DESPRO – Swiss- Ukrainain Decentralisation Support Project, Ukraine

SKAT facilitated and implemented DESPRO with an office structure in Kiev and a local project implementation team. Skat was responsible for the overall project management and realisation of project activities in order to achieve the set results.

DESPRO was established in response to request from the President of the Ukraine to the Swiss government for support of decentralising government to improve public services.

The political crisis of 2013-2014, annexation of Crimea and military conflict at the East Ukraine resulted in the difficult economic situation and a large number of Internally Displaced People. In this context, decentralisation reform is one of the country`s strategic priorities. DESPRO being an active promoter of decentralisation reform, faced new challenges- and opportunities- at national, oblast and local levels when providing technical and advocacy support to the implementation of reform.

The project mission was to optimize the management system and to promote effective local development in Ukraine, which, in turn, creates an impetus to democratic processes and to provide inclusive services at the community level. The project had two main approaches: the first was supporting decentralisation reform as well as political and administrative processes at all levels; the second was strengthening the capacity of the local government to deliver new decentralised services in the areas of water supply, sanitation (WS&S) and solid waste management (SWM).

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Main results

Between 2015 and 2020, Ukraine merged (“amalgamed”) municipal administrations and devolved authority, responsibility, and resources to these amalgamated communities. The administrative and fiscal decentralization triggered a change in mindset – a systemic change – amongst local community leaders, who realized that they are now responsible for their own development and have the resources at their disposal to affect change. This led to investments in local public spaces and services – improving the lives of citizens. It attracted citizens, farmers, and businesspeople to municipal affairs and ostensibly induced more bottom-up, participatory, transparent, and deliberative decision-making processes in the amalgamated communities.

The DESPRO project significantly contributed to the successful conceptualization and implementation of the decentralization reform. Throughout its project-life, DESPRO brought together the demand and supply of expertise, information, and knowledge. It did so at the macro-, meso- and micro-level, and as conduit between these three levels. By performing this intermediary function, DESPRO provided 'the proverbial oil' that made the conceptualization and implementation of the decentralization reform possible (excerpts from the external Impact Assessment 2021).

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Project phases and achieved results

Phase I, 2007-2009: piloted approaches in two regions of mobilizing communities and Local Self Government for improving decentralized service delivery, with local Water Supply Systems as an entry point; supported 40 rural Water Supply projects co-funded by communities, local and regional budgets and DESPRO; contributed to the national policy dialogue and formulation of policies in several areas related to decentralization through providing national and international expertise.

Phase II, 2010-2013: extension to one more Oblast, focused on harvesting and dissemination of accumulated knowledge and became involved in facilitating a new form of decentralized service provision (Inter-municipal Cooperation in SWM); co-financed 38 local level projects and supported the establishment of adequate operation and maintenance (O&M) schemes.

Phase III, 2013-2017: horizontal/geographical expansion due to conducive environment for promoting decentralization at the national level, stronger focus on sanitation, co-funded the implementation of 70 projects that established/ improved service provision in a decentralized manner.

Phase IV, 2017-2021: Water supply and sanitation, and solid waste management sectors as entry points for improved governance (46’000 people directly benefited from improved services); Technical assistance and direct capital investments in the communal services sector (e.g. digitalisation of operations of communal enterprises; replication of DESPRO developed modalities into regional budget grant programmes in several regions); Conflict-sensitive project management (intervention in the conflict-affected region of Luhansk); Scaling-up of decentralized service provision mechanisms; Knowledge management processes in the sector of decentralised service provision and local self-government (e.g. the web-resource www.vodavselo.info has become a knowledge tool highly in demand, the Community of Practice (CoP) for Sustainable Development https://udl.despro.org.ua/ became the unique competence-developing virtual learning environment where practitioners from all over Ukraine); comprehensive training programmes (DESPRO Local Self-Governance School) contributed to develop new quality management of ATCs by improving skills of LSG representatives in strategic planning, local economic development, land regulations, e-governance, social cohesion; fostering donor coordination via support to Donor Board on Decentralization Reform in Ukraine; promoting dialogue to advance the decentralisation and local governance reform (e.g. https://decentralization.gov.ua/en/ became the primary official resource on decentralisation reform).