On June 26, 2017 the working meeting between the Head of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service Kostiantyn Vashchenko and representatives of the Programme “U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine – Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Programme” took place.

Head of the NAUCS Kostiantyn Vashchenko admitted the importance of international cooperation in order to effectively develop the system of vocational training for civil servants and local self-government officials as one of the tasks of public administration reform.

 During the event, the issues of preparation of the concept of reforming the system of professional training for civil servants and local self-government officials, including expert assistance on its development, were discussed. In addition, ensuring effective coordination of the system of professional training with the participation of representatives of the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, educational institutions for the master's degree in the field of knowledge ”Public Management and administration”, retraining and upgrading centers for employees of state authorities, local self-government authorities, state enterprises, institutions and organizations.

The working meeting was attended by the Head of Capacity Development Unit “U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine – Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Programme” Volker Stampe, Coordinator on Capacity Development and Trainings of Central Office Reform within the Мinistry for Regional Development, Building and Housing of Ukraine Andrii Hevko, Head of Professional Training Unit of NAUCS Oleksandr Glazkov, Director of the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union Maryna Kanavets and Director of the All-Ukrainian Center of Advanced Training of Civil Servants and Local Self-Government Officials Volodymyr Yurchenko.

For reference: The main goal of the U-LEAD programme is to establish of multilevel governance which is transparent, accountable and responsive to the needs of the population.

This includes: enhancing the capacity of key actors at central, regional and local levels to implement the regional policy and decentralisation reform as well as

improving the delivery of local administrative services for the benefit of the citizens of Ukraine.

These focus areas are reflected in two programme components:

Component 1, implemented by GIZ, focuses on the coordination and capacity building efforts at both vertical and horizontal levels throughout Ukraine – from the hromadas, to the rayon, oblast and central government levels;

Component 2, implemented by SIDA, concentrates on setting up efficient administrative service provision centres, with a priority on newly amalgamated communities, as well as nation-wide public awareness raising.