This paper is one of nine drafted by national entities in Ukraine as part of a UN-Habitat-commissioned collection entitled Thematic Paper Series Informing Urban Recovery Approaches in Ukraine. The paper examines how Ukraine’s decentralization reform has shaped local governance and recovery planning, tracing the evolution from highly centralized Soviet-era governance through post-independence devolution and the formal decentralization reforms initiated after 2014. It finds that the transfer of powers and resources to hromadas strengthened local authorities’ ability to respond to the full-scale invasion, maintain services and coordinate humanitarian and recovery actions.
At the same time, wartime centralization, military administrations, fiscal pressures, staff shortages, population displacement and uneven institutional capacity have placed significant pressure on decentralized governance. The paper highlights the importance of locally led and place-based recovery planning, meaningful participation, digital transparency and stronger coordination between hromadas, oblasts and national institutions, while identifying the need for differentiated approaches that reflect the very different demographic, fiscal and recovery conditions across communities.
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