March 19th, Yevhen Udod, Chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council and Oksana Garnets, Manager of the Swiss-Ukrainian Project “Decentralization Support in Ukraine” DESPRO signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between the Oblast Council and Oblast State Administration and Project DESPRO.

Within the framework of this cooperation, Dnipropetrovsk will receive expert and information support on the implementation of local government reform and decentralization of power in Ukraine. In addition, 18 local community initiatives are planned to be realized in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Each project is to be selected on a competitive basis, and it provides for funding of about 250 thousand hryvnas (UAH). In addition, the cooperation provides for professional, informational, analytical, legal and organizational (in project preparation) support for rural communities by DESPRO.

- Decentralization of power is the main guarantee of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast development and the most important step in its reformation. This project has to provide three main components to ensure power efficiency at the local level: the necessary powers, the availability of resources and the responsibility of authorities to the community. This is successfully tested European practice. And thanks to the cooperation between the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and DESPRO, our communities will be able to implement concrete and necessary projects in their territories. In addition, today it is extremely important that our foreign colleagues treat us as stable partners and are ready to continue the initiated cooperation. Everything that we are doing is necessary for each resident of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and it should bring concrete benefits to territories and communities, - said Yevhen Udod.

In the course of the meeting, the parties discussed the tasks that have to be implemented during the third phase of the Project DESPRO: introducing sustainable models of decentralized service delivery and facilitating the implementation of reforms on decentralization and local self-government in Ukraine. In order to achieve this goal, Yevhen Udod and Oksana Garnets have outlined a number of specific measures:

Providing expert and information support on the implementation of local government reform and decentralization of power;

Promoting decentralized model of water supply in rural areas;

Introducing the model of municipal solid waste (MSW) management (developed by DESPRO) through the creation of a joint for several communities MSW management system;

Implementing pilot initiatives in the field of sanitation at the level of rural areas;

Implementing pilot projects on optimization of activities of utility companies that provide water supply services in small towns.

According to the Chairman of the Oblast Council, the implementation of joint projects with DESPRO on decentralization of power will allow to implement modern practices of effective management of territories, systematically solve socio-economic problems of the communities, attract additional investment, create new jobs and develop infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.