KYIV, April 2, 2008 — Ukraine’s People’s Voice Project won one of the World Bank’s first annual “Improving the Lives of People in Europe & Central Asia” awards yesterday for its outstanding results and impact in Ukraine.
“In Ukraine 10 years ago, communication between cities and their citizens was little to non-existent,” – say Paul Bermingham, World Bank Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. - “Through the project we have been able to develop citizen engagement and more open local government.”
The creation of a flexible, bottom-up approach to municipal governance in Ukraine stands as one of the many unique successes of the People’s Voice project, which started in 2003 with the financial assistance of the Canadian government. Starting from lessons learned during its pilot phase, the project sought direct input from citizens, gave professional training to local NGOs and service providers and brought various community stakeholders together to improve local service delivery.
The World Bank event was held Tuesday in Washington and focused on 19 awards selected by the World Bank panel of judges for a total of 22 activities across the Europe and Central Asia Region. The winning entries showcase results and real impact, as well as the project’s dedication to solid work in monitoring and evaluating those results. They illustrate the value of innovation, solid implementation, and sustainability.
“These winning activities from across Europe and Central Asia show the results that client countries and the World Bank can achieve together as partners in supporting countries’ development efforts,” - said Shigeo Katsu, Europe and Central Asia Region Vice President, World Bank. - “Increasingly, governments and other stakeholders alike demand evidence to guide policy decisions. They want us to demonstrate that our support to programs and projects improves the outcomes for their citizens, and they want to see that capacity building and knowledge work help them deliver development. The World Bank teams have worked hard to improve results and the ability to measure them and these winning entries show that the effort is paying off for the people in the Region. However, we are also very aware that documenting the impact of capacity building and knowledge work is more difficult than that of traditional lending, so we have only scratched the surface in that area and need to do more.”
The projects reflect the World Bank’s strategic themes laid out by World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, including:
• Helping overcome poverty and spur sustainable growth in the poorest countries
• Fragile and post-conflict affected countries
• Development solutions for middle income countries
• An active role in regional and global public goods
• Fostering a knowledge and learning agenda
The ECA Results competition will be held annually to celebrate the impact of projects and programs in the Region.
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