They try to promote local economic development and increase the well-being of local communities, create and promote innovations in the areas of market economy, entrepreneurship and social development. We learned more about the public organization “Agency for the Development of Private Initiative” from Lada Malani, the director of the organization. The agency has been operating in Ivano-Frankivsk region since 2000.

Lada Malani has over 22 years of professional experience in the fields of communications, public relations and marketing, provision of consulting services, organization management and project management. She was elected a deputy of the Kalush city council. We talked to Lada about the work of the “Agency and Development of Youth Organizations of the City”.

– How and for what purpose does the “Agency for the Development of Private Initiative” operate?

– The agency is an organization that deals with local development. Thanks to our initiatives, we try to increase the well-being of citizens and introduce economic innovations. We focus on economic development, small and medium-sized businesses, and support for education and youth policy as components of future development. Our tasks are to implement smart governance, create a favorable business environment and improve the conditions for doing business in local communities, establish a constructive dialogue between business, government, and the public, promote self-realization of youth and women, and participate in the development of an effective civil society.

– What areas does your organization cover?

– Our main areas of activity are: local economic development, direct business support, youth studios, energy efficiency, and civil society development. The territory of our activity is the Ivano-Frankivsk region, but we also implement individual projects and events, and join the initiatives of partner organizations in other regions of Ukraine and abroad.

– So, can the comprehensive development of the city be considered your goal?

– The goal of the Agency’s activities, according to its charter, is to promote the economic development of local communities and the region as a whole. We understand local development as a managed process aimed at creating the prerequisites for meeting the economic, social and other needs of the current generation, without harming future generations. We are convinced that only by ensuring reasonable governance and a balance between the economy, economic progress and ecology at the local and regional levels can we ensure the progressive development of local communities and the region, make them attractive for living, studying, working and self-realization for both the current generation and descendants. For us, local economic development is an organic part of the patriotic idea. At the same time, the Agency focuses its main efforts on such strategic areas as the development of priority sectors of the economy, dissemination of information about the region, local communities and their potential, formation of local policy that provides the necessary incentives for the development of entrepreneurship, improvement of transport accessibility, environmental protection.

– How did the organization begin its activities?

– The Agency was created as an organization that supports and develops small businesses. For the first time, the team worked on a powerful project “BIZPRO”, which launched the first licensing offices not only in Ivano-Frankivsk region, but in Ukraine as a whole. Many deregulations were carried out, simplified procedures were created, the first registration chambers were established, many steps were taken to promote business in Ukraine. All this was done by the experts of our organization. This process lasted until 2005. Later, we worked on other projects related to European integration, but everything was based on certain analytical and research materials and on activities that required balance, professionalism, and strong training.

– What are you working on now?

– Our task is to show that the public sector is not profanation, but professionalism and a center of expert opinion. We must enjoy the process so that we don’t get bored with it, so we have various projects, starting from various debates, supporting youth initiatives and ending with projects that facilitate access to the Frankivsk region. For example, such a project as transforming the Frankivsk region into one with an open border. We did a lot of work to lobby for the issue of opening the border and building a border between the Frankivsk region and Romania. This is the only border region and it is not open. In this regard, we have come a long way. With this project, we have proven that this issue is very important and necessary. A lot of money was invested in this project, namely 708 million hryvnias for building a road and opening a checkpoint, but due to the outbreak of the war in 2014, this issue became a non-priority, everything changed. In fact, these funds were not allocated, but they were included in the national budget.

– How do you cooperate with youth organizations?

– For this practice, we have youth studios and people who take care of this area. We also get involved in this matter. I am a teacher by education, so I am happy to join in working with youth. You need to clearly understand what development is. Some initiatives are at odds with development. I will repeat that today it is very fashionable to create organizations for projects that they plan to do, but later they are faced with responsibility and routine documentary work, so often such organizations do not exist for a long time. We invite volunteers to join us, you can work remotely, remotely. It is important that a person independently understands what and how to do, and also that they must be responsible for their ideas and projects. We create something new and unique every time, so there is no chance of error in this work. We do not have the right to act like a province, cross-border partners must perceive us as the main ones.

– What work of the Agency are you most proud of?

– This is the creation of prerequisites for local development and the construction of a highway and the opening of a checkpoint. This is a very serious infrastructure project that we have successfully overcome. Our titanic effort was to ensure that all the obligations we set were fulfilled. We are also proud of many small projects. We have worked for a long time to implement a whole range of measures for e-governance. For our part, we have helped in everything that could be done in the region. We have organized study visits to exchange experience in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, since these countries are advanced in ensuring that people can directly satisfy their needs without intermediaries, so that there are no corruption schemes and people's lives are simplified.

Thanks for the article to Snizhana Semanchuk and the team of the Vezha TV and Radio Company: http://www.vezha.org/lada-malanij-my-ne-mayemo-prava-diyaty-yak-provintsiya/