On 18 December, teaching of the 7-week e-course "Fundamentals of Regional Social Policy” was completed at Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of Public Administration of the National Academy of Public Administration under the Office of the President of Ukraine, within the framework of Master of Public Administration (MPA) programme, with a specialty in Public Administration.

The contest "Uniting the Community!", aimed at coverage of the best examples of self-organization of rural population, lasted 6 months and was held in 5 oblasts of Ukraine: Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsya, Ivano-Frankivsk, and AR Crimea. The contest was initiated by the Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support to Ukraine P (DESPRO) and implemented by Creative Association of Ukraine Mass Media "Slavuta".

On 13 - 15 December 2011, Yalta is hosting the annual meeting of partners of the Swiss-Ukrainian decentralization Support to Ukraine Project (DESPRO). Its goal is to summarize the work aimed at support the rural communities’ projects on provision of decentralized services, to discuss trends and prospects for local and regional development, knowledge management in the area of public administration. Besides, the Conference participants will plan their activities for next year.The event brings together 150 delegates, among them: rural activists, officials of local authorities and executive authorities, experts in public administration and knowledge management, journalists from regional and national mass media.

On 8 December, the Programme "Forming the Regional Innovation Policy" was successfully concluded at Lviv Regional Institute of Public Administration (LRIPA) NAPA. The Programme has become a component of advanced training for employees of the Main Department of Economy and Industrial Policy of Lviv Oblast State Administration and of the economic departments of Rayon State Administrations in Lviv oblast.

An important task faced by the DESPRO project is to disseminate the best practices and examples of self-organization of rural population, besides, not only within the framework of cooperation with the Swiss-Ukrainian project. To this end, in June 2011 the DESPRO project, in collaboration with Creative Association of Mass Media "Slavuta", announced the competition to the media for the best publication about good initiatives and projects of active rural population (villagers), who come together to improve the socio-economic conditions of their lives. The exciting moment has come. The jury has carefully reviewed all the publications and has determined the winners of the competition.

The scientific and practical conference "Innovative Educational Technologies in professional training for civil servants and local self-government officials" took place on 1 December 2011 at the National Academy of Public Administration under the Office of the President of Ukraine with the support of the National Agency on Civil Service and with the assistance of the company - partner "Microsoft Ukraine" and the Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support to Ukraine Project (DESPRO).

On 18 November 2011 the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the National Academy and the Swiss-Ukrainian Project "Decentralization Support in Ukraine" (DESPRO). The National Academy was represented by Yuriy Kovbasyuk, President of the Academy, Vitaliy Malaschenko, Vice President, and Andriy Zhuravlyov, Head of the Innovative Education Technologies Management; the DESPRO project – by Oksana Garnets, Project Manager for DESPRO in Ukraine.

On 11-12 November 2011, the Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support to Ukraine Project (DESPRO) held the training workshop "Monitoring of Sustainable Decentralized Water-Supply Services at the Community Level" for its partners from Vinnytsya and Sumy oblasts as well as from AR Crimea.

The visit was intended to present the experience and best practices in implementing the integrated management of solid waste in certain European countries, such as Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

Swiss-Ukrainian project “Decentralization Support in Ukraine” (DESPRO) is announcing additional call for proposals among service cooperatives created within rural communities of DESPRO partner rayons of Vinnytsya and Sumy Oblasts and AR Crimea. The aim is to implement/improve decentralized mechanisms of community based water supply services.