By Oleksandr Vrublevskyi, DESPRO expert consultant of the project on starostas’ activity and cooperation of hromadas

Regardless of how much capable the hromada is, there are always issues difficult to solve at the expense of the local budget. This may be the purchase of equipment or vehicles for the needs of local self-government officials, construction or reconstruction of the premises for the needs of the ASC, restoration of cultural heritage facilities for further integration into modern life, etc. As practice shows, a number of issues of local significance, which cannot be solved at the expense of the AH budget, can be successfully addressed through other resources, including grants.

Grant money attraction is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance, and a starosta may play a very important role in this process.

A successful grant attraction process consists of several steps. It is worth noting that all further advice will only apply to situations in which a rural or settlement hromada has at least one non-governmental organisation registered as a legal entity.

Step number 1. Identification of the problem and possible ways to solve it.

Step number 2. Search of grants and competitions announced within their framework (useful links: http://gurt.org.ua/, http://www.prostir.ua/category/grants/, https://biggggidea.com/, http://vassr.org/, https://decentralization.ua, https://www.facebook.com/groups/progrants/.

Step number 3. Preparation of the project application.

P.S. Additional questions can be put for discussion at the Forum of the Starostas http://forum.decentralization.ua

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click HERE