The forum “AH Club Session. Activities’ planning for 2018” for the representatives of amalgamated hromadas of the Vinnytsya Oblast was held in Vinnytsya on 24 January. The aim of the meeting was to review the reform of local self-government in the Vinnytsya Oblast and determine the priorities for decentralisation for 2018.

“The law on amalgamation of hromadas has become the catalyst of the reform we were dreaming so much about for many years, today we already have a successful experience, local budgets are growing, infrastructure is being rebuilt – there are positive changes. 2018 is the year of sectoral changes in the healthcare and educational domains, we learn and aim at real achievements in the area of ​​decentralisation in the nearest future,” said Valeriy Koroviy, head of the Vinnytsya Oblast State Administration, at the meeting.

“At an early stage of our AH establishment, we did not have educational and healthcare subventions, there were infrastructure problems, but over time we began to understand that where there is a will there is a way. Today we come to work and know that the hromada is provided with everything – schools are being repaired, roads are being renovated, there are investments in industrial production, and hence there is a desire to live, evolve and work for the hromada,” shared success secrets Anatoliy Shamalyuk, head of the Kalynivska AH.

“It was hard for us to amalgamate, but in the end we have 6 settlements and a gradual budget increase – UAH 7 million in 2016, UAH 18 million in 2017, and we plan to reach UAH 21 million in 2018. We did not choose the path of decline, and today we repair roads, schools, kindergartens – the life of our hromada is in full bloom,” said Serhiy Titarenko, head of the Dashivska AH of the Illintsi Rayon.