How War Changes Decentralisation in Ukraine

Анотація

The paper discusses how the war affects decentralization processes in Ukraine including changes in fiscal responsibilities and distribution of power. The discussion is based on the thesis that decentralization increases local resilience and plays a crucial role in the future recovery. However, the conducted analysis supports the idea that more decentralisation is not necessarily connected to better economic outcomes. Improving local governments’ performance is a crucial point for future decentralization in Ukraine. Despite the recognition of Ukrainian decentralization reform as one of the most successful and advanced in terms of its implementation even before the full-scale invasion, there were still a number of unresolved issues hampering the development of capable communities (hromadas), including low managerial capacities of local authorities, and lack of understanding of the management system at the local level. The full-scale russian invasion brough new challenges and put a lot of Ukrainian local communities under severe pressure to make immediate decisions. However, according to expert opinions, the decentralization was one of the main factors of survival of many Ukrainian local communities during the first days and weeks of the invasion as local authorities already had an experience of making independent decisions without getting a ‘call from Kyiv’. Recently local communities in Ukraine lost a significant part of their financial resources due to the changes in tax legislation and got a significant task to ensure recovery and rebuilding which is an extraordinary challenge in the current situation.

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