Opening the photo exhibition “Faces of New Hromadas”, dedicated to the Local Self-Governance Day, Iryna Herashchenko, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, stressed that decentralisation reform is currently one of the most efficient and most successful.

“We can already observe the effectiveness of the decentralisation reform. It is due to the transfer of powers and finance to the ground that hromadas became able to make decisions themselves and be in charge of their implementation,” emphasised Iryna Herashchenko.

The First Deputy Speaker noted that strengthening local self-government and creation of better conditions for the development of amalgamated hromadas are important both for the central part of Ukraine and for the liberated territories in the east, in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.

Having looked at the photos, Iryna Herashchenko expressed her gratitude to the photographers Vladyslav Sodel and Anastasiya Syrotkina, who managed to capture the residents of villages and towns: teachers, doctors, athletes, representatives of business and government, people of all ages, who jointly change their lives in the Dnipropetrovsk, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mykolayiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, and Kirovohrad Oblasts.

Iryna Herashchenko expressed her gratitude to the organisers of the exhibition and stressed that, despite the impressive results of the decentralisation reform, it should continue to develop.

In this regard, the politician informed that today, namely in the framework of the interparliamentary dialogue, Ukraine continues to get acquainted with the experience of Poland, France and Germany in this area to implement the best local self-government practices in Ukraine.

Susan Fritz, USAID Mission Director to Ukraine, assured in her speech that the USAID will continue to work with hromadas in Ukraine to improve the strategic planning mechanism, quality of service provision and other opportunities for enhanced local self-governance and creation of better conditions for hromada development.

Susan Fritz emphasised that USAID will continue constructive dialogue with hromadas in Ukraine, according to the USAID DOBRE Programme.

In the framework of the exhibition and on the occasion of the Local Self-Governance Day, Iryna Herashchenko awarded Svitlana Spazheva, head of Pokrovske rural settlement of the Pokrovske Rayon of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, with a certificate of the Verkhovna Rada “for a significant contribution to the development and strengthening of local self-government and active public activity.”

Besides, the First Deputy Speaker presented valuable gifts from the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to Oleksandr Korinnyi, head of the Association of Amalgamated Hromadas and mayor of the town of Novoukrayinka of the Kirovohrad Oblast, Halyna Kravchynyuk, deputy head of the Velykohayivska amalgamated hromada of the Ternopil Rayon of the Ternopil Oblast, and representatives of the Youth Parliament of Novoukrayinska amalgamated hromada of the Kirovohrad Oblast.