Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support Project
The Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support Project DESPRO is an international assistance project working in the reform of local self-governance (or “decentralization”) in Ukraine. DESPRO is funded by the Swiss Confederation via the Swiss Cooperation Office and implemented by Skat since 2007.
Back then, the challenges facing the water sector in rural areas in Ukraine were damaged and aged networks, decreased or non-existing funds for water supply systems’ operation and maintenance – all of which compromised many of Ukrainian rural citizens’ right to water and sanitation. DESPRO/Skat approached the problem with different management models, with the most promising model being the service cooperative. Thanks to DESPRO project activities, over 122 000 Ukrainian rural residents directly use improved water supply, as a result of over 150 projects implemented in 7 partner regions: Vinnytsia, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava, Luhansk regions, and AR Crimea (until 2014). The detailed methodology and lessons learned by DESPRO in this first phase are described in the “Rural Water Supply” brief, available here or below.
Decentralization in Ukraine was launched in 2014, transferring the power and resources from the state to the local self-government. As the new communities, referred to as “amalgamated territorial communities” or ATCs, were forming in Ukraine, local self-government bodies approached challenges in water supply with new available tools and opportunities. From 2014 onwards, the relevance of community-based approaches for service provision (as implemented by DESPRO in early project phases) was under question. From then on, DESPRO focused on “local government-led projects”, providing direct support to local self-government bodies to deliver municipal services, including water supply and sanitation (WSS). The detailed methodology and lessons learned by DESPRO in this second phase are described in the “Water Supply and Sanitation in Amalgamated Communities” brief, available here or below.
Finally, in 2020, DESPRO wrote a position paper to share learnings from the DESPRO experience on establishing sustainable water supply and sanitation (WSS) services in Ukraine, and provide recommendations for strategic policy dialogue in the WSS sector in Ukraine. This position paper identified the urgent need for action to address the barriers identified in order to provide safely managed water supply and sanitation services for all in Ukraine. This position paper points to a need for a paradigm shift in national drinking water supply and sanitation policy particularly in the context of decentralization reform. It is available here or below.
© Skat, 2019: Joint visit by DESPRO and SDC to the Bilovodsk partner community, Luhansk reg., April 2019. The delegation met with local representatives in Parneve village, where DESPRO supported complete modernization of water intake system and construction of 3.5 km of pipe system in 2018-2019. It allowed access to safely managed drinking water for 450 inhabitants.
SDC Division: Cooperation with Eastern Europe
Country: Ukraine
Duration: 2007-2020
Project website: https://despro.org.ua/en/despro/project/
Contact: Oksana Garnets (DESPRO), Viacheslav Sorokovskyi (DESPRO), Meleesa Naughton (Skat Consulting Ltd.)
Key Products
Water Supply and Sanitation in Ukraine: a position paper
Water Supply and Sanitation in Amalgamated Territorial Communities
Rural Water Supply
