The day after the Local Government Development Centre opened its first Regional Centre in Kropyvnytskyi, Poltava followed the suit and launched its own Regional Centre with the support of Ukraine – Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Programme (U-LEAD with Europe) and the Ministry for Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine (MinRegion). 

Peter Wagner, head of the Support Group for Ukraine established by the President of the European Commission in April 2014, and Valeriy Holovko, head of the Poltava Oblast State Administration, cut the ribbon in the LGDC premises in Poltava and took part in the round table on the decentralisation reform in Ukraine and the European support of it.

“I would like to thank our European partners because due to their participation, including the financial one, we have enough capabilities to conduct the decentralisation reform in the Poltava Oblast,” Valeriy Holovko told the audience.

“We are convinced that the change in the country has to come from the bottom to the top”, Peter Wagner said. “The European Union has from the beginning supported the idea of decentralisation because this is where we think the country has to develop in its future.” 

The Local Government Development Centre (LGDC) is the non-profit entity with 24 Regional Centres established to build the capacity of Ukrainian state and local government authorities at the central, regional and local level in close coordination with the MinRegion.

“For us it is a great morning to open the Regional Centre in the Poltava Oblast,” said Bastian Veigel, GIZ Programme Director of U-LEAD. “The decentralisation is a reform which is driven by a lot of political support. U-LEAD implementing partners are keen to translate this political support into development.” 

Background Information:

The U-LEAD with Europe Programme is a multi-donor action of the European Union and its Member States Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Poland and Sweden supporting the Ukrainian government in the implementation of the milestone decentralisation reform in Ukraine. U-LEAD with Europe is implemented from 2016-2020 by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in partnership with the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine (MinRegion). 

More information can be found on: www.u-lead.org.ua