarten to provide children 

with heat. Overall amount of 

money spend on the implementation 

of the projects was almost 700 

thousand UAH, the community residents 

spent almost 45 thousand 

UAH of their own money. To solve 

the problems of the village people 

decided to spend such an amount. 

But one should understand that 

without the support provided by 

our partners the projects would not 

have been implemented. Joint work 

united people, it also contributes to 

generation of new ideas, merging of 

resources for the sake of ensuring 

decent life, quicker implementation 

of innovations. Public initiatives 

were heard and supported by the 

European partners, local authorities. 

And our ideas, plans are not 

yet exhausted, intentions are yet to 

come, we hope for the better fate 

for Ukrainians. And not only hope, 

but we work to make it come true. 

During the implementation of those 

projects close cooperation with the 

representatives of local authorities 

has been established. Close 

and quite efficient working relations 

have been established with 

the representatives of the Project. 

Therefore, our community intends 

to further develop positive experience 

of cooperation, for the problems 

of the village not to be put on 

the shelf, but to quickly be solved.

RIVNE REGION 





paid for them 

8

RAYS OF LIGHT – FOR THE VILLAGE 

PUBLIC INITIATIVES IMPLEMENTATION – FIGHTING WITH ENERGY DEPENDENCE 

In the village of Novyy Korets, Korets raion, the community 

in the IIIrd phase of its cooperation with the 

EU/UNDP Community Based Approach to Local Development 

Project focused on the street lighting 

network. When there are lights in the house, it is 

cozy and comfortable in it. The same goes about the 

streets – when there are lights in twilight or in the 

dark period, everybody feels safe, without any special 

fear for the relatives or close people who are not yet 

home. It should be noted that the village is located 

near the highway, so the number of accidents happening 

here if there are no lights is quite high. Now, 

thanks to the Project, all the streets of the village are 

illuminated with LED lamps which do not pose any 

danger for the environment. This area of the highway 

used not to be illuminated at all, since over the 

recent year nobody has cared about lights repairing. 

And the highway was becoming quite bushy. So before 

installation of lights the area of the highway going 

through the village was cleared from trees and 

branches. Then a self-insulated wire was attached. 

And only after completion of those works people 

started dealing with assembly of 76 LED lights. 

As the result of the works done the number of accidents 

happening on the road in the dark period of 

the day became lower. One cannot underestimate 

the economic benefits of that stage of cooperation 

of the community and the CBA since now the funds 

from the village budget for streets lighting are used 

with maximum benefits, there is no need to dispose 

of the used lamps. And the load on the cable lines has 

gone down, maintenance of the lights got cheaper as 

the result of long period of their operation. The village 

residents are highly satisfied with lighting coming 

back to their village. Now they are not afraid of going 

even in the dark part of the day to the shop or to buy 

medicines, or for some other business. 

“Nothing can be achieved if we just hope that somebody 

will do everything instead of you, – the coordinator 

of the regional Community Development Resource 

Centre Olha Kashevska is convinced. – Only 

due to public initiative one can successfully develop 

the level of welfare in the village. Though, in fact, we 

are not yet absolutely accustomed to the fact that 

public initiative can grant some benefits for the community 

and guard quality changes of life”. 

And in the village of Stovpyn, Korets raion, the community 

started dealing with reconstruction of the 

heating system of Stovpyn educational and study 

complex “General education school of the Ist-IInd 

degrees – pre-school educational establishment”. 

75 infra-red electric panels have been installed there. 

These heating electric panels were installed not only 

in classrooms, but in the gym and in the kindergarten 

premises. As teachers tell, thanks to the reconstruction 

done jointly with the EU/UNDP Community 

Based Approach to Local Development Project the 

condition of stay of those attending the kindergarten 

group, conditions of teachers’ work, maintenance 

staff work, as well as library readers have improved. 

Parents have stopped complaining of the fact that 

children get frozen and, as the result, fall ill quite 

often. The level of humidity has gone down and the 

quality of air in the school has improved, mold and 

fungi are no longer on the walls. The administration 

of the educational and study complex are happy

about the economic effect achieved since thanks to 

recent innovations the costs of heating the educational 

establishment have gone down, the dependence 

on the costly but low-quality coal has disappeared. 

Now the energy resources are used more 

effectively – the premises of the boiler-house are not 

heated, there are no heat losses along the heating 

pipe. And that is in addition to the fact that there 

has appeared the possibility of flexible programming 

of microclimate separately for each premises, and 

money is saved on heating on holidays and weekend. 

At the same time, the costs of maintenance and 

servicing of the heating system have been reduced 

– 4 loads of boiler-house fireman have disappeared. 

“Support on behalf of the EU/UNDP Community 

Based Approach to Local Development Project is very 

significant, since so far it is one of the greatest real 

opportunities for community development, – stresses 

the head of Mlyniv raion state administration Alla 

Cherniy. – And I would also like to draw your attention 

to the fact that the community fully disposes of the 

money of international donors, financial contribution 

of raion authorities, and its own share, it controls 

the process of project implementation. That is 

self-organization of people becomes a driving engine 

in public affairs, the levers of management are 

handed over to people, and not to controllers. Therefore, 

obviously, the result will be worth the effort”.

ALLA CHERNIY, 

HEAD OF MLYNIV RAION STATE ADMINISTRATION 

Community development depends 

on each of us. We have to set the 

example of changes aimed at improving 

the quality of our lives – it 

is for this purposes that our communities 

got united, in trying to 

change life for the better, around 

the EU/UNDP Community Based 


Project that has provided an impetus 

for sustainable development. 

The starting point for our communities 

was the year 2008. Successful 

experience of Mlyniv raion’s 

participation in the Іst phase of 

the EU/UNDP CBA Project gave 

hope to many other communities 

that there already conscious 

plans could be implemented. 

2015 was the hottest for Mlyniv raion 

from the point of view of community 

activation around the ІІІrd phase of 

the Project. Four public organizations 

of the raion successfully implemented 

microprojects, and now they 

are focused on the implementation 

of energy-saving and energy-efficient 

measures in general education 

educational establishments. 

An important step towards the communities 

was coordinated work of 

all the branches of local authorities 

and partners at achievement of the 

common goal – to get united around 

the topical problems instead of looking 

for those guilty of all of them. 

With the overwhelming majority of 

citizens desirable transformations 

take place as the result of change 

of stereotypes. Pubic organizations 

set up over the period of Project 

implementation do information 

and awareness-raising work and 

actively spread the ideas of social 

mobilization among residents of 

their villages and the neighbouring 

ones, involve promising youth capable 

of implementing the acquired 

knowledge in practice and bringing 

benefits to the village community. 

The EU/UNDP CBA Project has 

helped not only to realize the invaluable 

role of joint work inside 

the community, but also united the 

leaders of communities, contributed 

to establishment of permanent 

interaction between separate territorial 

communities and residents 

self-organization bodies in solving 

local problems of communities. 

One of the achievements of village 

communities over the period of involvement 

in the Project has been 

independent work in compilation of 

inhabited settlements development 

plan, determination of priority tasks, 

microproject proposal preparation, 

holding tenders, selection of contractor 

organizations, arrangement of 

contractual relations and – as the result 

– microproject implementation. 

An example of realizing own 

self-sufficiency and understanding 

of the process of sustainable 

communities evolution in the ІІІd 

phase of the Project was direct 

contribution of communities – 103 

thousand UAH of own money. Due 

to the Project some communities 

well-known for their initiatives and 

enthusiasm in the implementation 

of different ideas can be singled 

out in the raion. People appreciate 

each opportunity obtained and 

each kopeck of assistance, and they 

transform the things obtained into 

what is really important for them. 

Human resources development and 

individual capacity raising constitutes 

a precondition for effective 

Project implementation in the raion. 

The Project’s methodology also has 

a positive educational influence on 

the self-conscience of citizens since 

it raises social activity of the raion’s 

territorial communities. The most 

important thing is that the project 

approach based on such methodology 

has enabled to implement 

the initiatives, the priority nature 

and importance of which has been 

determined by the communities, 

that is by ordinary village residents. 

The experience of partnership and 

joint decision-making gained over 

the years of participation in the 

Project has considerably changed 

the outlook of both representatives 

of the authorities, the community, 

and individuals. Therefore, I am 

convinced that it is participation in 

the CBA project that has come to be 

a preparatory stage for real decentralization 

in the county both for the 

authorities and for communities.

SUMY REGION 





paid for them 

14

THANKS TO THE CBA PROJECT THREE PROBLEMS SOLVED 

WATER HAS COME TO VELYKA BERIZKA 

In the epoch of our ancestors water could be taken 

right from the river – it was pure. And the rivers were 

full-fledged. One could tell that water from wells was 

almost healing! Today, unfortunately reality is absolutely 

different. Non-polluted drinkable water is becoming 

a great luxury in the world scale. Certainly, it is already 

dangerous to drink water from the river. Due to ecological 

problems the levels of ground waters are drastically 

going down, therefore water is not available in many 

wells. People from many villages of Ukraine have faced 

the problem. The residents of the village of Velyka Berizka, 

Seredyna-Buda raion, are no exception here. 

The community of the village is small – just 45 households. 

But the problems are the same as in the majority 

of Ukrainian villages. In Velyka Berizka the most topical 

problem was the problem of providing residents 

with high-quality drinkable water. In some yards there 

was no water at all – changes of climatic conditions 

had their impact on it. But how could we do without 

water – without that source of life? 

Luckily, the way out was found – in 2014 Velyka Berizka 

joined in the EU/UNDP CBA Project–ІІІ, with the 

aim of implementing its own initiative of improving 

the quality of drinkable water in the inhabited settlement. 

They started building up jointly with the Project 

a water-supply network almost 2.7 km long. That 

was more significant for village residents since, as the 

head of the department of economy of Seredyno-Buda 

raion state administration Oktyabryna Yashkova 

mentioned, at that time there was no water-supply 

channels in Velyka Berizka, people used only wells 

which had gone shallow over the recent years. 

Seredyno-Buda raion has been cooperating with the 

CBA Project for quite a long period. In the first and the 

second phases of the Project (2008–2014) 11 initiatives 

of the raion communities were implemented. And 

that was not just financial support that was provided 

by the EU/UNDP, though, certainly, in the conditions 

of lack of money on the local and regional levels that 

is very significant. It provides wide opportunities for 

the implementation of small but significant transformations 

in the inhabited settlements. Cooperation has 

contributed to the realization by the communities of 

the raion and the villages of the neighbouring raions 

of Sumy region – Shostka and Hlukhiv – of how much 

communities can do if they unite their effort around 

the joint business as well as financial opportunities. 

Successful public organizations of Seredyna-Buda 

and the neighbouring Shostka raions set up have set 

a good example for launching the public organization 

“Strumochok” with the Velyka Berizka village council. 

In fact, at the beginning the initiators conducted tedious 

awareness-raising work with people. As the result 

of that in March 2015 45 households got united 

into one community. Thus the community initiated water 

supply channel construction. Works in preparation 

of estimates of expenditure, development of micropoject 

proposal on the basis of the approval community 

development plan started. 

For the implementation of the initiative members 

of the public organization generally involved 

405,628.00 UAH, including: from the CBA Project – 

282,114.00 UAH; from the Velyka Berizka village council 

– 42,598.00 UAH; from the budget of Seredyna-Buda 

raion – 54,635.00 UAH; from own money of the 

members of the PO – 26,281.00 UAH. By the way, if 

we speak about money accumulation, on the terms of 

the CBA-3, the share of the community should make 

up 5% of the Project’s sum. In the raion they point 

out that collection of money from the community in

this phase was quicker and better organized than in 

the previous phases. That proves that people come 

to trust the CBA Project more, realizing that they invest 

5%, will get 95% of money from other sources of 

which 80% will be provided by the EU/UNDP partners. 

And everybody worked in an organized and coordinated 

way! “Just imagine: a tractor going and digging a 

trench. People are following – earthing or placing the 

pipe. They helped the way they could”, – village residents 

are proud of themselves. 

So far the community has performed all the works envisaged 

by the microproject. And water is now supplied 

to all the 45 households of the inhabited settlement. In 

fact, from the start it was planned to construct a classical 

water supply channel – with a water tower. But 

then they come to realize that it is not expedient with a 

small number of water users. Few households – small 

water collection. And that contributes to permanent 

standstill of water, and one cannot talk about quality 

improvement. Besides that, a water pipeline with a water 

tower would require considerable consumption of 

electric power since the equipment of the tower would 

have to be permanently on. 

Therefore, in Velyka Berizka, analyzing the expediency 

of the options for problem solving, the community 

chooses the installation of the frequency converter. 

This device enables to save electricity for water lifting 

and its supply to consumers. For example, 10 persons 

open their taps, take 5 litres of water per second – 

then thanks to the frequency converter the speed of 

the pump work increases and, correspondingly, electric 

power consumption goes up, 4 persons take water 

– the load on the pump goes down. 

Installation of the frequency converter enabled to: reduce 

the costs of water supply channel construction; 

save electric power for water lifting and its supply to 

consumers, and thus, reduce the cost of a cubic metre 

of water for residents; and the most important thing – 

the quality of drinkable water was becoming just ideal! 

And here one speaks not only about good water quality 

but about raising utility comfort, hence, improvement 

of life quality. 

MYKOLA HRYBACHOV, 

ACTING HEAD OF SEREDYNA-BUDA RAION ADMINISTRATION 

We have been cooperating with the 

CBA Project starting with 2008. We 

have jointly implemented almost 

20 projects over those years. All 

in all, almost 3 million UAH have 

been invested into the development 

of Seredyna-Buda raion. Definitely, 

the community participated in the 

implementation of those projects. 

As far as the direction of energy 

efficiency is concerned – in 

the ІІІrd phase of the Project a 

couple of other microprojects 

were implemented. For example, 

equipment of street lighting on 

solar batteries in the villages of 

Uralove and Krenydivka. That is 

money saving for the community, 

and its energy independence. 

We like to work with the Project. 

Residents get actively involved in 

it since people have come to see 

that this is beneficial. Currently, 

in the raion out of 18 village 

councils 16 have participated in 

the work under the Project. People 

have come to see that it really 

helps with the money, accompanies 

our projects, provides consultative 

support of the community 

in the implementation of public 

initiatives. We have set up POs in 

each village community where 

people themselves manage projects. 

I am very positive about the 

work of the Project. And I would 

like to have more of such projects 

in Ukraine. A small impetus can 

cause serious transformations in 

the community. The main thing is 

not to stop on the things achieved, 

but to move further on, encouraging 

the community to develop and 

improve life in their native area.

TERNOPIL REGION 





paid for them 

9

OVERCOMING ALL THE OBSTACLES – TOWARDS SUCCESS 

THE CBA METHODOLOGY HAS COME TO BE USED IN KACHANIVKA 

The residents of Ternopil region have always been 

trying to keep up with the times and to harmoniously 

combine preservation of everything they have inherited 

from previous generations with the recent achievements. 

But recently absence of money has become 

an obstacle on the way to the use of modern achievements. 

And initiative people were looking for a way out 

of the situation in order to improve the quality of life in 

the community in general and each of its members in 

particular. And those who are searching will surely find. 

– The residents of the village of Kachanivka, Pidvolochysk 

raion, back in 2008 tried their hand at 

and participated in the first phase of the EU/UNDP 


Project, – says coordinator of Ternopil regional community 

resource centre Ihor Stefaniv. – They created 

public organization “Dobrobut” headed by the local 

entrepreneur Taras Pavlyuk. The PO successfully 

cooperated with the Project, performed works in 

replacement of windows in the local school and on 

September 1 a partially upgraded general education 

school hosted schoolchildren. But within the first 

implemented microproject not all windows could 

be replaced right away. Therefore, the community 

asked local land lessors for help. 

Kachanivka keeps using the experience gained. Members 

of the PO “Dobrobut” and the village head Oleksandr 

Kozlovskyy have involved local donors in solving 

the urgent problems. Thus, by joint effort they repaired 

the kindergarten. But the situation with funds was bad, 

therefore the community still laid some hopes on further 

cooperation with the Project. Soon the community 

was selected for participation in the third phase 

of the CBA. With new ideas and new head of the PO, 

young teacher Taras Kulbaba, the meeting decided 

to solve one of the most topical problems of the village 

– repairing of the heating system to replace the 

heating line in the school within the EU/UNDP Community 

Based Approach to Local Development Project. 

The community planned to install pyrolysis boilers and 

started preparing the application. 

– Still, – Ihor Stefaniv stresses, – the way to the goal 

turned out to be more complicated than it seemed. 

The head of the PO went to the ATO zone. Volodymyr 

Shavaryn was elected the new head of the PO “DObrobut” 

at the meeting. And estimates of expenditure 

also had to be changed. In the new application it was 

planned to replace boilers with gas, but highly-efficient 

gas condensation ones. The application was 

finally granted, the tender was announced, proper 

co-funding was found in the regional and local budgets, 

there also appeared hope that it would be warm 

in the school in the winter time. But again – too many 

buts… The tender was not granted due a small number 

of participants. After a repeated tender its winner, 

due to the leap in prices, failed to buy the necessary 

equipment and only Ternopil private company 

“Comfort-Eco-Service” headed by Roman Yaremchuk 

started working efficiently. 

After winter holidays (in February) all the works were 

completed – it became warm and cozy in the rooms. 

The community saw the results of its work and cooperation 

with the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 

to Local Development Project. Along with new confidence 

of its own effort after successful overcoming of

all those obstacles. The administrative manager of the 

school Olha Hladysh is happy about it: “That is the first 

New Year over the last couple of years when technical 

staff of the school do not celebrate the holiday repairing 

the old heating pipeline”. Teacher Stepan Dudar 

notes: “Over all the years of my work at school we finally 

have achieved normal temperature in classrooms. 

Thanks to all those involved in achieving it”. The school 

headmaster Halyna Kozlovska stressed: “Together – 

supported by the authorities and the CBA Project – 

we have managed to cover this uneasy way and make 

sure that the community is a real force”. 

By the way, after the repairs the medical outpatient 

hospital started functioning. And it is quite warm here 

now. Modern efficient heating system enables to save 

almost 100 m3 of gas per 24 hours. 

Specialists point it out that implementation of the CBA 

microprojects in Ternopil region has shown how interested 

communities and local authorities are in cooperating 

with the EU/UNDP. The microproject in managing 

innovative energy-efficient measures in Kachanivka 

school within the ІІІ phase of the Project has come to be 

the largest one in Ternopil region in terms of the budget 

scope. Its overall cost made up 627,502.00 UAH, of 

which the money of the UNDP – 318 thousand UAH, 

258,701.00 UAH have been granted by the village council, 

and 25 thousand UAH – by the regional budget. Local 

community has provided 25,801 UAH. It is due to the 

assistance of the village council and tender savings that 

instead of the planned two boilers it became possible to 

install three and get a greater economic effect. 

“Geographic location of the region enables to create in 

Ternopil region the centre of the development of Western 

Ukraine, – thinks deputy head of the regional council 

Lyubomyr Krupa. – We have to work at the image of 

the region. We can open up the potential of our land 

only by joint effort. For example, 29 energy-saving projects 

have been implemented in the region, and that has 

already provided some chances for saving on heating. 

If we take a social effect, it is even more significant – 

the community has become stronger, leaders have 

been taught, partner relations have been established. 

In fact, there is everything for the village to 

live, to develop and to be confident about its future. 

Specialists point out that cooperation with international 

donor organizations constitutes an effective tool of 

investment involvement. And they stress that participation 

in the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach to Local 

Development Project does not just mean strengthening 

of the inventory base, community resources, 

but stands for the development of initiative which is 

absolutely necessary for carrying out the reforms. 

STEPAN BARNA, 

HEAD OF TERNOPIL REGIONAL STATE ADMINISTRATION 

Projects supported by the European Union and the UNDP constitute the opportunity 

for improving the living conditions of the region’s residents, in particular 

in rural areas. Therefore, I am encouraging all those responsible for 

microproject implementation to do their best for the business to be a success.

VINNYTSIA REGION 


dependence of the area, to 

save energy resources and 

reduce energy bills 

8

PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN LEARN ABOUT ENERGY EFFICIENCY 

KNOW-HOW REACHES DOVZHOK VILLAGE 

In the kindergarten “Dzvinochok”, Yampil rayon, due to 

support of the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 

to Local Development Project, a technology which is 

revolutionary as for the rayon has been introduced. 

“In December 2015 the solar system was assembled, 

it working as follows. At the roof of the kindergarten 

there have been installed two solar batteries, while 

in the premises – a 300-litre boiler where water is 

heated thanks to that solar system, – the village head 

of Dovzhok, Ivan Bazhura, explains. – Now children 

can wash their hands with warm water, water could 

be used for kitchen needs, for instance, dishes could 

be washed up. The solar system works all the year 

round. Even on a dull day, even in winter, the unit 

keeps the temperature at the rate of 40-50 degrees. 

Thus, there is a possibility – and we have used it – to 

arrange warm floor in the kindergarten owing to that 

heated water. Since the floor is still concrete, even in 

summer it was too cool for children. Thus, the heating 

spiral with a special liquid was made into the floor. 

It is heated not only in the cold season. Even in the 

summer period its temperature is not going to be less 

than 20 degrees. The temperature can be regulated. 

And when the child steps on such a floor, for instance, 

after the day sleep, (s)he will feel comfortable. 

Besides equipment of solar batteries and warm floor, 

old windows were replaced with modern reinforced 

plastic ones in the kindergarten. “When a large truck 

with windows arrived – both parents and pre-school 

children and kindergarten’s staff were absolutely happy 

about it, the same as the whole community! And 

when we replaced all the windows, people were already 

convinced that this project would help to change 

the life in the kindergarten and the life of the community 

on the whole for the better”, says the personnel of 

the pre-school educational establishment. 

Besides that, cooperation in the ІІІd phase of the 


Project, as Ivan Bazhura notes, is most 

advantageous for the village. “We participated in 

the second phase of the Project, worked at street 

lighting, and then the contribution of the EU/UNDP 


Project made up 20%, while our share is 80%, – the 

village head says. – In the third phase the Project 

provided us with 80% of funds. Besides that, we received 

not 10 thousand dollars, but 15, therefore we 

implemented the development – that was a kind of 

a know-how in the sphere of energy efficiency. Such 

situation is nowhere to be found, at least in this rayon. 

Right, solar systems were installed, but they only 

heated water in a boiler. And there have been none 

with warm floor – there have not been any”. 

Now, according to Ivan Bazhura, the installation 

works are in test mode. Every week the representatives 

of the design organization who are monitoring 

the functioning of the novelty come to visit the kindergarten. 

The positive impact of the work can be already 

seen: it is not only about funds saved on heating 

but also reduction of children morbidity rate. 

“As far as cooperation with the Project is concerned, – 

the village head says, – my estimate of cooperation with 

the CBA is 200 points by a 100-point-scale! How pleasant, 

good and sensitive people they are! Control over the use 

of funds is very strict, also it is necessary to apply plenty of 

documents, and at first that was highly complicated. But 

CBA specialists held trainings for us, taught us, explained 

things to us… Certainly, we did not manage to do every-

thing right from the start – how many papers we had to 

re-write, how many concerns and anxiety …But now the 

community is satisfied, and we would gladly keep on 

cooperating. We have good partnership relations. An engineer 

from the central office of the CBA came to visit 

us, and my first question I asked him was – are we going 

to have the fourth phase of the Project? I am expressing 

my sincere gratitude to the CBA specialists for the things 

they have taught us. Since now we, using the experience 

gained, are writing other co-funding projects, and we win. 

They are doing a good thing.” 

Solar batteries are being installed in one more kindergarten 

of Vinnytsia region, in Yaltuskhiv village, Bar 

rayon, which is attended by 46 pre-school children. 

According to Oksana Dzis, the head of “Svitanok” kindergarten, 

they managed to make major repairs of 

the establishment applying advanced technologies 

thanks to the joint efforts of the village council, donors, 

parents, all village residents who were not indifferent 

to the situation and who got united into the 

PO “Yaltushkivska lelechenka”. Volodymyr Savolyuk, 

the head of Bar Rayon State Administration, indicated 

that Yaltushkiv community headed by an experienced 

proactive head Serhiy Khatkov, due to active 

design activities, managed to involve a considerable 

financial resource into implementation of energy-efficient 

measures in the social sphere. He hopes that 

the village residents will keep on working towards the 

development of their community. 

One of the goals of the third phase of the EU/UNDP 

“Community Based Approach to Local Development” 

Project is to raise the awareness of communities about 

energy efficiency. Still, in Vinnytsya region even children 

know what energy efficiency is. Schoolchildren can tell 

about this complicated notion not only in words, but in 

images as well. Thus, students of the 3rd-11th grades 

of the rayons participating in the Project got involved 

last year in the child painting competition on the topic 

“Energy efficiency and energy saving” held last year. 

94 works were submitted to the contest. 

Anastasiya Lanina, CBA Project Coordinator in Vinnytsya 

region, has noted: “Working over a long time in 

the communities we have noticed that not only adults 

but children as well have come to realize how important 

in current conditions it is to introduce energy-saving 

technologies in the social sphere”. The youngest 

contest participant, the student of Yampil grammar 

school No 3 Adelina Skhaplyuk who is only 8, has depicted 

her vision of energy efficiency as … conservation. 

She thinks that in order to save the energy of 

natural resources – sun, water, wind – it should first 

be saved the way vegetables or fruits are, and stored 

in order to be ready for use whenever necessary in an 

economical way. Certainly, that is childish and naive, 

but… who knows, maybe, in the future adults will succeed 

to find a way to “conserve” abundant summer 

sun energy for further use in winter time. 

This year the EU/UNDP CBA Project has also announced 

a painting contest for children “Energy efficiency 

and energy saving” in which schoolchildren of 

the 3rd-11th grades may participate. But, obviously, if 

pre-school children were invited to participate in the 

contest, they would also probably easily demonstrate 

their vision of energy efficiency. Since adults, while 

implementing innovation energy saving measures in 

child kindergartens, with their actions teach children 

in practice to save the resources, to correctly, without 

bringing harm to the environment, use them, and to 

be able to save. And also to be friendly and united in 

order to overcome problems. 

At least pre-school children of Dovzhok preschool 

educational establishment “Dzvinochok” 

and Yaltushkiv kindergarten “Svitanok” already 

know that not only does the sun present the pleasure 

of its rays in the warm season, but also enables 

the children to stay in warmth and comfort.

HALYNA KOZHUKHAR, 

HEAD OF PO “DOBROBUT DOVZHKA” 

The residents of the village of 

Dovzhok realize that, if united, they 

can do a lot. That is why we set up 

our public organization in 2013 to 

jointly solve burning issues. I headed 

it on voluntary grounds. I am the 

head of the village kindergarten 

“Dzvinochok”. Our kindergarten is 

more than 40 years old. Certainly, 

we conduct, the way we should, 

current repairs, but the establishment 

required major repairs and 

refurbishment long ago. And when 

there arose the possibility not to just 

do major repairs with the CBA support, 

but also to take energy saving 

measures, that was positively perceived 

by all the village residents. 

When we were collecting the money, 

as a financial share from the 

community, we did not set a fixed 

amount – each of us contributed the 

amount his/her financial situation 

allowed for: some 10 UAH, some 

100 UAH, and some over 200 UAH… 

And we have been a success! 

And now we have not just created 

much better conditions for the 

stay of children in the kindergarten. 

There has been achieved a 

much higher goal – the community 

is now sure that the quality of peoples’ 

life depends primarily on them. 

Using the experience and expertise 

gained during trainings and studies 

organized by the EU/UNDP Community 


Project, we would like to 

participate in two other microprojects 

– dealing with refurbishment 

of the local house of culture and 

school. We are very much satisfied 

with our cooperation with the project. 

The community would wish to further 

work with the authorities 

aiming to achieve an important 

goal – to promote social and economic 

development of Dovzhok, 

to improve community welfare.

VOLYN REGION 


dependence of the area, to 

save energy resources and 

reduce energy bills 

14

SUCCESS STORIES CONTRIBUTE TO COMMUNITY UNITING 

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT GETS REINFORCED 

Older residents of the village of Shchuryn, Rozhyshche 

rayon, located to the side of Lutsk-Turiysk highway, 

still remember the times when in the evening and 

night time the streets of the inhabited settlement were 

properly lit. “That was back in the period of the Soviet 

Union”, they say. And then – the lights remained on 

one village street only. The other part in the evening 

and night time was in the dark. 

That used to be the case until the village residents decide 

to radically change the situation, in order not to 

depend on expensive energy carriers for which, as it is 

well known, one has to pay a lot. That is why they decided 

to take an innovative way — to install solar batteries. 

Since the sun, as it is known, does not ask any money 

for its light. And in the village budget every kopeck 

mattered. But to install the novelty quite an amount of 

money was necessary. And then the EU/UNDP Community 

Based Approach to Local Development Project 

came to help the village community”. 

It should be noted that the residents of Shchuryn are 

quite active. Maybe, that is also because they were 

right with the choice of the village head. It has been 

for already 18 years that Vasyl Karpyuk has been the 

village head. He is proud of the fact that over that period 

the village council has changed for the better. “We 

have our own development vision. Our village council 

is really strong”, he says. Village residents solve 

quite a lot of problems by uniting their efforts. However, 

since financial possibilities of the residents of 

the village in Volyn are meager, they gladly accept the 

support provided by the international organizations. 

The residents of Shchuryn have established close cooperation 

with the CBA Project. As the head of a public 

organization Oksana Maksimova has noted, the CBA 

Project has already helped to conduct energy-saving 

campaigns in the village school. But when the third 

phase of the Project was launched, there were determined 

problems most topical for the territorial community 

and the priority “Energy efficiency” was chosen for 

preparing a microproject proposal on street lighting. By 

the way, rayon authorities support project implementation 

not only by way of allocating the money of the local 

budget for public initiatives co-funding. In order to create 

a favourable environment for sustainable social and 

economic development locally through community engagement, 

development and implementation of small 

public initiatives in Rozhyshche, necessary support is 

provided by the rayon community resource center. 

PO “Mriya” collected 20,927 UAH to bring its dream 

into life. “People joined, collected the money, but you 

know, people in the village are not that rich, that is 

why it was complicated for us to collect the necessary 

amount on our own. Here donors helped”, says Oksana 

Maksimova. Besides that, the rayon council added 

55,110 UAH, the regional council added 55,109 UAH. 

Definitely, the lion’s share – 287,386 UAH – was contributed 

by the EU/UNDP CBA Project. 

Now the works are completed. “We are grateful to 

the Community Based Approach to Local Development 

Project for assistance. Due to its support we 

managed to achieve the desirable result. The street 

of interrayon connection has been lit – 16 supports

with solar-battery lights were installed there where 

we have a highway. Besides that, in the dark time of 

the day almost all the cross-roads in the village have 

been illuminated with us – we have installed 10 such 

supports more. And that means safety for village residents. 

Certainly, “solar” power is free-of-charge for us, 

and in the evening period we feel more comfortable 

in the village”, – says Oksana Maksimova. 

In the words of the CBA Project coordinator in Volyn 

region Iryna Boyko, all the microprojects of the IIIrd 

phase in the sphere of innovative energy saving are 

related to street lighting reconstruction. For instance, 

in one more village in Rozhyshche rayon – Korsyn in 

the central street of the inhabited settlement 12 LED 

lights have been installed. The central street of the 

village has been lit, the village council saves money on 

energy supply. Hence, the money the village council 

would have to pay for electricity can be used by it for 

other urgent needs of the village. 

An interesting project is also being implemented in 

the village of Cherche, Kamin-Kashyrskyi rayon. Here 

people have decided to assemble on the roof of the 

village house of culture 10 solar batteries as well as to 

install 16 lights which would use solar power for lighting. 

After work completion the central streets will be 

lit, in particular, without any costs for the village budget 

– the village council would not pay for electricity. 

So far the project is pending approval, but the village 

residents who have united into the PO “Polissya” for 

the sake of the project implementation believe in the 

positive results. “Implementation of the microproject 

dealing with street lighting using solar energy has enabled 

the community to realize that even in a remote 

village in Polissya one can see advanced technologies 

and benefit from these know-how”, – Valeriy Savchuk, 

the head of the PO “Polissya”, says. 

The representatives of the regional authorities note 

that thanks to support of the CBA Project the local 

self-governance authorities get reinforced. The 

achievements and projects awarded boost the confidence 

of the local communities and contribute to their 

uniting for the sake of common goal achievement. 

VOLODYMYR HUNCHAK, 

HEAD OF VOLYN REGIONAL STATE ADMINISTRATION 

The main task of the Community Based Approach to Local Development 

Project is to promote community development. Implementation of the 

third phase of the Project will open up new opportunities for us. We will 

be able to work more efficiently at the economic component of the region. 

This time we will focus on the village and urban village communities. 

I am convinced that we will successfully cope with all these tasks.

ZAKARPATTIA REGION 





paid for them 

10

THE POWER OF THE COMMUNITY 

The village of Dertsen has an interesting historical 

and cultural past. Here reside Hungarians, Ukrainians, 

Roma, Russians. In the village people are highly tolerant 

in their attitude to each other. Since December 

2005 a unique fire team, by its work peculiarities, started 

working in the village. By the way, it functions on a 

voluntary basis – for the donations of local residents. 

In the village there also functions social centre of assistance 

provision to vulnerable people which organizes 

charity dinners, provides assistance to the elderly. 

The village has 742 households where there reside 

2,812 persons. In the village there is a school, kindergarten, 

outpatient hospital, the House of Culture, 

which has the groups of art amateur creativity, library, 

communication department. Once the community 

faced the problem of repairing roads, the House of 

Culture, outpatient department, etc. Everybody realized 

that the village head would not manage to cope 

with it all on his own. Even when there where donors 

willing to help the community, nobody knew how to 

do it right, openly, transparently. So on September 14, 

2009 at the constituent meeting it was decided to set 

up a public organization entitled “Za spilnu Yevropu”. 

At first the village activists managed to repair the central 

street. By the effort of the community outpatient 

department, administrative buildings of the village 

council were put into order. Public activists strived to 

solve the problems appearing in the activities of the 

kindergarten attended by 97 children many a time. 

With this in view they directed to money to procurement 

of materials, performed certain works on their 

own. But in the kindergarten there was energy-saving 

and ineffective electric heating installed. To pay for 

electric power used by electric boilers budget funds 

were spent – 144.8 thousand UAH annually. Due to 

increase of the cost of 1 kW of energy, village community 

and local self-government bodies were not able to 

pay electricity bills. Certainly, both the budget and the 

public organization lacked funds for setting alternative 

heating. In 2014 the public organization submitted an 

application to the EU/UNDP Community Based Approach 

to Local Development Project. The community 

already knew about the success of cooperation of this 

project with other organizations of the raion. 

In July 2015 the public organization prepared a microproject 

proposal “Innovative energy-efficient measures 

in the kindergarten of the village of Dertsen. 

Reconstruction of heating system using a palette 

boiler”. That was preceded by trainings, studies, consultations 

required by the community. The community 

decided to set an alternative solid-fuel boiler and 

for preservation of solid fuel it was suggested that 

the available boiler-house premises would be used, 

which was also needed repairing and refurbishment. 

Overall cost of the project made up 627,737.00 UAH. 

The CBA Project granted 331,841.00 UAH, Dertsen 

village council – 255,796.00 UAH, public organization 

“Za spilnu Yevropu” – 40,100.00 UAH. 

The representatives of the community had independent 

negotiations with the building organizations, 

had consultations with technical supervisors and directly 

participated in work performance. 

Everybody is satisfied with the results of cooperation since 

during a year the kindergarten managed to save in the 

monetary expression 56,096.00 UAH. At the same time 

annual costs of heating have been reduced by 38.22%.

“The most important thing in our partnership with the 

Project is that we have obtained the knowledge and 

expertise required for further development, – says 

deputy head of the PO “Za spilnu Yevropu” Ruslan 

Levko. Now we are deeply convinced that we have the 

future. We can, know, we are able to”. And in the village 

of Solomonovo, Uzhhorod raion, people have focused 

on the capital repairs of hot water supply system using 

solar collectors and furbishing of external lighting using 

RES (solar power). 

In the future many inhabited settlements of the 

Zakarpattia region intend to continue their fruitful 

cooperation with the EU/UNDP Community 

Based Approach to Local Development Project. 

NAZARIY PAVLIY, 

HEAD OF KHUST RAION STATE ADMINISTRATION 

The EU/UNDP Community Based 


Project helps to implement strategic 

plans of the region in energy 

efficiency, mobilizing the community 

and authorities for that. Since 

funding of energy-saving measures 

and municipal heat power refurbishment 

measures is provided 

out of the state and local budgets, 

also money from international 

organizations, programs, charity 

contributions, etc. is involved. 

Practice, viz. the activities of the 

CBA Project, has shown that the 

greatest effect in problem solving 

is achieved when all the co-funding 

sources are involved in solving them. 

Since in that case one may talk not 

only about money involvement, that 

is already joint planning and decision-making, 

as well as joint control. 

Using the Project methodology, 

in Khust raion over 2013– 

2015 3 microprojects of communities 

relating to energy 

efficiency have been implemented. 

Implementation of energy-saving 

projects is of a considerable social 

importance. The citizens learn how 

to save energy resources, to efficiently 

use them, to apply European 

social standards. Also, economic 

effect is achieved as the result of 

implementation of energy-efficient 

and energy-saving microprojects. 

Thus, for instance, as the result of 

alternative pyrolysis boiler installation 

in the educational and study 

complex of the village of Vertep 

economy reached 50 %. And installation 

of pyrolysis boiler in the 

village of Nyzhnye Selyshche urged 

the community and the authorities 

to contribute additional money 

to replacement of windows, doors, 

heating system refurbishment. 

It should be noted that the community 

with strong and professional 

leaders – people who know how 

to involve money, who quickly solve 

current problems is a success. They 

constitute the nucleus of the public 

organization. But a community 

that relies only on its main asset 

and does not involve as many of its 

members in its organization as possible 

makes a serious mistake. Normally, 

such teams fail to implement 

projects due to absence of support 

on the part of local residents. So 

the first thing positively differentiating 

regional resource centre coordinators 

as the representatives 

of the CBA Project is the fact that 

they “go to people” and clarify everything. 

Successful communities 

necessarily hold hearings, general 

meeting, involve a representative 

from each street in the management 

of their team. Successful 

projects exist where as many residents 

of the village as possible are 

involved in their implementation.

ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION 





paid for them 

10

NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR OLD SYSTEMS 

PROBLEMS WITH WATER HAVE DISAPPEARED 

Bitter memories of the absence of water for a couple 

of day in the standpipes have become the past for 

the residents of the village of Chervonoarmiyske (renamed 

in February this year into Tavriyske). In 2006, 

after bankruptcy was announced, most of the things in 

the economy were in poor condition. In particular, the 

village residents felt bad about problems with water. 

Here the pump fails, in one end of the village a pipe 

breaks, then in the other. Besides serious wear and 

tear the integrity of pipes was bad due to changes in 

pressure. the water supply network which was 15 kilometres 

long has been in use for over forty years. 

- We were very happy when we were included into the 


Project, - says the head of Chervonoarmiyske 

village council Tetyana Zolohina. – That is the 

beginning of solving the problem with water supply. 

When village residents came to know about the money 

allocated for improvement of the drinkable water 

supply quality, they got actively involved in raising the 

necessary sum on behalf of the village right away. And 

instead of the necessary 21.045 UAH they collected 

almost 30 thousand UAH! People were looking forward 

to work completion. Since water means life for 

the village. Here water is not just for people. Peasants 

normally keep some house economy, and to give water 

to poultry and cattle one also need water. 

During the refurbishment of the water pipeline the 

main thing done was installation of a frequency converter 

on two wells, and also 400 metres of old pipes 

were replaced with plastic ones. After the frequency 

converters were installed, the pressure in the standpipe 

of each consumer got equalized. Now each village 

resident can use water in any time of day and 

night, regardless of where his/her yard is located – 

closed to the well or quite far. 

In the first day of work of the upgraded water pipeline 

the weakest points were revealed. The municipal company 

quickly repairs the breaks. People were satisfied. 

But now the community is willing to replace the pipes 

because there is water but its quality is bad. Rust is 

deposited in the buckers of consumers. 

According to Chervonoarmniyske village council 

Tetyana Zolohina, microproject implementation has 

enabled to provide the village residents 100% with 

drinkable water; to reduce the scope of electric 

power consumption per year from 30,900 kW/hour 

to 12,000 kW/hour, which is by 2.6 times, and that 

will make the economy of funds of 31,374 UAH/year 

(from 51,294 UAH to 19,920 UAH), to practically prove 

rationality of use of energy-efficient equipment in rural 

area; ordinary members of the community got a 

chance to gain the experience in the implementation 

of innovative energy-efficient microproject. 

And she also adds that water consumers who have 

installed counters who have won from this. There 

are 397 like those out of 1.170. 

- We have counted that we would get 20% savings on 

the supply of one cube of water, - added Tetyana Volodymyrivna. 

– The plans include to continue the things

started. Because it was somehow illogical – new technologies 

on old systems. Our aim is to achieve a high 

level of water pipeline water. With this in view we will 

try to replace the whole network. It is very difficult to 

attract people for permanent residence. And we would 

like our village to live. That is why we have decided to 

invest into water pipeline refurbishment step by step. 

The issue is of high value, but the annual budget of 

the village is only 1 million 300 thousand. They are 

trying to support school, musical school, kindergarten, 

library with this money. Because these facilities 

are the future of the village. And thus, as if by the 

way, Tetyana Volodymyrivna lists the advantages of its 

community: “The kindergarten can be enlarged. We 

will find both money and forces just to have children 

born. And the school premises are mainly aimed for 

a somewhat larger number of students, but so far 

we have only 80. Internal roads have been almost 

fully repaired. We are about to start works in partial 

lighting of three streets and full repairs of one. 

We do repairs in the praises of the village council”. 

OLEKSANDR PRAVOSUD, 

HEAD OF YAKYMIVKA RAION STATE ADMINISTRATION 

All the works related to the EU/ 


to Local Development Project have 

been performed under the plan. In 

particular, I can tell about the street 

lighting in the village – that is an 

important project. Unfortunately, 

the village have forgotten what it is. 

Everything is expensive – starting 

with lamps till payment for electric 

energy use. Village budgets cannot 

afford such costs. And by participation 

in the Project we have “killed” 

two birds: after installation of street 

lights with solar batteries the village 

community will not pay a single 

kopeck for operation. For five-six 

hours the central street of Davydivka 

will be lit with free-of-charge lights. 

Project funds pay back over a couple 

of years. Participation in the Project 

is a kind of a start. The village community 

has something to strive for. In 

the village of Rozivka where thanks 

to the Project lights with solar batteries 

were installed earlier, they 

think about the variants of lighting 

for other streets.The interest and 

stimulus for further village development 

has been evoked with the local 

residents by the recent events. The 

grain into prospects has been laid.

ZHYTOMYR REGION 





paid for them 

10

LET THE SUN SHINE INTO THE WINDOWS! 

The end of February 2016 for 135 children of the kindergarten 

in the urban village of Luhyny was a real 

holiday. They got that good mood from parents and 

teachers. In the pre-school establishment for children 

the complex of repairing and building works was over. 

The director of the kindergarten Nadiya Vyhovska enthusiastically 

tells about her impression: “We are very 

much satisfied with the fact that we participated in the 


Project. Due to joint effort we managed to 

make our kindergarten not only nice, but, what is most 

important, warm and comfortable. Finally there has 

disappeared the need for covering the windows with 

polyethylene film every winter. Due to a refurbished 

heating system via new polypropylene pipes and steel 

radiators heat is uniformly supplied to all the premises 

of the building. Parents do not bring to the kindergarten 

additional clothes for children, since it is already 

warm in the groups”. Even the end of the heating season 

has shown that application of innovation technologies 

has got a number of advantages. Primarily, in the 

premises the temperature has risen by 4-5 degrees. 

Pre-school establishment for children has been deprived 

of the dependence on the expensive blue fuel. 

Over a year Luhyny urban village council hopes to save 

14.5 thousand UAH on heating of the kindergarten’s 

premises. So far, the urban village council is considering 

the plans as to how and where prepare wood 

in the summer period, when it should stocked up for 

the wood to get dried before the next heating season. 

ANATOLIY SHAKHMATOV, 

LUHYNY URBAN VILLAGE HEAD 

Successful microproject implementation, 

besides social effect, has also 

brought a considerable economic 

effect for Luhyny kindergarten. 

Since the money paid by the urban 

village council for gas consumption 

necessary for premises heating (and 

that is not much and not little – almost 

60 thousand UAH a month) will 

now be directed to solve other urgent 

social problems. Still, I think an 

important contribution based on the 

results of cooperation with the EU/ 


to Local Development Project is significant 

changes in people’s mentality. 

Thanks to the Project people 

have come to believe that, uniting 

the resources and effort for the sake 

of solving the problems, one can be 

a success in improvement of social 

conditions. People actively learn 

how to build partnership relations 

with local authorities. Together we 

plan, together we act, we share responsibility 

for the decisions made. 

As exemplified by our kindergarten, 

the residents of the village started 

more actively, without any suspicions 

and distrust, install reinforce 

plastic windows, energy-saving 

boilers, change the heating systems 

in their houses. The owners 

started seriously thinking about 

how to better preserve heat in their 

houses and money in their wallets.

COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACH 

TO LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 

20 Esplanadna Str., office 704-708, Kyiv 01601 

Tel.: +38 (044) 253 5975, Fax: +38 (044) 253 5973 

www.cba.org.ua 

facebook.com/cbaproject

ENERGY EFFICIENCY: STORIES THAT MELT HEARTS

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