Experts of the project “Heritage for Development: Increasing Public Participation in the Preservation and Use of the Heritage Potential of Local Communities of Ukraine” developed a draft law on amendments to the legislative acts of Ukraine on cultural heritage management and a draft of amendments to the State Strategy for Regional Development for 2021-2027.

The project objectives included the preparation and promotion of legislative initiatives and amendments to national policy documents and strategies on heritage management and the use of its potential by local communities. In terms of policy documents, the project team decided to focus on improving the State Strategy for Regional Development as a key document on the development of regions and communities, which already partially reflects the needs for using the economic potential of cultural heritage.

On October 28, 2020, the developed documents were discussed at an online meeting of the working group within the framework of the project. People's Deputies of Ukraine, officials of the Ministry of National Heritage and the Ministry of Regional Development, as well as representatives of CSOs (partners of the “Go Heritage!” Network) who took part in the discussion noted the innovative nature of the proposed changes, provided their recommendations and comments. During the meeting, further steps to promote the proposed changes were also agreed upon.

The Heritage for Development project is being implemented by ARPI with the support of the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) from September 2019 to December 2020. In the near future, there will be an all-Ukrainian Think Tank conference (forum) with the participation of leaders of local communities, CSOs, and experts. The goal of the Think Tank forum: to provoke discussion, search for solutions and ideas for key topics related to the practical use of the heritage potential of local communities. Each of its thematic blocks will demonstrate the existing experience of communities and at the same time provide for the generation of ideas with broad involvement of the event participants in the discussion. It is expected that the conference participants will develop proposals for What, Why and How to do for effective management of local heritage and involve local residents in finding optimal heritage solutions that will give communities a chance to succeed.

The final event of the project will be a round table, where the generated legislative and political initiatives will be made public. The round table, in fact, is designed to encourage those responsible for shaping national heritage policy to discuss and accept, and subsequently implement solutions for effective management of community heritage, and will be the first public lobbying event to promote the initiated changes.

The meeting was organized within the framework of the project "Heritage for Development: Increasing Public Participation in the Preservation and Use of the Heritage Potential of Local Communities of Ukraine" implemented by the Agency for the Development of Private Initiatives with the support of the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Information about the project and the network's activities is available on the web resource www.arpi.org.ua and the FB page: https://www.facebook.com/agency.pid/.