At a meeting of the Donor Board on Decentralisation, Alyona Babak, Minister of Development of Communities and Territories, outlined the key MinRegion’s objectives for local self-government reform. The main focus is the quality and accessibility of services for each person, regardless of their place of residence.

The current network of various service delivery is inefficient. Every day, people face inconvenience of access to healthcare facilities, schools and kindergartens, authorities issuing permits and registration documents. Add to this poor roads, the lack of public transport routes somewhere. Not everywhere communal services are provided, and where they are, the quality is much to be desired. Therefore, this needs to be changed.

“Each Ministry has its own facilities that deliver services. For example, the Ministry of Education has 31,150 facilities, the Ministry of Culture and Sports – 49,350, the Ministry of Health – 20,850. But does each person receive quality service? Is it easy and convenient for everyone to get to these institutions? The answer is obvious. And such facilities are maintained by the local budgets, taxpayers. Having a clear picture of the existing network of services, together with local and regional authorities, we must offer a network that will meet the needs of everyone in the future. A network capable of providing high quality and accessible services to everyone,” said Alyona Babak.

In this context, the Minister also emphasised the need for systematic spatial planning of each hromada, and up-to-date urban planning documentation.

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