Rava-Ruska from Lviv Oblast and Velykyi Bychkiv from Zakarpattia Oblast signed a cooperation agreement with the support of the USAID HOVERLA Activity. The communities plan to jointly improve services in education and communal services. Ivan Ivanusa, Mayor of Rava-Ruska, and Oleh Bursa, Mayor of Velykyi Bychkiv, signed the agreement during a visit to Zakarpattia.

This collaboration emerged after experts from the USAID HOVERLA Activity noticed striking similarities in the communities' strategies and many common challenges and opportunities: both have nearly the same population and number of educational institutions, host natural parks, and both are border communities without gas supply. Therefore, experts advised the communities to join forces.

After getting to know each other better and exploring each other’s successful practices, the communities decided to implement a joint project, "Friendly Border: Strengthening the Capacity of Rava-Ruska and Velykyi Bychkiv Communities."

Rava-Ruska will adopt Velykyi Bychkiv’s experience in waste sorting, as Velykyi Bychkiv has successfully collaborated with a private enterprise that collects, sorts, and sells waste. Rava-Ruska also plans to borrow the approach to modernizing school meals. Velykyi Bychkiv has revolutionized school meals: the community implemented a catering system that provides quality and affordable food to over 2,000 schoolchildren after conducting an educational campaign and purchasing necessary equipment with funds from the local budget, entrepreneurs, and investment projects.

"It was a very valuable experience to see firsthand how all this works for our colleagues. We were also impressed by the idea of ecological lessons for children and the creation of a territorial medical association," shared Ivan Ivanusa, Mayor of Rava-Ruska.

 Meanwhile, Velykyi Bychkiv found a project solution for developing the water treatment and drainage system after studying Rava-Ruska's experience during the first exchange visit in May. In 1998, a major flood destroyed part of the treatment facilities and drainage networks in the village of Kobyletska Polyana in the Velykyi Bychkiv community. This challenge has remained unresolved due to the high cost of the project.

"We saw the technical documentation and calculations of Rava-Ruska - figures based on real experience and practical verification. After that, we reconsidered our approach, made important adjustments, and now see that we can implement our idea!" said Oleh Bursa, Mayor of Velykyi Bychkiv.

Additionally, the new partners agreed to jointly apply for international program competitions to attract additional resources and plan to support each other in developing inclusive resource centers.

USAID HOVERLA Activity supports partner communities in establishing inter-municipal cooperation, serving as a catalyst for comprehensive community development. As of today, 38 agreements have already been signed between municipalities, helping to optimize resource utilization, promote cultural diversity, stimulate economic growth, address environmental issues, and facilitate the creation of large-scale projects.