Dialogue with stakeholders “Influence of decentralization on governance practices of united communities”
On April 14-15, the Aspen Institute Kyiv held online consultations with stakeholders on the issues of governance practices in united territorial communities.
Representatives of 12 oblasts took part in the dialogue: leaders of the municipalities, members of Ukrainian parliament, representatives of The Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, other state bodies, civil unions, international organizations, as well as experts, and participants of the Good Governance Program.
Successful public administration experience in communities was presented by Oleksiy Diachenko, Deputy Head of Veselivka united community (Zapporizhya oblast), and Veniamin Sitov, Head of Merefa united community (Kharkiv oblast). “Supporting entrepreneurship and attraction of investments are crucial for communities. We created the Center for supporting entrepreneurship, which helps to open a business on simplified procedure”, – mentioned Oleksiy Diachenko. Veniamin Sitov underlined the value of sustainable development of community, fruitful cooperation with international technical support projects, and active citizens’ powerful engagement to solve community problems.
Representatives of stakeholders discussed policy proposals in the sphere of governance practices of united communities, that were formulated as outcomes of dialogue on December 10-11, 2019. Also, dialogue participants gave their recommendations on such topics:
- Organizational models of communities and the process of authority transfer.
- Organizational capacity of local governments in the context of implementation of widen economic authority.
- The citizens’ engagement and cooperation with stakeholders.
During the discussion, the most controversial issues were the separation of authority between the basic level of local self-government (UTCs), and with rayons and oblast. Most participants underlined negative effects of authority delegation from local (UTC) to sub-regional (rayon) level. Proposals were made to strengthen inter-municipal cooperation in the management of second-level medical institutions (clinics).
On the issue of strengthening the quality of public administration, the participants once again emphasized the role of the professional level of local government officials, the need to develop professional and educational standards. An important aspect of the quality of community governance is competence in policy-making, the ability to shape effective local policies with engagement of local council deputies.
The participants of the dialogue agreed to continue cooperation and jointly work out proposals to strengthen the managerial capacity of the united territorial communities. Such solutions will be presented within the next phase of Good Governance Program.
More details about the Good Governance Program by the link >>
Good Governance Program is supported by a grant from Luminate and National Endowment for Democracy.
