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Project Summary Project Description Application of Tools Opinion of Tools Decision making process Contact Details

Opinion of tools

Name der Fallstudie
Regeneration of Dobrich Town Park, Dobrich Municipality
Regeneration des Dobricher Parks, Gemeinde Dobrich


Name of tool
Municipal Target Criteria (one of Two-level Target Criteria)

Opinion of tool - argumentation for choosing the tool
BBP provides municipalities with opportunities for:<br> • meeting complex and urgent urban problems with restricted financial capacity;<br> • raising the tourist attractiveness of Bulgarian settlements and thus creating favourable conditions for sustainable employment in the tourism sector.</p> <p> The municipalities face the need for defining relevant priority targets. They develop their own criteria within MTC for identifying the most appropriate municipal proposals to compete for financial support at the national BBP level.</p> <p> The Municipality needed a tool to assess and rate the targets for urban refurbishment in a sustainable way by linking social, economic and environmental factors. The tool proved to be useful under real Bulgarian conditions and also flexible enough to meet the dynamic changes in the municipality.</p> <p> The "Green Trace" tool, an initiative for the Municipality-public partnership in the maintenance of public green spaces, working since 1997, was considered a successful one.<br> The USGP, which provides comprehensive information on the current condition of green species and on already planned actions for each urban green space.</p>

Opinion of tool - barriers for the tool implementation
No problems with the implementation of the tool have been reported. It has been used since 1999 and has proved to be relevant to the local context.


Name of tool
National Target Criteria (one of Two-level Target Criteria)

Opinion of tool - argumentation for choosing the tool
NTC aim to assess how successfully the applications have combined the social aspect (unemployment benefit replaced by payment for real accomplished work) with the regeneration of the urban infrastructure. </p> <p> The choice of the tool was a joint initiative of Bulgarian municipalities and Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP). No information is available on the criteria that were used to select the tool, however the proposed UNDP Working Model for national-municipal authority partnership served as a basis for the development of the tool. The UNDP management know-how was successfully integrated into the national tool structure.</p>

Opinion of tool - barriers for the tool implementation
At the National level and Municipal level, there have been no problems with the implementation of the tool reported. It has been used since 1999 and has proved to be relevant to the local context.


Opinion of tool - assessment by tool users
National level
Due to the NTC implementation and the successful development of BBP project, the Bulgarian Government has decided to support it with an active policy and financial resources. As a consequence of the political decision, legislative changes were undertaken - this was an unexpected consequence of the tools use.

The general view of the tool is that it provides the opportunity to address local issues in the light of identified national priorities in urban regeneration and guarantees the comparability of municipal approaches at the national level. It was learnt from implementation of the tool that it is best applied to various sectors while keeping its general criteria and methods. The success of BBP and its evaluation tool is further demonstrated by the fact that over 100 municipalities "decided to continue the activities with their own resources? some neighbouring countries intend to launch similar programmes inspired by the BBP." (Jacques Wunenburger, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Bulgaria.

Endorsement of the tool comes in the fact that the tool has been used for seven years; its components and types of urban problems to be tackled have been continuously developed.

Municipal Level
As a result of the tools implementation a number of actions for the regeneration of Dobrich Town park were undertaken (the pavement of the alleys was completely renewed (see picture on left below), the lighting was completely replaced with energy saving-bulbs (picture below and right), a variety of trees were planted, the reconstruction of a pedestrian subway to the park started, etc.)

The new alleys Renewed lighting in the park
The new alleys and the Renewed lighting in the park

The tool contributes to SMEs strengthening, helps to build and measure the capacity of the Regional Employment Services and Labour Offices and encourages public-private partnership. Nowadays Municipal Target Criteria is being successfully applied in 100 Bulgarian municipalities to assess the most suitable projects for potential financing from the BBP national programme. The criteria within the tool are modified in each municipality to be relevant to particular local conditions. The experience and approaches could be discussed and disseminated as potentially useful best practice. The Municipality uses the tool every year when applying for BBP financial support. During 2003-2004 park regeneration (e.g. green spaces) was the target but before this the main targets were buildings with a historical value (e.g. the building sector).

Opinion of tool - reviewer\'s assessment
The main advantages of the tool are:
? providing transparency about the way in which the social aspects, urban infrastructure regeneration and economic benefits for local SME are put together;
? building local capacity for the implemention of employment promotion policies;
? strengthening the partnership between national and municipal level institutions in the implementation of urban policies;
? strengthening the public?private partnership.

The participation of the town inhabitants in the definition of local criteria should be supported and a regular monitoring of results could be included as a criterion for successful implementation of the tool.

The BBP in general and the evaluation tool (NTC) in particular stimulate municipalities to take the initiative and try to resolve local unemployment and urban development problems with their own resources.

The tool is clearly aimed at sustainability by providing employment opportunities that have visible results and that benefit the local urban environment. However, in some cases short-term social considerations (only temporary employment is provided, the construction work of each project should be finalised within one season) are reported to prevail. In areas of specific historical heritage where is needed a restoration unqualified labour is not appropriate to implement.

Welche Tools wurden verwendet, um Nachhaltigkeit zu beurteilen?

Municipal Target Criteria (one of Two-level Target Criteria)

National Target Criteria (one of Two-level Target Criteria)

Weiterführende Informationen (nur auf Englisch):

Für den vollständigen Bericht hier klicken (pdf)