Research Center for Regional Security joined the Swiss-Ukrainian project "Support of Decentralization in Ukraine".
Project Background
By signing the European Charter of Local Self-Government in 1997, Ukraine declared its recognition not only of the European principles of democratic governance, but has assumed certain obligations related to reforms in the field and their legislative support. Practical implementation of European principles of good governance and promote further decentralization of power implies active involvement of international best practices. In 2005 a formal request to the President of Ukraine Government of Switzerland for Swiss assistance in decentralization Swiss Cooperation Office (SCO / SDC) supported the project "Decentralization Support in Ukraine» DESPRO.
DESPRO - a Swiss-Ukrainian project "Decentralization Support in Ukraine", funded by the Swiss Confederation through the Swiss Cooperation Office (SCO / SDC) and implemented by the Swiss Resource Centre and Consultancies for Development (Skat).
The mission of the project is to optimize the management system and promoting effective local development in Ukraine, which in turn will create a new momentum for democratic processes and service delivery at the community level.
The project involves three phases: phase I (2007-2010), Phase II (2010-2013) and Phase III (2013-2017).
The aim of the first phase of the project consisted in establishing models for decentralized public services at district, village and municipal levels that can be played and should be adopted and approved at the region and state as a whole.
The task of the second phase of the project DESPRO:
• Improvement of service quality and access in the target areas.
• Implementation of effective models of management experience / knowledge sector of decentralization and local governance.
• Support for the development of national reform of decentralization and local governance.
Phase III of the project DESPRO:
Objective 1. Implement sustainable models of decentralized service delivery, development of mechanisms for decentralized service delivery at the level of small towns and villages targeted locations, their integration into national processes in decentralization reforms to further spread to other regions.
Task 2. Promoting the implementation of reforms on decentralization and local governance in Ukraine, providing advisory support for decentralization and local government reform key institutions and national associations of local governments, based on the accumulated during the project implementation experience to provide services at the local level cooperation between different levels of government and community involvement in the reform process.
DESPRO provides technical assistance and helps to improve public services in villages of Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava and Sumy regions. Given this regionally DESPRO partners are the regional administrations and regional councils, district administrations, district and village councils, non-governmental organizations in the target regions. During the first two phases (2007-2013) one of the targets of the project was DESPRO ARC. Currently there activity is suspended.