The Constituent Partnership Meeting in Odesa is the fourth in a series of similar meetings within the project intended to step up the process of voluntary accession of territorial communities to cities of oblast subordination (COS) and other amalgamated territorial communities (ATC) in Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv oblasts by creating a platform for dialog between all stakeholders.
The project involves devising a project-based approach to community accession to COS and ATC on the initiative of COS and ATC representatives in cooperation with their partners (the Reform Delivery Office at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing, and Utilities of Ukraine, oblast state administration, oblast council, U-LEAD with Europe, DOBRE (a USAID Program), the Association of Ukrainian Cities, OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine), identifying opportunities, benefits, and risks of creating new capable communities and discussing them through dialog with acceding communities.
The enactment of Law No. 2379-VIII dated 4/3/2018 on voluntary accession of territorial communities to cities of oblast subordination gave the formation of new amalgamated communities a new powerful impulse. However, many capable cities and adjacent communities naturally come up with many questions and topics for discussion during accession.
By meeting with the representatives of Odesa Oblast State Administration, the oblast council, cities of oblast subordination, and existing amalgamated united territorial communities, participants were able to identify and talk through their complex issues of accession, relations and conditions of cooperation between COS, ATC, and rural communities, to find out whether a strategic map of opportunities can be created, and then present this proposal to neighboring communities.
Notably, Odesa Oblast has been quite actively involved in decentralization since 2015 — as of today, 32 amalgamated territorial communities created in the oblast are home to 14% of its population and cover 32% of its area.
However, problems also exist. The Forward Plan of Creation of Capable Territorial Communities adopted by the oblast council and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine does not cover more than 65% of the oblast territory. That is, the oblast has not had an ultimate vision of the prospects for community amalgamation for the 5 years of reform, which means it lacks an understanding of economic development of these territories, too. Of the nine cities of oblast subordination, only one, Balta, created a successful amalgamated territorial community back in 2015. They receive financial support from the government to develop infrastructure and help newly acceding communities to develop. As of today, others have yet to begin accession negotiations — towns that are to become the centers of economic development for the territories. They are unwilling to view their prospects of development together with neighboring territories as they believe that these are new challenges, not opportunities.
By the way, 11 out of 26 rayons in Odesa Oblast have not created a single territorial community. This means that 336 communities in the oblast have not been receiving additional financial resources for the development of community infrastructure for the 5 years of reform, while other amalgamated communities are already building new schools, kindergartens, and roads, installing lighting and water pipes, opening administrative services centers to serve people living in the newly acceding capable communities.
The status of the implementation of the reform across the oblasts developed monthly by the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing, and Utilities of Ukraine, can be checked at https://storage.decentralization.gov.ua/uploads/library/file/443/10.08.2....
The dialog meeting at the oblast state administration assisted by experts and dialog facilitators revealed that the cities of oblast subordination and surrounding communities indeed have a good common potential for developing, raising investment, implementing joint projects, but what many of them so far lack at this stage is inter-municipal strategies, a vision of prospects, and dialog.
It is important for community members to understand the prospects for their future lives, the status of the health care system, the location of rural health posts, outpatient clinics, hospitals and polyclinics, kindergartens and schools. It is important to calculate and think these through as early as during the preparation of accession proposals.
The meeting participants reached an agreement on the need to create working groups in every city of oblast subordination that will include experts of the oblast state administration and experts of international technical assistance projects. Maps of community development prospects should be also devised over the next two months and then presented to neighboring communities.
This is a fascinating experience of creating a platform for cooperation between central and local government and international technical assistance projects intended to improve prospects for community development.
