TSN.ua found out what had changed in rural areas after redistribution of powers.

For four years Ukrainian peasants have heard a complex word “decentralisation”, which promises them to improve their living conditions. Bad roads, low-quality street lighting, limited access to healthcare, social facilities requiring repair or missing due to lack of funding. The state authorities do not give regions enough resources to ensure that local self-government performs its work appropriately.

Such unhappy rural realities must be overcomed by decentralisation. What does it mean and how does this “formula of self-sufficiency” of peasants work without central authorities' intervention in their lives? In fact, it is about self-governance, when people in hromadas control the people they elect, local taxes remain in hromadas and are used for their needs. Therefore, decentralisation is a transfer of significant powers and budgets from the state to local self-government bodies. It is about rural, settlement and city councils.

Decentralisation as am impetus for development

830 amalgamated hromadas (AHs) have already been formed in Ukraine, accordign to the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services reports. This is almost half of the planned amount by 2020. By the way, the first AH appeared in summer of 2015. Amalgamated hromadas make up almost 30% of the total area of ​​Ukraine with a population of 7.1 million people.

One of the most vivid examples of decentralisation is the city ​​of Ladyzhyn in the Vinnytsia Oblast. The city was previously subsidised, but now it is one of the donors for the state budget. In order to fill vacancies at local enterprises, employees are transported to work even from neighbouring rayons. The average salary in the city amounts to UAH 9.600 - traditionally it is the largest in the Vinnytsia Oblast.

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