Anatolii Fedoruk, Mayor of Bucha, Head of the Kyiv Regional Branch of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, is currently in the US on an official business visit. A number of important meetings are planned for the visit to discuss the reconstruction of the destroyed housing and social infrastructure of Bucha and other municipalities of the Kyiv region.

Anatolii Fedoruk announced this on his social media page.

The first meeting took place with Samantha Power, Administrator of USAID (US Agency for International Development).

“We discussed the financial support of Ukraine and the post-occupation recovery needs of Bucha and the entire Kyiv region. I thanked USAID for over 30 years of its work in Ukraine — from the first days of restoration of our independence — and the implementation of reforms, including the decentralisation reform, which has proven to be among the most successful,” wrote Anatolii Fedoruk.

Earlier, Decentralization recorded an interview with the mayor of Bucha regarding the role of international municipal cooperation in the recovery of municipalities and their integration into the European space.

“Inter-municipal cooperation underpins and cements the achievements made at the intergovernmental level, facilitating hearing each other’s voices [...] When we talk about recovery, a major recovery after the great Victory, inter-municipal cooperation will serve as the guarantee of attracting funds,” Anatolii Fedoruk said in an interview.

To learn more, watch our short video that summarises the most important points:

The video was created in cooperation with DESPRO with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine.

Decentralization reminds that municipalities of Ukraine can use the International Municipal Partnership Guidelines to build communication with foreign municipalities and enter into twinning agreements. These Guidelines offer algorithms and practical advice on establishing a partnership, cases of successful partnerships, practical advice on customs clearance and accounting of various types of assistance that partners can exchange, information on how to choose partners, how to organise the work of competent professionals or division, as well as information on financing, bookkeeping and reporting and a lot of other useful information.

Based on these Guidelines, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine developed the Partnership for Recovery and Development section of the Decentralization national portal, with the support of DECIDE (Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education), a Swiss-Ukrainian project, and the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.

These Guidelines are based on the methodology of the Council of Europe, City to City Cooperation, and developed by the Council of Europe as part of the Programme “Decentralisation and Public Administration Reform in Ukraine” at the request of the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine.