On 10 July, a Memorandum on the next phase of the Swiss-Ukrainian project ‘Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education’ (DECIDE) was signed at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome. The second phase of the Project will run from September 2025 to August 2030 and will be funded to the value of CHF 18.5 million.

The key partners of the Project are the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, regional military administrations, regional councils, and communities.

The DECIDE project will expand its activities at the regional and local levels to cover 9 regions and 40 communities.

Sectors that will be included in the second phase of the DECIDE project:

• support for the implementation of reform to senior specialised schools, particularly the creation of academic lyceums;
• support to the Government in reforming the system of vocational education;
• development of a system of strategic planning for regions and communities with a focus on education;
• de-bureaucratisation and digitalisation of education management (AICOM 2) and reform of the system of education statistics and analytics;
• professional development of local government representatives and civil servants in the field of education;
• development of local democracy through education;
• implementation of infrastructure projects to restore access to quality and safe education in communities;
• promoting inter-municipal cooperation for the establishment and effective functioning of academic lyceums;
• support for the introduction of participatory budgeting in education;
• development of a career guidance system in partnership with communities, educational institutions, business, and authorities.

Find out more about the DECIDE Project.