THIS IS THE FIFTH QUARTERLY DIGEST ISSUED BY THE SECRETARIAT OF THE DONOR BOARD ON DECENTRALIZATION REFORM AT THE MINISTRY OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, CONSTRUCTION AND COMMUNAL SERVICES OF UKRAINE (MINREGION).

1. Decentralization
Reform in Ukraine
Donor Board on Digest
October-December 2018 р.
General Outlook
THIS IS THE FIFTH QUARTERLY DIGEST ISSUED BY THE SECRETARIAT OF THE DONOR BOARD ON DECENTRALIZATION REFORM AT THE MINISTRY OF REGIONAL
DEVELOPMENT, CONSTRUCTION AND COMMUNAL SERVICES OF UKRAINE (MINREGION).
The activities of the DB and its WGs in the last three months can be summarized as follows:
1
ADMINISTRATIVE TERRITORIAL REFORM
AND DECENTRALIZATION LEGAL
FRAMEWORK
Following the launching of the new Decentralization
Roadmap presented at the Decentralization Forum on
December 5, 2018, the WG held a meeting where the
proposed territorial-administrative reform priorities
were discussed and a list of recommendations were
elaborated for the Donor Board with regards to priori-
ty support areas. It was also recommended to Minre-
gion to share its updated Strategic Plan for the Road-
map implementation with the international projects
and the donor community, in order to discuss it in the
nearest future.
LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT FINANCES
AND BUDGETING
The WG has not yet met since its discussion of Minre-
gion’s recommendations for the Budget 2019 and
legal adjustment priorities related to local finance and
budgeting that took place in early September 2018.
2
The WG 3 met intensively in the last three months and
focused on discussing and providing feedback to
Minregion’s drafts of a model statute that is being
recommended to amalgamated communities.
3LOCAL DEMOCRACY
Following established contacts with the major inter-
national projects and international financial institu-
tions supporting economic regional and local devel-
opment, relevant departments of the Ministry of
Economic Development and Trade and All-Ukrainian
business associations in summer 2019, the WG
conducted a meeting with them in October 2018 to
discuss Minregion's general regional development
strategic priorities for 2019 and its plans related to
institutional support of regional development in
particular.
4REGIONAL AND LOCAL
DEVELOPMENT
No meetings of WG 5.1 were held since September
2018.
5.1 Administrative Services
5.2 Municipal Services
The work of the WG was on hold since middle 2018
due to a need to lack of clarities with regards to
further inter-sectoral work and the role of Minregion
in the elaboration of a National Water Strategy and
future coordination arrangements in energy saving
and energy efficiency sector.
5PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISION

2. Digest October-December 2018
Decentralization
Reform in Ukraine
The WG has been mainly active in reviewing mid-term
and short-term priorities for education sector decen-
tralization (including through a planning session orga-
nized by ULEAD with the support of EDGE with partici-
pation of WG members, Minregion and the Ministry of
Education) and support that needs to be provided to
hromadas. Besides, the Ministry of Culture presented
to WG members and Minregion its new strategic
vision for decentralization in the culture sector.
In consultations with the WG members and Minre-
gion, two initiatives were elaborated and are now
being submitted for funding to donors – one by the
Ministry of Culture on hromada’s capacity building in
the area of decentralization of culture and one by the
Ombudsperson for Children and NGO “ (in close coor-
dination with the Ministry of Social Policy and Labor)
on providing guidance to hromadas in de-institution-
alization of orphanages in the contest of child care
decentralization policy and the newly approved “Child
friendly community” concept.
5.4 Healthcare Services
A formal WG on health care has not been established,
and coordination between Minregion and the Minis-
try of Health takes place bi-laterally so far.
5.5 Public Security
The Guide on the organization and financing of
integrated civil protection and public security services
at the local level for different types of hromadas that
were elaborated as a result of effective collaboration
of representatives from Minregion, Ministry of Interi-
At the last DB meeting that took place on December 18,
2018, the CoE was approved as a new Co-Chair from
the donor side for the year of 2019. Besides, following
internal reflections among the donor community, the
Donor Board launched a stocktaking exercise in order
to harvest lessons learned for the last two years of the
functioning of the DB and review the work of its WGs.
The format and process of this exercise will be further
defined by the CoE and Minregion in the nearest
future.
In parallel to this process, Minregion will launch consul-
tations with international projects and donors on its
new Strategic Plan under the new Decentralization
Roadmap, the draft of which was issued by the end of
2018.
General DB Issues
6COMMUNICATION, TRAINING SYSTEMS
AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
The WG 6.1 has been coordinating the efforts around
organization of the 2018 ATC Forum in December
2018 and contributions of different projects, as well
as development of a communication matrix to
support the legislative changes on Decentralization
for 2018 – beginning of 2019.
6.1 Communication
The WG 6.2 has agreed on a common version of CRF
between the international projects, MinRegion and
the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service in the
context of the recently adopted “Concept of Reform-
ing the System of Professional Training for State
Service Workers, Heads of Local State Administrations
and their Deputies, LSG Representatives and the Dep-
uties of Local Councils”. The National Agency of
Ukraine for Civil Service has been involving the WG
members in its meetings related to designing a
national electronic platform that would match train-
ing demand among local self-governments with exist-
ing training service providers.
6.2 Training System and Knowledge Management
or Affairs, State Emergency Service, National Police,
Ukrainian Red Cross, ULEAD and UNDP is planned to
be issued by the ULEAD project. Meanwhile, the
group has been discussing organization of work with
volunteers by amalgamated communities in the
public security domain.
5.3 Humanitarian policy