Ukrainian Association of Rayon and Oblast Councils
The All-Ukrainian Association of Local Self-Government Bodies "Ukrainian Association of Rayon and Oblast Councils" (hereinafter – the Association) was established in 1991, a month after the restoration of Ukraine's independence.
Today the Association has 148 members, including:
Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea;
24 regional councils;
119 district councils (all where local elections were held in 2020);
4 collective members.
The overall goal of the Association is to improve the quality of life in territorial communities.
The key areas of work are the establishment of democratic principles, providing advisory, methodological and practical assistance to local governments, promoting socio-economic and cultural development, charitable assistance, assistance in professional development of local government employees.
The Association strongly promotes the implementation of decentralization reform, which is an effective solution to local problems and is an important component of Ukraine's integration into the European family.
The Ukrainian Association of Rayon and Oblast Councils cooperates with public authorities, expressing the position of its members and developing joint solutions.
In particular, representatives of the Association work with working and collegial bodies of the Parliament, the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Government, as well as scientific institutions.
The Association participates in international activities, cooperating with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the Conference of Regional and Local Councils of the Eastern Partnership and others.
The Association has extensive experience in implementing various initiatives and projects with international technical assistance programs and other organizations.
Among the major organizations with which the Association has implemented projects are the United Nations Development Program, USAID, GIZ, Council of Europe, Polska Pomoch. The initiatives concerned both the collection and analysis of information and the provision of training services and work on the regulatory framework.
In addition, it should be noted that on February 15, 9 days before the large-scale war, it was decided to establish a Coordination Center for Territorial Defense at the Association (hereinafter – the Center).
As of now, the Center is actively functioning and has four headquarters: humanitarian, spiritual, environmental and procedural.
The humanitarian headquarters helps citizens and organizations affected by the war with food, medicines, hygiene products, clothing and other things. Spiritual headquarters morally supports the people. Environmental headquarters identifies and assesses the consequences of disasters caused by destruction. The procedural headquarters assesses the damage to damaged property for the restoration of such property in the future.
