Author: Olena Sas, decentralisation expert, coordinator of OSCE projects in Ukraine, for Mindlab.media

Five years ago, on 1 April 2014, the Government approved the Concept of the Decentralisation Reform. Since then, decentralisation has been reshaping the country irreversibly and influencing the formation of new elites. We understand new elites as management-focused individuals whose way of thinking has nothing to do with the “Soviet” heritage. These individuals are flexible and up-to-date. These changes come along with the digital era – people use open data in their daily work and implement electronic services in the administrative service centres of their hromadas.

So, what exactly is going on? Can we talk about the new quality of the competences of local-government officials and about amalgamated hromadas as incubators of the new political elite?

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