Decentralisation in Ukraine

Reforms

The decentralization reform had the following provisions:

• Strengthen local government;
• Change
  administrative-territorial
  structure;
• Consolidate the “principle of omnipresence” (local governments are defined by lands on the territory of settlements);
• Empower local government with sufficient powers and resources;
• Reflect historical,
  United territorial communities
  ;
• Transfer roles that local governments can perform to
  local authorities
  ;

The reform consists of three key components:^[5]

• Reform of the territorial organisation of power
• Reform of local self-government
• Reform of regional policy

History

After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, the state increased local/regional government powers. In 1997 Ukraine ratified the European Charter of Local Self-Government, and adopted regulatory acts that established such powers. However, discussions concerning larger scale organisation as a rule concerned the distribution of powers at the national level.

Following

Results

During the reform, local budget revenues grew from ₴68.6 billion in 2014 to ₴146.6 billion in 2016. By the end of 2017, local budget revenues had reached ₴170.7 billion. In addition, amalgamated hromadas became more active in the process of budget formation: during the first 10 months of 2017, amalgamated hromadas increased their own revenues by 80%, while national revenues grew by only 31.8%. In addition, per capita development expenditures in January-September 2017 increased by 225% compared to 2016 (for example: in communities without amalgamated hromada, growth was only 50%).^[7]

From 2014 to 2017, state support for the development of amalgamated hromadas and their infrastructure increased from ₴0.5 billion up to ₴14.9 billion.^{[8][unreliable source?]}

International support

Donor agencies, embassies and multilateral organisations are financing and implementing programs and decentralization projects via a Donor Board.

The following projects and organisations are very active:^[9]

• U-LEAD with Europe Archived 25 July 2019 at the
  development agency) and Sida (agency of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs
  )
• DESPRO – Swiss-Ukrainian Project, funded by the
  Swiss Confederation through SDC
  and implemented by Skat
• USAID-funded DOBRE Archived 22 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  program
• Joint
  EU
  Project – “Community Based Approach to Local Development”