The competitive selection process for partner regions for the Swiss-Ukrainian ‘Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education’ (DECIDE) Project has ended. According to the results of the competition commission, four more regions will join the implementation of the second phase of the Project in 2025–2030.

The decision was made by the competition commission, which included relevant deputy ministers of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, as well as the DECIDE Project Management Team.

Over the past month, the commission has reviewed applications from the following 13 regions: Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Sumy, Kyiv, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Rivne, and Chernivtsi. More than 10 hours of interviews were conducted with regional teams in total, confirming that, despite all the challenges, the regions are highly prepared to implement sectoral reforms in education and develop local self-government.

Following a constructive discussion, four new partner regions for the second phase of DECIDE Project were identified: Sumy, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, and Lviv.

As previously reported, DECIDE Project has had the following regions as partners since 2020: Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernihiv, Odesa, and Luhansk. Therefore, a total of nine regions will participate in the second phase of the Project.

Over the next five years, the partners will work together systematically to develop education and strengthen local self-government. As part of the partnership, the key components of DECIDE project will be implemented in each region. These components include:

• supporting the implementation of specialised secondary education reform, in particular the creation of a network of academic lyceums;
• supporting vocational education reform;
• developing cooperation between communities, with a focus on creating academic lyceums, including through grant programmes for laboratory equipment and modernisation of infrastructure;
• supporting the updating of regional development strategies, with a particular focus on education;
• supporting partner communities in the development of community and education development strategies;
• developing agglomerations with a focus on educational services;
• professional development programmes for community leaders, education administrators, local councillors and heads of educational institutions;
• introducing local democracy tools through education sector;
• developing a career guidance system for children and adolescents, as well as grant programmes for the creation of career guidance hubs;
• internships for young people in regional military administrations and local councils, leadership programmes;
• participation of communities in grant programmes for public and school public budgeting;
• implementing DECIDE Summer Clubs initiatives ‘We are at home – in Ukraine’;
• providing infrastructure grants for partner communities.

Importantly, the selection of communities to participate in the project will begin in January in all nine partner regions. A total of 40 partner communities will be selected in the second phase of DECIDE.

DECIDE Project is implemented by NGO DOCCU and PHZH International Projects in Education with the support of the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation in Ukraine.