On February 5, 2020, the first meeting of the working group to develop the Law on Improving Cultural Heritage Management by Local Communities with the Involvement of the Public and CSOs and Recommendations for State Policy in this Area was held in Kyiv.

The working group was joined by representatives of interested institutions (Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Regional Development, UCF, BRDO), people's deputies of Ukraine, CSOs - partners of the All-Ukrainian network for support of communities with heritage "Go Heritage!", experts in the field of law and local development, in fact, community leaders.

The aforementioned legislative initiative is being implemented within the framework of the project of the Agency for the Development of Private Initiatives "Heritage for Development: Increasing Public Participation in the Preservation and Use of the Heritage Potential of Local Communities of Ukraine", which is being implemented with the support of the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED). During the first meeting of the group, the prerequisites for the creation of the draft law and the problems of existing legislative regulation in the field of cultural heritage management were discussed. The discussion turned out to be heated on the following aspects: how not to lose heritage in the conditions of distorted perception of its role and significance? how to effectively manage it in the conditions of constant personnel changes (and therefore the constant need to train new managers) against the background of legislative uncertainty? and are community residents – the main beneficiaries of heritage – ready to perceive it as an object of respectful treatment and special pride without special knowledge and strong motivation?

The Law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage speaks of protective measures for heritage, such as museumization and restoration, but nothing is said about its preservation and renovation. The provisions of this law do not correspond at all with the Faro Convention and other international documents ratified by Ukraine, - 

Yulia Nechyporenko, Head of the Directorate of Cultural Heritage (Main Department) of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports

We have a direct interest in the bill and the development of clear guidelines for the development of Ukraine's heritage policy. Today, the lack of clear state priorities in heritage policy prevents the UCF from relevantly determining the conditions for grant support for local communities. The only option is to focus on the provisions of international conventions ratified by Ukraine.

Yulia Fediv, Executive Director of the State Institution "Ukrainian Cultural Fund"

Undoubtedly, communities should form development strategies (visions) based on heritage sites. The Ministry of Regional Development coordinates intersectoral programs to support projects, including those related to cultural heritage, but communities need to prepare competitive applications and explain the economic component of their project. Local self-government requires managerial knowledge. And such knowledge must be provided constantly and methodically.

Lidiya Yevtushenko, State Expert of the Directorate for the Development of Local Self-Government, Territorial Organization of Power and Administrative-Territorial Structure of the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine

The first draft of the NPA will be prepared by the project experts over the next month and discussed with the working group team online.

We would like to remind you that the project “Heritage for Development: Increasing Public Participation in the Preservation and Use of the Heritage Potential of Local Communities of Ukraine” was launched on October 1, 2019 and will last for one year. Its goal is to increase the level of activity and involvement of civil society and CSOs in Ukraine in the development and implementation of policies on the management of the cultural heritage of local communities. Associated partners of the project are the Tourist Association of Ivano-Frankivsk Region (TAIF) and the Creative Center of the CCC (Kyiv). The project is designed to develop and strengthen the GO Heritage! CSO network, which began operating in September 2018. The activities of the CSOs that have joined the network are focused on developing qualitatively new approaches to understanding and using heritage and enshrining them at the level of national strategic, program documents and legislative acts, since it is this level that has a decisive influence on the correct definition of the roles of the state, local communities, business entities and non-governmental organizations in relation to heritage. In this direction, in 2018-2019, the network experts carried out and published an analysis of problems in the legislative regulation of the preservation and management of cultural heritage in Ukraine (https://arpi.org.ua/images/resource/publications/Legislative_book.pdf).

In addition to legislative activities, the project organized heritage interpretation training in November 2019 for 20 Ukrainian CSOs with experience and vision for the preservation and wise management of heritage sites in their communities. The training participants are developing heritage interpretation plans for specific communities in Ukraine with mentoring support from ARPI. A competition for mini-grants will soon be announced for communities that have developed such plans, which will financially support 10 initiatives to launch these plans.

Finally, the project plans to hold an all-Ukrainian conference in the think-tank format for leaders of small communities and CSOs, where participants will discuss and identify the most optimal tools for specific communities to manage their natural and cultural heritage.