Human Settlements and Urban Issues

This section deals with the financial framework for urban development in Voznesensk with the aim of making recommendations for funding of future projects. It is a review of the main income and expenditure budget items to determine robustness and future scope for borrowing. It also reviews future sustainable projects and considers a range of finance options providing case studies to illustrate these. Finally there are key recommendations for future action.

Over the past two decades Ukraine has experienced a declining and aging population with notable consequences at the city level. The national population declined by 13 per cent (in 1993 Ukraine had 52.2 million inhabitants in 2017 42.4 million); and urban population declined by 9 per cent. This sharp decline is linked to emigration the overall aging trend and a significant decline in birthrates. Technically the country could be said to be continuing to urbanize because the rural population is declining faster than the urban population. However more than 80 per cent of Ukrainian cities are losing population but not homogenously. The eastern and southern regions are highly urbanized but have shown slower urbanization rates in the last two decades while the historically rural Western region currently shows faster urbanization rates.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 calls for the progress of cities and human settlements toward being safe resilient inclusive and sustainable from now until 2030. To achieve this several factors impacting urban life and development need to be taken into account such as urban planning social issues citizen awareness and participation the environment transport resource efficiency and the economy. In order to support the implementation of the SDGs at a local level UNECE together with other partners launched the “United Smart Cities” project.

The following international experts provided input in their areas of expertise. This mainly involved drafting a specific chapter however parts of their work also contributed to other chapters to ensure coherence and clarity. The final publication should therefore be considered a joint effort.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the city of Voznesensk by using the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Smart Sustainable Cities and support the municipality in setting priorities for action. The KPIs have been developed by the UNECE with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and 14 other UN bodies as well as other partners in the global United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative. In 2016 the Ukrainian Ministry of Regional Development Construction and Housing and Communal Services appointed Voznesensk as their pilot city for the United Smart Cities programme and requested the UNECE to prepare a Smart Sustainable Cities Profile. The UNECE together with the United Nations Development Programme and a team of international and local experts developed this Profile for Voznesensk based on a research mission and stakeholders’ consultation which took place in Kyiv and Voznesensk in December 2017. This summary provides an overview of the city’s situation the analysis of its economic environmental and socio-cultural indicators and policy recommendations.

Деятельность кондоминиумов в целом зависит от национальных рамочных условий и их эффективного претворения в жизнь. Если исходить из потребности в национальных инициативах то здесь должен быть охвачен весь спектр возможностей начиная с базовых условий на национальном уровне муниципальных жилищных стратегий и программ и заканчивая практическим обучением владельцев единиц кондоминиумов. Однако это вовсе не означает что все эти мероприятия должны организовываться и осуществляться исключительно центральными правительственными учреждениями. Национальные организации муниципалитеты и частные предприятия должны выполнять свои особые задачи в рамках сектора кондоминиумов.