The all-Ukrainian information campaign "I am Hromada!" visited the Lviv Oblast. It is intended to inform the population about the decentralisation reform, challenges and advantages of establishing amalgamated hromadas and new reform. The campaign was organised by MinRegion and the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.

The first meeting in the framework of the campaign took place at the end of May in the town of Hlyniany, Zolochiv Rayon. Here, more than 40 residents, including local authorities, businessmen, deputies, public activists, took part in the public discussion. People were interested in financing the future AH, and in the fact whether the secondary school and boarding school will remain, in the kind of medical care to be provided and its basis, in the issues of administrative activity, development prospects and jobs, etc.

"Each topic discussed by us is always related to money. But the hromada itself is money, and not a little amount of money: subventions, investments and additional funds provided by the projects, since most programmes prefer amalgamated hromadas", said Olena Slyziuk, Programme’s coordinator and expert on decentralisation.

Orest Shulikovskyi, deputy head of the Bibrska AH, shared his experience of using the funds already available and attracting new ones during the meeting. According to him, the hromada has fully used the opportunities offered by the projects.

"For the first half of the year, we worked very hard to raise additional funds for hromada development. As a result, we have 30 winning projects, for which we are now preparing the documents. But this is a fantastic indicator, since last year all settlements of our hromada implemented only 10 projects. So, we have tripled our capabilities," said Mr Shulikovskyi.

And already on 31 May, a large-scale informational and educational event in the format of the  Decentralisation Town opened in Yavoriv - a model of a modern AH and various fields of its activity: education, healthcare, ecology, ASC, and sports were presented there.

The residents of Yavoriv took part in the quest, designed to get people acquainted with thematic information, while answering the question of what the life in the hromada will be like after amalgamation. And during the public discussion, the participants received expert answers to questions of their concern.

The decentralisation reform is recognised as one of the most successful. 899 AHs have been formed in Ukraine over 5 years (11 new ones – only during the last month); now, elections have been scheduled in 66 other hromadas. Ukraine has substantially outpaced the European countries in the pace of amalgamation, and, according to the Governmental forecasts, the process of voluntary amalgamation will be completed in 2020.