Specifically, the project will contribute to the capacity development of Youth Centres, youth volunteers, and local volunteer-involving organizations. It will build on the existing cooperation between the Regional Youth Centres, founded by the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport, - the project’s main implementing partner - and rural Youth Centres. This will include joint implementation of projects and outreach activities in fulfilling the Ministry’s mandate, particularly, in enhancing the state youth policy in rural areas.

The project is aimed at providing support in developing competencies of young women and men for their consecutive active involvement in public life and local level decision-making.

It is funded by the UN Development Programme, UN Volunteers, Intel and other public and international donors, including U.S. Peace Corps in Ukraine, Intel Ukraine Microelectronics Ltd., Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, “Ukraine 3000” International Foundation, UNESCO, Ukrainian Association for Ukrainian Youth “Alternative-V”. According to the cost-sharing agreements signed between UNDP and its partners earlier, the budget of the four-year project is 1,119,300 US dollars, with an overall budget for 2008 amounting to over 200,000 US dollars.

The project will contribute to enhanced social competencies of young women and men across Ukraine by promoting e-learning, on-line learning, and knowledge hub resources. In this context, the project will provide assistance in designing and delivering relevant training modules to its beneficiaries though face-to-face and on-line trainings, networking and peer-to-peer networking between project target groups and other players, as well as creating e-communities and developing web-community of project’s stakeholders.

Participation in e-community activities as well as on-line e-learning resources will be available for free to a much wider range of youth. In addition to the direct project participants (youth centres, schools and universities), any young person will be able to benefit from using the free web resources on-line.

The new project will operate in 12 regions of Ukraine (11 oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea), covering 52 Youth Centres, which were previously established in rural communities with UNDP’s assistance.

The project’s experts will pay special attention to working with marginalized, socially-excluded young women and men who, due to geographic, economic, gender, and/or cultural barriers, feel disadvantaged in modern Ukrainian society.

This project builds on the previous successful UNDP interventions, such as the “Human Security for Ukrainian Youth” project, which trained youth self-government bodies for active involvement in decision-making processes; created a network of peer-to-peer specialists in Universities and schools; and initiated the UN Youth Summit to empower young people and bring national attention to youth issues.

Moreover, 52 Youth Centres were established in rural communities in 9 Regions and Crimea with support of the Local Development Programme, providing safe and creative places for youth to meet, socialize and engage in healthy activities. Strategic partnership between UNDP and Intel started with a demonstration project on building young people’s key social competencies and promoting youth inclusion through e-networks of knowledge-sharing and training.

The new project was launched by Yuriy Pavlenko, Minister for Family, Youth and Sports, Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecka, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Ukraine, Vladimir Sharov, Country Manager of Intel Ukraine, Oleksandr Maksymchuk, Head of the Board of Directors at “Ukraine 3000”, and Iryna Bodnar, Vice-President of Ukrainian Association for Youth Cooperation “Alternative-V”.

Finally, it is expected that within the Project Strategy, local economic and social development will be significantly enhanced by promoting local partnerships and community support to youth initiatives, leading to more active civic engagement of young people across Ukraine.

For more information, please, contact Sergiy Grytsenko, tel.: (+38044) 2540035