I've started this blog in 2009 in order to share my thoughts, ideas and news with Ukrainian experts and researchers who are interested in the issues of regional and local development, regional policy, governance, strategic planning, innovations and productivity at local level. It brings international experience, news and sources at the doorstep of Ukrainian colleagues who quite often lack access to up-to-date international research, policy and analytical information. That is why it is written in Ukrainian.
The audience is not huge since the area of my interest is quite specific. But I have steadily growing circle of readers who are still a bit too timid to leave comments though:-)
But my blog is also about Ukraine. I write about recent changes in policy, economy, governance and innovations that are making life of Ukrainian regions, cities, localities and their population different (easy or difficult - you never know!). I realise that there is very little comprehensive, well-researched and up-to-date information in English about what's going on in regions, cities and communities of Ukraine. It is not to say that it does not exist at all. Ukraine has a vibrant community of academics, experts and practitioners who are interested and vocal on the issues of regional and local development. Ukraine is also recipient of substantial donor funds that are targeted at improving regional governance, competitiveness, sustainability and local self-governance. However online information is fragmented and often poorly translated.
That is why I am thinking of expanding my writing into English in order to give those of you who are interested in these areas of policy and governance but can't understand Ukrainian (or Russian for that matter) an insight into what's new and interesting happening in my country. I am still not sure in what format it will be but I will start from occasional English posts on Regional Accents and then will see whether there is a scope for a separate resource.
For now just look at the right-hand side bar for "English" tag and you'll see the list of posts you can actually read. English posts are also listed at the end of this page.
If you wonder who I am you can find my profile on LinkedIn and some of my publications on scribd.com. You can also follow me on twitter (though I do it largely in Ukrainian). But I do a bit of everything: research, policy analysis and advice, consultancy, and training.
Any comments, suggestions or enquiries, as well as suggestions to improve my use of articles, are always welcome :-). Please write to me and I will come back to you as soon as I can.
Yours Olga Mrinska
Posts:
1. Regional policy in Ukraine - changes without effect
2. Kyiv economy: free fall
3. Presentations about Ukraine - regional and local development
4. Silicon madness of Ukraine
