SHS Web of Conferences 100, 04007 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202110004007 ISCSAI 2021 Inter-Community Cooperation at a Regional Level: Methods of Assessing Migration and Institutional Ties Sierhiei Sakhanienko1, Natalia Kolisnichenko2, Hanna Koval3*, Oksana Dulina4, and Temirbay Zhiemuratov5 1Odessa Regional Institute for Public Administration of the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, Odessa, 65009, Ukraine 2Odessa Regional Institute for Public Administration of the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, Odessa, 65009, Ukraine 3 Lviv State Univerrsity of Life Safety, Lviv, Ukraine 4Odessa Regional Institute for Public Administration of the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, 65009, Ukraine 5 Berdakh Karakalpak state university, 230100 Karakalpak Republic, Uzbekistan Abstract. The article reveals the assessing methods of inter-community cooperation at the regional level regarding its migration and institutional ties. The recommendations on the assessment of inter-municipal relations are focused on the development of appropriate strategies for cooperation between local communities. The article defines the algorithm of analysis and evaluation of inter-municipal relations. The essence and peculiarities of the relevant stages of cooperation are examined and revealed. The components of the assessment of inter-municipal relations and methods of their definition are offered. The matrix and the corresponding coefficients of inter-municipal ties are examined. more profitable to solve the issues of local importance 1 Introduction together with other local communities than to implement them independently. The organization of At the current stage of public administration reform in inter-municipal cooperation in order to address the Ukraine the local communities are required to increase issues of local importance ensures self-sufficiency of the efficiency and effectiveness of local self- local communities (necessary for sustainable government authorities in addressing all issues of local development), creates conditions for economic and importance, especially of administrative and social social well-being of the residents. nature, of territory development etc. This is mainly At the present stage, the practice of local relevant for rural areas, because quality and standards communities cooperation in Ukraine is mostly of living (level of social and economic development) in fragmentary one. The strategic and program documents urban and rural areas differ significantly. Today, most of local communities do not comprise the issues of rural local communities are not able to ensure proper inter-municipal cooperation, which inhibits the solution of issues related to the livelihoods of their development of ties between them. In Ukraine 121 residents. This is mainly because of the lack of local agreements were concluded (the data of the Ministry of self-government own resources, especially at the level Regional Development, Construction, Housing and of those local communities that have not yet practice Communal Services) according to the Register of municipal consolidation within the voluntary Agreements on Cooperation between Local amalgamation of local communities. However, the Communities (January 11, 2018) [2]. Most of them are analysis of amalgamated local communities clearly aimed: i) to implement the joint projects on shows that in many cases they have not become self- coordination and implementation of activities of sufficient communities. That does not provide the cooperating entities; ii) to accumulate communities expected qualitative improvement of the living resources for some definite period of time. The other conditions. forms of cooperation are less popular (e.g. delegating Meanwhile, one of the ways to increase the level of one or more tasks to one of the subjects of cooperation social and economic development of rural areas is a with the transfer of relevant resources or the formation combination of various types of resources based on of joint utilities, institutions and organizations by the cooperation of local communities. Its legal framework subjects of cooperation). Such form of cooperation as was acknowledged in 2014 after the adoption of the the formation of the subjects of cooperation of a joint Law of Ukraine “On Cooperation Between Local governing body for the mutual implementation of the Communities” [1]. Despite the fact that local statutory powers is not used at all. The prevalence of communities differ significantly in number of local communities cooperation is also noteworthy: residents, area, structure of local economy, it is often almost half of the agreements on cooperation are * Corresponding author: koval.gv@ukr. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). SHS Web of Conferences 100, 04007 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202110004007 ISCSAI 2021 concluded in Poltava region, and in some regions of their bodies: joint consultations; joint coordination, Ukraine they are not concluded at all. advisory and/or consultative bodies, working groups The potential effectiveness of local communities’ (without legal entity status), etc. cooperation actualizes research and methodological In fact, in practice of any self-government body relevance of inter-municipal interaction, search of new there are various forms of cooperation at least with the forms and models of cooperation between the neighboring local communities. This circumstance, as municipalities in the sphere of social and economic well as the processes of voluntary amalgamation of development and in the field of management. local communities, involve the analysis of the factors that determine the cooperation of local communities and the monitoring of this cooperation. 2 Theoretical framework A required prerequisite for the development of cooperation between local communities is the analysis A rather small amount of literature is devoted to the institute of cooperation between the local communities of the degree of inter-municipal relations and the because of its short-term introduction into the practice identification of attraction of local communities to each of municipal governance. The relevant works are other. aimed to provide a scope-wide theoretical analysis of However, there are many difficulties in conducting cooperation between local communities [See, e.g. 3; 4; a qualitative analysis due to the lack of research on this 5], the legal basis of inter-municipal cooperation [See, issue, the weak development of municipal statistics, the e.g. 6; 7], foreign experience [See, e.g. 8; 9], forms of lack of tested methods for assessing inter-municipal cooperation [See, e.g. 10; 11; 12], some aspects of relations. As a result, it is proposed to develop the social and economic [See, e.g. 13; 14; 15] and guidelines for the analysis of inter-municipal managerial effectiveness of inter-municipal interaction interaction and its assessment in relation to the region [See, e.g. 16; 17]. In 2017, the first dissertation was as a whole, sub-region (district) or a particular set of defended in Ukraine [18], which comprehensively local communities. While developing the topic on analyzed the current state and prospects for further inter-municipal relations of Zhmerynka raion of development of cooperation between local Vinnytsia region, an attempt was made to develop an communities as one of the priority areas of national appropriate methodology. This technique involves a local government reform. certain algorithm for analysis and evaluation of inter- But despite the emergence of a wide complex of municipal relations: systematic studies on cooperation between local Step 1. Provide comprehensive analysis of social communities, a number of disputable issues regarding and economic development of the selected area. this form of inter-municipal governance remains Step 2. Study the basic program documents of local unsolved. In particular, the analysis of the needs of communities. cooperation between specific local communities and Step 3. Identify and evaluate inter-municipal ties. regions is not examined. That is why there is a need in Step 4. Reveal the directions and forms of effective and tested methodology for assessing the cooperation development between local communities. potential and development of such cooperation. At the first stage, a comprehensive analysis of the The objective of the article is to develop the guidelines social and economic development of the selected area for the assessment of inter-municipal relations at the (as a whole area), which includes, in particular, regional level aiming to work out an appropriate determining the budget supply, investment component, strategy for the cooperation of local communities under infrastructure development, social status in local specific conditions. communities, as well as appropriate rankings. The second stage involves the study of the main legal and program documents of local communities, 3 Discussion and results which are examined to identify the existing interactions with other local communities and the degree of their Inter-municipal cooperation is an organizational and development. This stage allows to determine whether legal manifestation of cooperative relations between local communities have: i) strategic guidelines for the local