Sixteen Ukrainian communities participating in the project “Empowering Local Authorities and Citizens to Foster Open Dialogue and Women’s Leadership”, implemented by ALDA with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, have completed the preparation of roadmaps for developing their community charters. These roadmaps will help the communities finalise the necessary documents effectively and on time. The project involves communities from Kharkiv, Rivne, Poltava, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, and Vinnytsia regions.
“The roadmaps we are developing together with the communities we support through this project serve as both a guide and an action plan. They are prepared jointly by experts, local government representatives, and working groups established to develop territorial community charters. Our task is to ensure that high-quality charters are developed within the relatively tight timeframe available to us,” explains Iryna Haiduchyk, a project expert.
The roadmap outlines the steps a community should take not only during working meetings but also throughout the entire process of drafting the charter and after its adoption.
According to Iryna Haiduchyk, the roadmap also covers the process of establishing a working group.
“Each community approaches this differently. Some already had working groups in place, so the focus is on reactivating them. Others aim to involve as many people as possible through public meetings. There are also communities that use personal invitations and direct contacts to bring together a working group with the most suitable composition,” explains the expert, who provides advisory support to four communities in Rivne and Zhytomyr regions.
In addition, the roadmaps define the next stages of the process, including deadlines for preparing draft charters and other forms of engagement with local council members and community residents.
One of the key stages is the formal adoption of the charter. Following its adoption, communities should also develop roadmaps to plan how the provisions of these documents can be integrated into everyday community activities, decision-making processes, and interactions between local authorities and residents.
“It was very important for us to review the documents that communities already had in place. Where charters had previously been adopted, they had been developed at different times. In some communities, they were adopted after the decentralisation reform and contain many valuable provisions worth preserving,” says Iryna Haiduchyk.
“Our goal is not to develop an entirely new document while disregarding everything that came before. On the contrary, it is important to preserve the good work that has already been done while updating the charters with provisions that comply with current legislation and reflect best practices.”
According to the expert, working meetings are currently taking place, during which community representatives review and develop their charters.
Between meetings, participants have time to study the materials independently. They then discuss their comments, perspectives, ideas, and proposals together with project experts to ensure that as many relevant suggestions as possible are considered and reflected in the territorial community charter.
As a reminder, territorial communities are required to adopt their own charters by 1 January 2027.
As part of the project “Empowering Local Authorities and Citizens to Foster Open Dialogue and Women’s Leadership”, implemented by ALDA with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, 16 communities across eight Ukrainian regions are developing their charters with expert support.
The U-LEAD with Europe Programme, a multi-donor initiative supporting Ukraine’s local empowerment, accountability, and development, is jointly financed by the European Union and its Member States Germany, Denmark, France, Austria, Poland, and Slovenia. The programme supports Ukraine in its efforts to strengthen local self-government