Social partnership is the system of the company’s interaction with local authorities and communities when the long-term interests of each party are adequately taken into account and continuous mutually beneficial cooperation is established for the good of the people living in the regions where the company operates. This social partnership enables DTEK to implement its values in external audiences, to carry out a targeted and efficient policy of social investments as well as resolving important issues connected with the development and improvements in the quality of life in the regions where we operate.    
 

In 2007 for the first time, DTEK tested a model of long-term social partnership with local authorities: Memoranda of Understanding in this area were signed with the City Councils of Kirovskoe, Kurakhovo, Zugres, Schastie, Pavlograd, Ternovka and Pershotravensk to the amount of about UAH 3 m. Both this activity and the unprecedented modernization and reconstruction of 2 boiler houses in Ternovka and Pershotravensk and their transfer to city authority ownership differs from past practice not only in terms of the range of the regions covered but also in the methods of activities’ planning and realization.
 

Yet certainly it is too early to sum up even the preliminary results, but it is possible to define a few principle points, which will be developed as our long-term plans in the social partnership area unfold.  
 

In the current standard text of the Memorandum of Understanding in the area of social partnership between the company, asset and city authorities, the motivations of all Parties are clearly specified: “In addition to the basic rules of interaction in the social sphere stipulated by the legislation and compulsory for implementation, the Parties are governed by the following: local authorities (city councils) – by the aspiration to increase the efficiency of municipal management within the framework of its own competence and own possibilities based on interaction with the citizens (community), as well as by its own commitment to sustainable development of an enterprise/asset and the company; the enterprise/asset – by understanding our own role and responsibility as a city-forming enterprise and our own aspiration to develop and implement a strategy of long-term social investments into the city development; DTEK – by understanding its own role as a management company, by voluntarily accepted obligations within the framework of corporate social responsibility and the strategy of sustainable business development, as well as by the aspiration to introduce modern management technologies into the social sphere”. At the same time, the Memoranda provide for the clear procedure of joint monitoring and assessment of the efficiency of the developed programmes and provide for the possibility to correct flaws in them.
 

The future social partnership shall be built on the same organizational principles. Improvement in the quality of municipal management, raising the competitiveness of our enterprises and improvement in the  population’s quality of life is an integrated task for the social partnership practice realization and strengthening. In following this course, a priority will be given to long-term programmes, since only such programmes result in qualitative changes. Having selected the line of activity, the company will follow it for a period of three to five years.

The company uses various forms of social support including direct charity help for those who appear in difficult life situations. Nevertheless, our strategic priority is support to socially important projects at local, regional and national levels, which would allow for a palpable and long-term contribution to the resolution of acute social problems.
 

It is necessary to establish multi-stakeholder dialogue as a compulsory element of our social-partnership programmes. Forms of this dialogue can be different: expert analysis of the social-economic and demographic situation and dynamics on the specific territory, sociological research, public hearings, public expertise, etc. To involve the maximum possible number of citizens and to take into account and analyze all the opinions, it is necessary to provide for a feed-back system ensuring the fine-tuning of projects in order to increase their efficiency. The company will have to adopt a system of competitive programme selection, analyze the feasibility of launching pilot-projects and  possible modifications to a grant-making programme, etc.