COUNCIL OF EUROPE PROGRAMME “DECENTRALISATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM IN UKRAINE” TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES OF UKRAINE ANALYTICAL REPORT Nataliia Baldych Nataliya Hnydiuk Cezary Trutkowski April 2019 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of abbreviations ....................................................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary........................................................................................................................ 5 About this report ......................................................................................................................... 5 Key findings ............................................................................................................................... 5 Recommendations .....................................................................................................................10 1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................................12 1.1. Purpose and objective of the research ..................................................................................12 1.2. Methodology.......................................................................................................................12 2. Legal and institutional framework for amalgamated communities ..............................................15 2.1. Establishment of amalgamated territorial communities........................................................15 2.2. Basic laws defining the ATC powers...................................................................................16 2.3. The ATC competence, powers and services ........................................................................18 2.4. The ATC management ........................................................................................................20 2.5. Human resources of ATC ....................................................................................................22 2.6. Local finances .....................................................................................................................24 2.7. Professional development system ........................................................................................25 3. Decentralisation reform impact on the local self-government system .........................................27 3.1. Changes in the local self-government tasks and functions ...................................................27 3.2. Successes in the decentralisation reform..............................................................................30 3.3. Challenges facing the decentralisation reform .....................................................................32 4. Cooperation between local self-government authorities and key stakeholders ............................36 4.1. Interaction with the territorial community ...........................................................................36 4.2. Relations with local executive power authorities .................................................................38 4.3. Cooperation with other stakeholders ...................................................................................39 4.4. The role of local self-government associations ....................................................................41 5. Activities by the local self-government authorities .....................................................................43 5.1. Assessing the local self-government authorities’ performance .............................................43 5.2. Problems in exercising the local self-government authorities’ powers .................................47 5.3. Practical identification of problems facing the local self-government authorities’ operation 49 5.4. Changes in the local government authorities’ functions .......................................................51 5.5. Competence of local self-government officials ....................................................................53 5.6. The appeal of positions in local self-government .................................................................56 6. Local self-government officials’ needs in the professional competence development .................60 6.1. Training needs of local self-government officials ................................................................60 6.2. Local councillors’ training needs.........................................................................................65 6.3. Practical identification of training needs in the local self-government authorities ................67 6.4. Types and forms of raising the professional competence of local self-government officials .69 3 6.5. Effectiveness of the local self-government officials’ professional competence development75 6.6. Training needs of local self-government officials in the light of international technical assistance projects .....................................................................................................................78 7.1. Types of in-service training programmes ............................................................................83 7.2. Determining the training programme offer ..........................................................................85 7.3. Effectiveness of the local self-government officials’ training ..............................................87 Appendices ....................................................................................................................................89 Appendix 1: In-Depth Interview guide .......................................................................................89 Appendix 2: Focus group guide .................................................................................................92 Appendix 3: Survey questionnaire (REC) ..................................................................................94 Appendix 4: List of in-depth interviewees and focus group participants .....................................98 Appendix 5: Questionnaire for telephone interview.................................................................. 103 Appendix 6: Presentation «Training needs analysis of the amalgamated territorial communities in Ukraine» (see a separate file) ................................................................................................... 114 4 List of abbreviations ACAB - Association of Co-Owners of an Apartment Buildings ASC - Administrative Service Centre ATC - Amalgamated territorial community AUC - Association of Ukrainian Cities CEA - Central executive authority СMU - Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine CSO - Civil society organisation HCS - Housing and communal services HEE - Higher education entity IMC - Inter-municipal cooperation IT - Information Technology KIIS - Kyiv International Institute of Sociology NAPA - National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine NAUCS - National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service OSA - Oblast State Administration RCSA - Registration of Civil Status Acts RD - Regional development REC - Regional Excellence Centre RSA - Rayon State Administration SOBP - Self-organisation Bodies of Population SRDF - State Regional Development Fund USDR - Unified State Demographic Register VS - Vocational school 5 Executive Summary About this report This report has been compiled following a qualitative and quantitative research into training needs of Ukrainian local government representatives, conducted under the Council of Europe Programme ‘Decentralisation and Local Government Reform in Ukraine’. The research was conducted between September and December 2018. This analytical report summarises the data obtained by qualitative and quantitative data collection methods, including in-depth semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and telephone interviews. These findings are presented in Sections 3–7 of the report and supported by the relevant quotations from the interviews or focus group discussions. The results of the quantitative study presented in the report contain a summary of the telephone survey data of 517 ATCs, whose representatives responded to all questionnaire questions. Appendix 6 to the report contains a presentation of the results of all interviewed representatives of the ATCs, including those who, given the duration of the interview, provided answers to some of the questionnaire questions (137 representatives of the ATCs). At the same time, the results presented in the Appendix 6 do not differ significantly from those contained in the text of the report. This report (Section 6.6) also presents the key findings from the research into training needs of local government representatives, conducted under other international technical assistance programmes. Section 2 provides an expert overview of the processes taking place in local self-government of Ukraine. Sections 3–7 contain the report’s key findings and recommendations prepared by the experts, following the research of training needs. Key findings 1. The decentralisation reform initiated in 2015 has brought about significant changes in the tasks and functions of local authorities, especially where such authorities had been established following the amalgamation of territorial communities. The current pace of changes requires the availability of a flexible system to raise the professional competence level of local government officials and