Portfolio

A quarter of a century of work on city/commune development strategies and hundreds of training courses I have given on this subject tell me one thing. Poland needs thousands of highly qualified and motivated local authorities and self-government managers.

So it happened! Yesterday, the President of Poland signed an act that not only revolutionizes our spatial planning, but also gives a superior role to commune development strategy (we have 2477 communes), making it mandatory soon.

The book I reviewed for AOSIS Scholarly Books describes the methods of promoting sustainable economic development used by South African local authorities.

This is Aizhana Kazybayeva, a PhD student at Almaty Management University, Almaty, Kazakhstan and a graduate of the KDI School of Public Policy and Management, Sejong, South Korea. She won a grant of Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange to come to me for a month-long internship at the Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Poland

You can like the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher or not. However, this great novel by A. Sapkowski is definitely worth reading. And in Polish City of Ostrołęka they went even further.

When building a commune development strategy, it is necessary to talk to the inhabitants, including young people and seniors. However, it must be a thorough, honest and well-prepared conversation.

This is Megna Kalvani, PhD student at SP Jain School of Global Management. He came from Dubai to learn on development strategies of Polish communes.

The new law on commune development strategy raises the expectations bar high for the Polish local authorities and senior management. However, it also gives them a chance to improve their governance style, which will be all to the good for residents, businesses and the environment, as well as for themselves.

This is João Paulo Moreira Silva, PhD student at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte. He came from Brazil to learn on development strategies of Polish communes

I stayed in Compton for a week. It has industry, but is known for crime and rap. According to the FBI, in 2010 it was the 8th most dangerous city in the USA.

This time, for 2 days I taught strategic governance to the authorities and management of Jelenia Góra city. I am glad that I could do it for a city that is near and dear to me!

It depends which one 🙂 When I came to Irvine, USA to meet its mayor James Gross, I thought – it’s rather like that.

This is another Polish commune where I explained the new, nationwide regulations in this area. The most important thing, however, is that I managed to show a modern, strategic approach to governance of local socio-economic development. I also believe that I managed to encourage them, motivate them, pass on parts of my strategic governance passion.

Good strategies of communes/cities mean better life, business and the environment, and the development of Poland. However, they must be really good, also in detail, otherwise, instead of development, they will bring serious problems.

I have reviewed and recommend the book “Local innovations strategies as an instrument for creating innovativeness and supporting development”

In order to govern well, you have to want it first. Fortunately, among Polish self-government officials you can often meet people who want it.

During my lectures at Univerzita Jana Evangelisty Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem – UJEP, Czech Republic, I talked with students how the financial independence of local self-governments influences how they develop their communes.

At the jubilee XX Self-Government Forum of Capital and Finance, I had the honor to moderate the plenary debate on “The upcoming reform of the spatial management system and its consequences (including financial) for self- governments”, as well as took a part in the discussion panel on “Financial management as part of the local development strategy”.

I attended the extension professors and agents workshop 🙂 What’s up? Read on!

While visiting the University of Kentucky, I participated in the defense of an interesting self-government’ master’s thesis. Its author, Ms Lindsay Vance examined how the inhabitants’ place attachment influences attitudes to the tourism development. In other words, she checked whether if someone really likes area, then wants to “sell” it to tourists or rather not.