The newly established territorial hromadas need all round support – expert consultations, personnel training, technical maintenance, etc. A priority is assistance in establishing modern ASCs, accumulating provision of all services, needed by the hromada residents. Moreover, decentralization, being implemented by the state, stipulates quality and accessible services. By virtue of law, each territorial hromada must ensure quality services provision via an ASC but not each hromada ia capable of doing it on its own. These very hromadas need help with the work organisation.

It was highlighted by Vyacheslav Nehoda, Deputy Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, during a meeting with Susanna Dellans, Sida Programme Director of U-LEAD with Europe.

The participans also discussed current problems faced by hromadas in their desire to improve the quality and accessibility of administrative services for hromada residents.

U-LEAD with Europe helped open 149 ASCs in Ukrainian hromadas, including 81 centers established from scratch. Another 280 hromadas received institutional assistance in creating an administrative service delivery system in the hromada, including trainings and support in engaging the public and raising awareness.

Vyacheslav Nehoda expressed gratitude and highly praised the Programme’s contribution to creating a quality administrative service delivery network in Ukraine. He also stressed upon the interest in continuing the partnership.

“We are interested in the experience of the Sida team, who proved themselves as a reliable partner, and their performance speaks for itself. 1469 hromadas were established in Ukraine, and many of them have to start with a clean sheet, particularly with regard to delivery of administrative services. Not all of them can do it by themselves. Sida could become a good helper with tackling these tasks, being a government agency, which operates on behalf of the Parliament and the Government of Sweden and which over all these years made a huge contribution, via U-LEAD with Europe Programme and by delegating tasks to the partner organizations: SALAR, NIRAS Sweden AB, and Estonia’s e-Governance Academy (EGOV4UKRAINE project), to improving the access of hromada residents to services. Thanks to our coordinated efforts, hundreds of thousands of hromada residents received access to quality services. And we want residents of hromadas, which do not have an ASC, not to wait too long for the outcome of reform and to have such opportunities as soon as possible,” Vyacheslav Nehoda said.

According to Mr. Nehoda, his Ministry is already working on the relevant official requests to Swedish government agencies.

“We have to jointly open the last of the necessary number of ASCs in the last hromada,” the Deputy Minister added.

Susanna Dellans spoke about the plans to open new ASCs in the next few months and invited senior officials of the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories to visit these centers together and meet their staff.

The parties also discussed the possibility of expanding institutional assistance in creating an administrative service delivery system onto starostats. For the moment, however, this matter is only being discussed.

It is worth reminding that recently, the Minister for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, Oleksii Chernyshov, and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Sweden to Ukraine, Tobias Thyberg, agreed to continue effective cooperation on developing the ASC network and in other areas of decentralization.