Decentralisation in Ukraine


Decentralisation in Ukraine is a series of reforms to give additional power and resources to local authorities. This process was intended to advance regional development and border reform. Successful steps have been taken. Angela Merkel, Georg Milbradt and Hugues Mingarelli praised the reforms. In opinion of financial experts decentralizing public funds of territorial communities, the state should use real instruments that can help create a strong regional economy on the territory.

Reforms

The decentralization reform had the following provisions:
The reform consists of three key components:
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 Euromaidan in 2014, the new government launched a national project "Decentralisation", on 1 April. The government of Volodymyr Groysman identified support for decentralisation as one of its priorities.

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.
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.

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: