As of 10 December 2019, 1009 amalgamated hromadas have been formed in Ukraine, having a total population of 11.3 million people. The perspective plans for hromadas’ formation cover 87.7% of the country’s territory. Leaders in capable hromadas’ formation have not changed in the list of regions.

This is the main data of the latest monitoring of the decentralisation process and local self-government reform of the Ministry of Communities and Territories’ Development of Ukraine (DOWNLOAD).

Overall, according to the Monitoring, the most dynamic reform indicators of this year have been as follows:

• Number of amalgamated hromadas: 874 in December 2018 – 1009 in December 2019: plus 135 AHs over the year.
• Dynamics of hromadas’ cooperation: as of December 2018, 1122 hromadas concluded 287 cooperation agreements – as of December 2018, 1 161 hromadas have concluded 509 cooperation agreements: plus 39 hromadas and plus 222 cooperation agreements.
• Establishment of Administrative Service Centres: 775 ASCs at the end of 2018 – 806 ASCs in December 2019: plus 31 ASCs. Most of the new centres opened in amalgamated hromadas.

In addition, in 2019, the process of hromadas’ accession to AHs and cities of oblast significance has intensified. Nearly 100 hromadas joined 43 cities of oblast significance under a simplified procedure. 70 AHs passed the process of neighbouring hromadas’ accession, and by the end of the year, after additional elections, there will be more than 100 AHs. In total, about 170 neighbouring village and settlement councils joined existing AHs.

In course of the year, five leading regions in reform implementation have not significantly changed. At the end of 2018, the Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhzhia and Volyn Oblasts ranked the top among oblasts in capable hromadas’ formation.

The last five places in the ranking also did not change significantly. In December 2018, these were the Kirovohrad, Zakarpattia, Vinnytsia, Kyiv and Poltava Oblasts. At the end of 2019 – the Kirovohrad, Zakarpattia, Vinnytsia, Kyiv and Lviv Oblasts.

The monitoring also helps to track the dynamics of changes in hromadas in the field of social and youth policy, education and healthcare, in building the Starosta Institute and other sectoral reforms in the context of decentralisation.

All decentralisation monitoring data for this and previous years are available AT THE LINK