Donor board digest July-December 2019

Following the appointment of the new Minister of the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development
(Minregion), two Donor Board meetings were organized in the second half of 2019. At the meeting on October 17, 2019,
held at the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on State Building, Local Self-Government, Regional
Development and Urban Planning, the conceptual basis for the proposed amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine
related to decentralization were presented (these were later reflected in the draft Law of Ukraine on Amendments to
the Constitution of Ukraine - Reg. No. 2598, submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by the President on
December 13, 2019)1
. At the meeting on December 13, 2019, the Minister, Mrs. A. Babak, summarized current
achievements of the decentralization reform and presented the reform implementation outlook for 2020, based on the
new Action Plan of the Government of Ukraine2
. The main target is to complete territorial administrative reorganization
of the country and conduct regular local elections in 2020 on a new territorial administrative basis. To meet the
challenge to accelerate the reform and implement the Government’s Action Plan related to decentralization reform, the
Minister asked the donor community to support the Office for Decentralization and Regional Development Reform
under the leadership and coordination of Minregion. The proposal was approved and the decision was taken to
establish the Office as a multi-donor funded structure, headed and coordinated by Minregion. The Donor Board has
also approved Minregion’s initiative to establish a new WG on Gender, under the auspices of DB.
During the second part of 2019, 25 meetings of 10 WGs established under the auspices of the Donor Board were
organized.
1
ADMINISTRATIVE TERRITORIAL
REFORM AND DECENTRALIZATION
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
The WG focused on discussing the amendments to the
Constitution of Ukraine, territorial administrative reform
at regional and sub-regional levels, and the electoral
system at local government level. In the discussion the
participants raised the following arguments, concerns
and recommendations3
:
 Communities that do not meet the sustainability
criteria and are not formed in accordance with the
methodology are less likely to remain in this
configuration and are likely to be joined by other
communities. The presence of a significant number of
economically disadvantaged, deeply subsidized and
small communities can compromise the reform.
Responsibility for this situation and its resolution in the
perspective amalgamation plans is clearly borne by the
regional state administrations. Communication
strategies have a very important role to play in this
context;
1
https://donors.decentralizatin.gov.ua/uploads/admin/do-
nor_board_meeting/protocol/files/5dbae177c043246701310339/DB_
minutes_17.10.19.pdf
2
https://donors.decentralization.gov.ua/uploads/admin/do-
nor_board_meeting/protocol/files/5e00e440c043243e9e6d3ce7/DB_
minutes_13.12.10.pdf
3
https://donors.decentralization.gov.ua/uploads/admin/proto-
col/file/files/5dc94d34c043244f99964520/WG1_minutes_30.10.19.pdf
 The regional state administrations and cities of
regional significance play a decisive role in the
completion of the amalgamation process, in line with
the methodology;
 The need to ensure a proper consultative process in
the regions, despite the tight schedule for finalizing the
amalgamation process;
 Unclear answer to the question of whether there will
be self-governance (elected Councils) at the rayon level;
 Decisions on the future of rayons are being taken when
there is little comprehensive functional analysis of this
level of government during the modelling;
 An urgent need to synchronize Minregion’s vision for
regional and sub-regional government levels (and
Decentralization
Reform in Ukraine
Donor Board on Digest #8
July-December 2019

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT
FINANCES AND BUDGETING2
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col/file/files/5d2ee93dc04324390fcdd369/Minutes_Group_2_09.07.19
._docx..pdf
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22.08.19.pdf
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col/file/files/5ddb97e6c043244b78a19790/Minutes_Group_05.11.19._
docx._final.pdf
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col/file/files/5d236ee9c043240f7a10baae/Minutes_Group_3_Local_De
mocracy_05.07.19.pdf
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https://donors.decentralization.gov.ua/uploads/admin/protocol/file
/files/5d3f0017c0432415caa1c12d/Minutes_Group_3_Local_Democ-
racy_12.07.19.pdf
9
https://donors.decentralization.gov.ua/uploads/admin/protocol/file
/files/5e04bd42c04324212648f857/Minutes_Group_3_Local_Democ-
racy_19.12.19.pdf
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2.08.19__1_.pdf
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11.12.19.pdf
3МІСЦЕВА ДЕМОКРАТІЯ
4REGIONAL AND
LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
implications for the LSG functions) with the vison and
ongoing regulations development processes of other
line Ministries;
 Managing tension between a need to strictly follow the
methodology of forming sustainable hromadas
without exceptions (in order to efficiently finalize the
reform) and to manage local peculiarities;
 A need to ensure accessibility to all the regulatory bills
that are being currently discussed (e.g. at Minregion’s
site) so that external experts can spot and prevent
inconsistences in the use of terminology;
 A need to closely coordinate with the WG on local
elections at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine;
 Ambiguities related to the changes proposed to the
Law “On the Capital of Ukraine - The Hero City of Kyiv”.
During its meetings the WG 2 discussed and coordinated
the following issues:
 Application of a gender approach to the budget
process and local governments’ capacity, including
data collection;
 The conceptual basis of the drafts to the amendments
of the Laws of Ukraine “On Local Self-Government in
Ukraine”, “On Local State Administrations” regarding
the division of powers between the state executive
bodies and local self-governments and the budgetary
aspects4
;
 Implementation of decentralization of cultural services
provision and its budgetary implications, and a need to
establish calculation of cultural services costs, based
on defined standards5
;
 The review of criteria for assessing sustainability of
amalgamated hromadas for amending the methodolo-
gical recommendations for assessing sustainability of
communities elaborated by Minregion;
 Draft State Budget of Ukraine for 2020 and flagging cri-
tical issues related to local self-governments’ finances6
.
The WG 3 focused on finalizing the methodological
guidelines on regulating local self-organizations. Among
other issues the group has:
 Reviewed the results of the joint work of OSCE and the
CoE on the conceptual framework for changes to local
elections legislation (the WG was invited to involve
experts and provide inputs to a special working group
under OSCE that drafts legislation on local elections)7
;
 Discussed key issues in the area of local democracy
development that require legislative regulation, and
proposals to the conceptual foundations of the
new version of the Law of Ukraine “On Local
Self-Government in Ukraine” regarding the settlement
of local democracy issues8
;
 Coordinated international projects plans in relation to
support of local democracy and e-democracy in 20209
.
The WG 4 held meetings on the following two key issues:
 Coordination between the Ministry of Culture, Youth,
Sports and Tourism, other agencies and international
projects on synchronizing and linking approaches
to regional development and culture development10
;
 Sharing information on existing approaches and
methodologies on integrated urban and rural local
development and spatial planning to inform
Minregion’s ongoing work on regulating and providing
guidance to hromadas in this area11
.
July-December 2019
Decentralization
Reform in Ukraine

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col/file/files/5de62390c043244a5c238125/Minutes_Group_5.1._29.
11.19.pdf
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E%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB_%D0%A0%D0%93_5.3
_%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%B4_16.07.19_.pdf
14
https://donors.decentralization.gov.ua/uploads/admin/protocol/file/
files/5e0a29a6c043246ade782b0c/Minutes_Group_5.3_17.12.19.pdf
15
col/file/files/5de5040fc0432458313fa541/MInutes_Group_5.3._educa
tion_Subgroup_26.11.19.pdf
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files/5dd656ccc04324296b2fea60/Minutes_Group_5.3.2._15.11.2019.pdf
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files/5dcd4e84c0432423e090b798/Minutes_Group__5.3.2_29.10.2019.pdf
18
files/5dc94e37c043243a873521e1/WG_Minutes_5.3.2.__06.11.2019.pdf
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col/file/files/5dd656ccc04324296b2fea60/Minutes_Group_5.3.2._15.11.20
19.pdf
5.1 Administrative Services
5PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISION
The WG 5.1 reviewed the outcomes of “ULEAD with
Europe” Program work related to public policy on
administrative services, the results of the GIZ project
"Administrative Reform in Eastern Ukraine II" on the
TSNAPs monitoring system, and focused on the following
issues12
:
 Reviewing the accessibility criterion for TSNAPs in the
context of the new Government’s Action Plan;
 Implications of the rayon level government reform for
the provision of administrative services to the
population;
 Further delegation of authority to provide basic
administrative services by local authorities;
 Ensuring effective monitoring of TSNAPs work in
accordance with planned and existing developments.
5.3 Humanitarian Policy
The WG 5.3 discussed the following priority issues:
 Preliminary conceptual proposals on re-distribution
of powers for the new version of the Law “On Local
Self-Government in Ukraine” and for further elabora-
tion of draft state standards13
;
 A need to continue inter-Ministerial coordination in
the framework of the WG following change of the
Government and representatives of the line Minis-
tries14
.
5.3.1 Education
The WG 5.3.1 focused on the following set of issues15
:
 Conceptual and financial approaches to compulsory
preschool education and review of the draft Law “On
Preschool Education”;
 Conceptual changes in the system of development of
art education as a part of school extracurricular
education, and requirements for capacity-building
support in this area;
 Needs for international technical assistance for
improving school and pre-school education standards,
as well as other challenges in implementing education
decentralization reform in cooperation with the
Ministry of Education and Science;
 Needs and approaches to acceleration of formation of
a sustainable network of school education facilities;
 Conceptual approaches to implementing financial
autonomy of educational institutions;
 Introduction of effective communication between all
stakeholders regarding the implementation of the new
education policy;
 The concepts of the specialized profile school
(starshoyi profilnoyi shkoli).
5.3.2 Culture, Youth, Sports and Tourism
The WG 5.3.2 had several internal meetings led by the
Ministry of Culture, Youth, Sports and Tourism to discuss
approaches to reforming the provision of cultural
services to the population and a number of
cross-fertilization meetings with other WGs, under the
auspices of the Donor Board, to present and reflect on:
 Introduction of a project-based, result-oriented
approach to provision and financing of cultural
services (various models16
);
 Needs for further inter-agency coordination17
and
coordination with the ongoing projects supporting
decentralization in the sphere of culture, youth, sports
and tourism18
;
 Existing experience and emerging models of provision
of cultural services and services for youth in
hromadas19
;
 Conceptual changes in the system of development of
art education as a source of community development.
Digest April-September 2018
Decentralization
Reform in Ukraine

20
col/file/files/5d1b7ad4c043242fc0b256ac/Minutes_Group__5.5_02.07.
2019.pdf)
21
col/file/files/5ddfa4a9c043240a7bc87603/Minutes_Group_5.5_25.11.
2019.pdf
22
col/file/files/5d6d07d9c0432443923f53ae/Minutes_Group_5.5_29.08.
2019.pdf
23
col/file/files/5dbaa6bcc043243678a9f072/Minutes_Group_6.1._30.10.
19_EN.pdf
The WG 5.5 has provided inputs to the preparation of
materials for the Conference on Civil Protection in the
Framework of Decentralization, which was held on
8 October 201920
, as well as:
 Continued work on finalizing the Guide for hromadas
on volunteers mobilization and management, and
provided proposals for the Civilian Safety Guide
related to security audit and public relations"21
;
 Reviewed standards for Security Centers for
hromadas22
.
5.5 Public Security
6
The activities of the WG 6.2.2 were aimed at supporting
Minregion in updating the Communication Strategy for
2020-2022 on the local self-government and decentra-
lization reform, based on the new Government’s Action
Plan and Minregion’s priorities23
. The updated Strategy
is in place and can be received upon request.
6.2.2 Communication of Decentralization Reform
COMMUNICATION, TRAINING SYSTEMS
AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Among the remaining issues requiring donors’ and the
Minregion’s discussion and decisions are:
Reconfirming participation of line Ministries in the
WGs (following change of management and relevant
staff in most Ministries) and review by donors and
Minregion of the WGs’ coordination arrangements;
Alignment of WGs’ foci and international assistance
projects with the Minregion’s annual Action Plan 2020,
with elaboration based on the overall Government’s
Priority Action Plan and Activities Plans of the future
Office for Reform Support at Minregion;
Reflecting on the implications of upcoming
transformations of the government system at oblast
and rayon levels.
Pending issues requiring attention
July-December 2019
Decentralization
Reform in Ukraine

Donor board digest July-December 2019

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Donor board digest July-December 2019