Foreword

This report responds to a request in 2020 from the Cabinet of Ministers and Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, and the European Union to support Ukraine’s decentralisation and regional development reforms by following up on the OECD reports Territorial Review of Ukraine (2014) and Maintaining the Momentum of Decentralisation in Ukraine (2018). As such, the parameters of the work were defined prior to the Russian Federation’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine, initiated on 24 February 2022.

In order to ensure the maximum relevance of the work in the context of the war, however, the OECD, the Government of Ukraine and the European Union agreed to expand the scope of the collaboration by including a focus on the role of effective multi-level governance for post-war reconstruction and recovery, and structuring the report around two distinct parts: Part I: “Supporting Post-war Recovery with Place-based Regional Development” and Part II: “Making the Most of Decentralisation for Post-war Recovery”.

Part I includes a chapter dedicated to multi-level governance arrangements for disaster management and post-war recovery. In addition, most of its chapters include a preface that links pre-war findings to post-war reconstruction and recovery by reflecting on the specific challenges that Ukraine may face when advancing with the design and implementation of a national recovery plan at the subnational level.

Part II, drafted over the course of 2022, takes stock of developments in the decentralisation reform process since 2014, examining its effects on municipal capacity, and identifying success factors that underpin municipal performance. At the same time, it also considers the impact of the war on municipal functions, alongside needs for reconstruction and recovery. 

This report was developed as part of the Programme of Work of the OECD’s Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC), a leading international forum in the fields of regional, urban, and rural development policy and multi-level governance, which is served by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE). The publication is the result of a partnership with the OECD Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate (GRC), Eurasia Division.

The RDPC emphasises the importance of multi-level governance and place-based approaches that are tailored to regional and local needs. To support the RDPC's leadership in this area, the OECD created the Multi-level Governance Studies series in 2016. This report contributes to the body of knowledge contained in this series.

This report draws on stakeholder responses to different OECD surveys and two virtual missions conducted in 2021, as well as in-depth desk research and insights from interviews with a wide variety of Ukrainian and international governmental and non-governmental experts. The report received written approval by the RDPC on 25 November 2022.