The document outlines the activities and priorities of the donor board on decentralization reform in Ukraine for January-March 2018, including efforts to enhance coordination, administrative-territorial reform, and local self-government finances. It emphasizes the need for legislative action from the Verkhovna Rada to accelerate decentralization and highlights various working groups focusing on issues such as local democracy, administrative services, and public security. Key themes include the establishment of effective regional cooperation, capacity-building for local governments, and integration of social services.

1. 1
Decentralization
Reform in Ukraine
Donor Board on
THIS IS THE THIRD 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).
In January 2018, the co-chairmanship of the Donor Board was transferred from Switzerland to the EU Delegation
in Ukraine.
During the period of January-March 2018, the Donor Board Secretariat focused on a) reformatting the work of
several Working Groups (WGs) that have not been active recently; b) facilitating coordination among different actors
on accelerating the process of amalgamation in the regions; c) supporting MinRegion in automatization and
synchronization of international technical assistance projects reporting procedures with the Common Results
Framework; d) supporting the ULEAD Task Force on developing a unified MinRegion database for monitoring the
decentralization process and regional development by involving the WGs in verifying the proposed set of indicators.
The work of the WGs in the past three months and the priority issues that require the Donor Board’s and projects’
attention in the coming period are summarized below.
Digest
January-March 2018
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ADMINISTRATIVE TERRITORIAL REFORM
AND DECENTRALIZATION LEGAL
FRAMEWORK
To accelerate the pace of the decentralization reform, in
particular the ongoing process of amalgamation of
territorial communities, a number of pending draft laws
should be adopted by the Verkhovna Rada (VR).
Following the submission of a joint statement of the
Donor Board to the VR in November 2017, and a
meeting between the Donor Board and the VR’s
Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local
Self-Governance in February 2018, a follow-up meeting
is being planned with the Speaker of the VR. According
to the Action Plan of the MinRegion for 2018, discussed
at the last WG meeting in March 2018, priorities include:
1) creating a new administrative-territorial basis for local
self-government (in particular, in those rayons where a
hromada territory covers the whole territory of a rayon),
and adoption of the Law on the Principles of
Administrative-Territorial Structure; 2) pursuing passage
of draft laws that promote amalgamation, land transfer,
etc. (the list was proposed by Special Envoy G. Milbradt);
and 3) finalization of prospective plans of amalgamation
to cover the entire territory of oblasts.
LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT FINANCES
AND BUDGETING
No meeting of the WG has taken place yet in 2018.
However, among other pending issues the group
suggested thematic priorities in 2018 are:
1) capacity-building on program-based management for
hromadas in the context of the recent changes in the
Budget Code that require formation of budgets on the
basis of program-based planning; and 2) stimulating the
increase of local budget revenues through favorable
conditions for economic development, including settling
the issues of land management competencies of
hromadas and improving their spatial planning abilities.
To accelerate the amalgamation process and to
specifically target 130 rayons where amalgamation has
not been taking place at all, a well-targeted and
coordinated effort between different organizations and
donor projects is needed, including between the local
self-government (LSG) development offices of ULEAD
and the LSG Associations. The general vision for
consolidating all efforts was prepared by the Central
Reform Office, which can serve as a coordination
platform at the regional level.
General Outlook

2. 3
Decentralization
Reform in Ukraine
4
5
LOCAL DEMOCRACY
The Concept of the Modernization of the System of
Organizational and Legal Support for Local Democracy
in Ukraine, proposed by the Renaissance Foundation,
has been extensively discussed by the WG. It is still to
be finalized but is already recognized by all group
members and MinRegion as a potential framework for
promoting local democracy in Ukraine. The group
members have also been actively involved in the
discussion of bill on introducing changes and
amendments to some laws of Ukraine on participatory
democracy, which affects the way local democracy is
regulated at the local level, including through the
statutes of hromadas. Among the priority foci for the
near future the group sees: 1) finalization,
awareness-building and promotion of the
implementation of the Concept (including through the
LSG Associations and the Coordination Council under
the President of Ukraine on promoting civil society
development); 2) provision of methodological support
to hromadas on elaboration of their statute and
extensive usage of the existing local democracy tools;
and 3) advancing the work on e-democracy.
5.1 Administrative Services
A meeting between the group and the Ministry of Social
Policy took place on the integration of social services
provision with territorial centers for administrative
services provision (TsNAP). It has identified a number of
concerns that need to be addressed to pursue such
integration effectively, including: avoiding parallelism in
establishing TsNAPs and social services centers;
overcoming resistance of the regional authorities
responsible for social affairs; unification of some
definitions of services; access to the registers of the
Ministry of Social Policy; cooperation with the Pension
Fund; etc. In general, there is a need to elaborate a clear
vision on the integration of the 38 pilot social service
centers planned by the Ministry of Social Policy with the
TsNAPs. Besides, the group advocates for the
implementation of the Cabinet of Ministers’ Resolution
523 that defines the list of administrative services to be
provided by TsNAPS. The group highlights the issue of
TsNAPs being established in Luhansk and Donetsk
oblasts, where ULEAD is restricted to amount of support
it can provide: coordination of donors’ investments in
these two regions is required. Developing and applying a
unified methodology for surveying administrative
services quality across the country remains high on the
coordination agenda.
5.2 Municipal Services
The role of WG 5.2 needs to be reviewed, given a very
limited number of donors and projects currently
involved in the communal services sector. However,
MinRegion needs support in formulating a sharper
vision of gradual decentralization in the communal
services and housing domain and, in particular, in the
context of the inter-sectoral work on the elaboration of
the National Strategy on Water Supply and Sanitation
(for which a working group within the Ministry with the
involvement of DESPRO and other key actors in the
sector is formed). Discussions are underway with Mr.
Krugliak, Deputy Minister of MinRegion, regarding a
more active engagement of the departments of the
Ministry under his supervision.
5.3 Humanitarian policy
Coordination and discussion of joint approaches,
opportunities and challenges related to the
establishment of common humanitarian districts
(spaces) in hromadas between Minregion, and the
PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISION
REGIONAL
AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
The WG 4 is being reactivated following the process of
re-staffing the Minregion’s department responsible for
regional development. In future, the group will
distinguish between regional development (the
mandate of the Minregions’s Directorate for Regional
Development which is largely supported by the ULEAD
Regional Development Project) and local development
(the mandate of the Minregion’s Directorate for LSG,
Territorial Reorganization of Power and
Administrative-Territorial Structure that deals with
multiple international assistance projects), while
ensuring linkages between the two. The focus of the
group work in the near future will be coordination with
donors and international projects supporting economic
regional and local development (which are not yet
integrated in the work of the Donor Board at
Minregion, like for instance the International Financial
Institutions) and monitoring of regional and local
development.
Digest January-March 2018

3. 5.5 Public Security
The WG has been concentrating on elaboration of a
guide on the organization and financing of integrated
civil protection and public security services at the local
level for different types of hromadas (taking into
consideration Polish, American and Canadian
experience). The draft is being produced as a result of
close cooperation between Minregion, Ministry of
Interior Affairs, State Emergency Service, National Police,
Ukrainian Red Cross, ULEAD and UNDP. The agencies
have successfully coordinated the choice of pilot sites
for establishing decentralized security centers, as well as
established a common understanding of such concepts
as community policing and GreenRooms. Further
methodological and information support, advocacy for
property transfer from the state to hromadas,
coordination with the Ministry of Health and
encouraging hromadas to apply for the projects on
security centers to the State Fund for Regional
Development will remain among priorities.
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Decentralization
Reform in Ukraine
Ministries of Education and Science; Youth and Sports;
Social Policy; Culture; and the National
Deinstitutionalization Reform Office under the
Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s
Rights. In order to advance the work on joint
methodological recommendations for unified
humanitarian districts for hromadas, donors’ assistance
is required for the involvement of technical experts,
assessment of emerging models in the regions,
conducting local consultations and defining necessary
legal and regulatory changes.
5.4. Healthcare Services
Coordination between the Ministry of Health and the
MinRegion of technical topics related to the
implementation of state subsidies for rural primary
health care is currently underway. In the near future
both Ministries will decide if it is necessary to establish a
formal WG with a wider focus. Both the Ministry of
Health and the Health Care Committee of the Verkhovna
Rada appealed to the Donor Board for financial support
for a round of regional presentations on the health care
decentralization reform in 2018.
6.1 Communication
The WG 6.1 has been focusing on its action plan for
April-June 2018 on information provision for
accelerating the amalgamation of territorial
communities, and rolling out a coordinated information
campaign that will imply regional coordination,
provision of methodological support to communication
specialists of the LSG development centers funded by
ULEAD, partnerships with local and regional media, and
timely production and dissemination of printed and
electronic materials.
6.2 Training System and Knowledge Management
The WG is reviewing the CRF in the context of the
recently adopted “Concept of Reforming the
Professional Training System for Civil Servants, Local
State Administration Heads, their First Deputies and
Deputies, LSG Officials and Local Councilors”; it is also
initiating the discussion on how to align the efforts of
different international actors towards building a
sustainable national system of LSG training.
COMMUNICATION, TRAINING SYSTEMS AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Digest January-March 2018