Ministry for Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons steps up cooperation on community support and local self-governance development

Vitalii Bezhin, Minister of Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine, met with the team of the Polaris Programme, funded by Sweden and implemented by SALAR International.

Polaris currently has 150 partnerships with communities across 22 regions.

The parties discussed further cooperation on local self-governance and regional development, bringing services closer to residents, and expanding international partnerships. Among the priorities under the Ministry's updated mandate, Vitalii Bezhin named the delineation of powers between levels of government, reform of the State Regional Development Fund, and preparing communities to work with European instruments.

"It's important that our communities are ready to work with European funds and have the people and expertise needed for that. That's why we're working on reforming the State Regional Development Fund and launching the '1,000 Project Managers' initiative. We see room for practical cooperation with Polaris here," Vitalii Bezhin said.

The meeting also touched on strengthening the role of village heads (starostas) and bringing government services closer to residents of remote settlements. The Ministry plans to scale up mobile service delivery, particularly for areas with limited access to developed infrastructure. The parties discussed the possibility of involving Polaris in this work and in the "State Nearby" initiative.

Deepening partnerships with Nordic communities was identified as a separate area of cooperation, with priority given to front-line communities and their urgent needs: housing solutions, transit centers for internally displaced persons, and mobile shelters.

Following the meeting, the Ministry and Polaris teams agreed to work out specific formats of cooperation in the areas identified.

Background

The Polaris Programme is funded by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and implemented by SALAR International. The programme supports the reform of local self-governance and decentralization, the development of multi-level governance, and the capacity of communities and their participation in Ukraine's recovery and European integration.