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Forty experts, who are actively involved in drafting development strategies for four districts in the framework of CIDP-supported “Strategic Planning and Strategic Environmental Assessment in Crimea” project, took part in the training on “SWOT and cause-effect analysis in building a district development strategy”. The training, organized in Simferopol, was led by Valery Tertychka and Yaroslav Berezhnoy from the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine.
Carrying out a SWOT-analysis, i.e. the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, is one of key stages in creating a sound and effective district development strategy. SWOT-analysis is used worldwide as an efficient planning tool as it helps to get a comprehensive view of all potential opportunities and risks, and to define strong points to make use of, and weak sides to avoid cautiously.
“I think today we should be able to lay the ground for the proper SWOT-analysis. That will immediately help strategic planning process to advance further on as SWOT-analysis is the most difficult stage: from the very beginning things have to be put into their places”, stated Konstantin Ipatov, the Head of ARC Ministry of Economy Department for Strategic Planning, in this regard.
Besides theoretical knowledge of SWOT-analysis methodology, the seminar offered its participants an opportunity to practice in groups.
“It was a good chance to watch our whole group in action. The seminar met my expectations, and the group did well: everyone took active part in brainstorming, which, as a result, turned out to be very effective. The main thing is that everyone is enthusiastic and interested in the process; everyone has an opinion, and is ready to advance arguments to defend this opinion. Despite all the debates, we managed to come to an agreement at the end, and that means success”, said Stanislav Zhakov, the Deputy Head of both the District State Administration and the Coordinating Committee on Strategic Planning , about the work of Dzhankoysky district delegation.
It should be said that development strategies have been drafted in Ukraine earlier, but practical experience shows that only those strategies which are supported by the population succeed. Thus, to define citizens’ vital problems and development perspectives, public opinion polls were launched at the village council level in all target districts this February. The priorities defined will be further included into the development strategies of the districts. Such bottom-up approach helps people to understand, and therefore support, the strategies elaborated, while local authorities get additional arguments to obtain state budget funds or other financing to implement these strategies.
“It is very positive that the process goes from the bottom up to Crimean level”, explained Valery Tertychka, professor of Public Administration, who facilitated the training. “Our experience shows that most strategies launched “from above” end up with no positive result. The effectiveness of national strategies tends to be minimal, whereas district development strategies are fulfilled 70 per cent. The success of the current CIDP-led project would be a highly positive experience of building district development strategy in Ukraine”.
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Strategic planning is an important problem-solving tool for village councils and districts in the long-term perspective. It helps to bring together the goals and objectives corresponding to the needs of different social and economic sectors, interest of diverse social groups, and various administrative levels. Effective strategic plans bring about a basis for local policies aimed at raising rural population living standards.
In order to help such plans to emerge, in 2008 UNDP CIDP initiated the project “Integrated Strategic Planning and Strategic Environmental Assessment in Crimea”. The project aims at elaborating effective long-term development strategies for the rural areas of the peninsula. The interested districts were assessed against a number of objective criteria, and the four best prepared districts - Bakhchisaraysky, Dzhankoysky, Pervomaysky, and Sovetsky - were selected for the implementation of the project.
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