My work for the municipality of Kharkiv
“Kharkiv is one the biggest cities in Ukraine and nearly 1.500.000 inhabitants live there. It is an important cultural, educational and industrial centre. I work as a vice-head of the Main Administration of Budget and Finance. I organise the workflow in Administration, monitor and evaluate the documents of the city council, manage the staff and carry on the legal support. During the training course “Leadership and Municipal Management” and my internship I gained experience in different fields of municipal management, such as internal communication and new approaches in management and ICT.”

Experiences in The Netherlands
“I liked the several visits to municipalities and to the NGO ‘Connect’ which were a great experience for me. The municipality where I did my internship is very small compared with the organisation where I work but I could learn a lot of things from the civil servants there. I was able to see a lot of internal relations which I would never see in a big city.”

” I took part in the ‘Young Civil Servants Day 2011’ in Eindhoven together with other 500 young Dutch attendants. I liked the event in Eindhoven as well. It impressed me that young people can learn a lot there while networking amongst each other as civil servant professionals.”

Back Home Action Plan
“After my return to Kharkiv, I have discussed some improvements based on what I have learned during the Talent Programme. In my opinion, the switch to a digitalised local governance together with improved internal communication is vital for a municipality. The employees will only benefit from it and it will give them more freedom.”

Ganna Kukhareva