The document summarizes the work of several Working Groups established by the Donor Board on Decentralization Reform in Ukraine from April to September 2017. The Working Groups focused on finalizing a framework to monitor decentralization reform progress across key sectors. Updates are provided on discussions within each Working Group, including on adopting laws to further decentralization, coordinating financial decentralization between ministries, improving local democracy, measuring regional development, reforming administrative services, coordinating public services, and establishing strategies and training for communication and knowledge management.

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Decentralization
Reform in Ukraine
Donor Board on
This is the first Digest of the Donor Board on Decentralization Reform in Ukraine. It will be issued
quarterly by the Donor Board Secretariat and will update Donor Board members and the Ministry of
Regional Development, Construction and Communal Services of Ukraine (MinRegion) of the work of the
Donor Board structures (the Working Groups and the Secretariat) and will highlight those issues that
require the attention of the Donor Board at strategic and policy levels.
Digest April – September 2017
Since the establishment of the Board in spring 2017, the following
Working Groups (WG) have been set up:
Working Group #1 on Administrative Territorial Reform and
Decentralization Legal Framework
Working Group #2 on Local Self-Government Finances and Budgeting
Working Group #3 on Local Democracy
Working Group #4 on Regional and Local Development
Working Group #5.1 on Administrative Services
Working Group #5.2 on Municipal Services
Working Group #5.3 on Humanitarian Policy
Working Group #5.4 on Healthcare Services
Working Group #6.1 on Communication
Working Group #6.2 on Training System and Knowledge Management
The first round of WG meetings
focused on the finalization of a
Common Results Framework (CRF)
for Decentralization Reform
Implementation in Ukraine, and
included a set of indicators to
ensure a unified decentralization
and local self-governance (LSG)
reform progress monitoring. An
agreement was reached with the
MinRegion and the EU to set up an
integrated automated monitoring
system that will allow the tracking
of reform achievements across the
key sectors, requiring data inputs
from key sectoral Ministries and
the regions. It will also be useful to
various consumers, including the
public.
Below is an update on the discussions and issues raised under each thematic WG:
2ADMINISTRATIVE TERRITORIAL REFORM
AND DECENTRALIZATION LEGAL
FRAMEWORK
Delays in adopting constitutional changes and lack of
supportive legislation for further development of a new
LSG system call for additional pressure to address these
issues. The MinRegion and the Donor Board Secretariat, in
consultations with the donor community, initiated an
outreach meeting of the Donor Board members with
members of the Verkhovna Rada to advocate for a legal
regulation in such areas as: i) ensuring the ubiquity of local
self-government (in particular land management outside of
settlements and spatial planning on the whole territory of
amalgamated communities); ii) forming an efficient rayon
structure within the administrative and territorial setup; iii)
public service delivery in local self-governments; and iv)
further promotion of voluntary amalgamation of territorial
communities (in particular, towns of oblast significance). A
brief on the details of the existing legal initiatives and
positions of different stakeholders was prepared with the
participation of the WG 1 members.
LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT FINANCES
AND BUDGETING
The Group advocates for better coordination between the
MinRegion and other sectoral Ministries in the area of
financial decentralization, in particular, subventions for
healthcare. There is a need to advance the subvention
calculation formula for primary and secondary healthcare
levels and to secure working relations between the Donor
Board WGs 2 and 5.4 and the donor coordination body
being established at the Ministry of Health. The MinRegion
has already sent a letter to the Ministry of Health initiating
the set-up of an inter-sectoral WG to address the pending
cross-sectoral issues.
LOCAL
DEMOCRACY
The group called for transparency of the process of
drafting laws related to local democracy, and in
particular, the laws “On the Statutes of Territorial
Hromadas” and “On Starosta” (village chairperson), and

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pointed to the need to adjust the Local Democracy Concept
to the decentralization reform realities. The WG found it
challenging to define reliable indicators for measuring the
quality of local democracy; the indicators are still being
discussed.
REGIONAL
AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
The group’s discussions have been focusing on
synchronization of approaches between the MinRegion
and the State Statistics Service of Ukraine to measure
regional and local development and, in particular, the use
of sustainable development indicators and the regional
competitiveness index. The WG raised the need for a
unified approach/ methodological recommendations
regarding regional planning, as well as the need to speed
up the process of drafting and adopting the law “On State
Strategic Planning” that will lay the foundations for sectoral
strategic planning. The group has initiated the elaboration
of a list of social-economic development indicators for
enlarged communities (hromadas) that can be used for
measuring and comparing development across hromadas.
It is also developing a list of “white spots” (gaps): areas that
require urgent donor support to advancing regional and
local development. Reforming the local cadastre system
was already identified as one of those gaps.
PUBLIC SERVICE
PROVISION
5.1 Administrative services
The group provided a set of practical recommendations
for launching and maintaining the administrative
services reform portal www.cnap.in.ua (including the
use of a joint calendar for coordination of training
events related to CNAPs in hromadas) and is now
initiating the process of elaborating a unified
mechanism for assessing CNAPs’ performance, for
which additional donor assistance is required. Donor
funding is also being sought for organizing the
country-wide monitoring of the quality of administrative
service provision.
5.2 Municipal Services
The WG appealed to the MinRegion to conduct in the
near future inter-sectoral coordination meetings related
to the elaboration of a National Water Strategy (water
and sanitation), as well as communal service provision
standards and a system of communal service provision
monitoring. Communal assets management was
identified as a gap in the existing training system, which
is being brought to the attention of WG 6.2. It was
recommended that the MinRegion seek donor support
for elaborating a regulatory package related to the work
of condominiums. The group has also started discussing
recommendations for hromadas on implementing civil
protection functions (e.g. policing, fire brigades, disaster
preparedness that are being transferred to LSGs –
another area that requires urgent donor support.
5.3 Humanitarian policy
The WG identified a need for coordination between the
Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture and the
Ministry of Youth and Sport regarding the issue of
establishing educational-humanitarian districts in
hromadas. It also pointed to the general lack of donor
technical assistance in the area of youth policy, culture
and sports.
5.4 Healthcare Services
The launch of this WG has been delayed due to lengthy
negotiations with the Ministry of Health concerning
possible coordination roles (given that the Ministry of
Health has its own coordination platform with relevant
donors). The MinRegion has sent a letter to the Ministry
of Health asking for the set-up of an inter-ministerial WG
on pending issues that require coordination.
COMMUNICATION, TRAINING SYSTEMS
AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
6.1 Communication
The WG focused on the elaboration of the Communication
Strategy and Action Plan and their adoption, incorporating
the identification of indicators that can allow measuring
success of their implementation, and the restyling of the
decentralization brand (including adoption of a common
logo and the use of the website decentralization.gov.ua).
6.2 Training System and Knowledge Management
The WG has identified two priorities on which it will focus in
the near future: a) Elaboration of a long-term LSG Training
Concept under the auspices of the MinRegion, and b)
coordination of training and other technical support
provision in the regions by different projects and service
providers that will be led by U-LEAD and its Central Reform
Office. In this context, the possibility of establishing
Regional Coordination Boards at the level of regional state
administrations and the Centers of LSG Development is
being considered.
Digest April-September 2017