‘We develop communities through education.’ How DECIDE is changing Ukraine from within (part one of a long interview)

«‘We develop communities through education.’ How DECIDE is changing Ukraine from within»

‘Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education’ (DECIDE) is an international project that supports reforms in Ukraine and is deeply embedded within them. For over five years, the Project has been working with communities, helping them to make educational decisions at the local level, establish a new senior school, develop a career guidance system, and implement tools for local democracy. In September 2025, the Project launched its second five-year phase.

In what ways does this phase differ from the first one? Why does DECIDE choose to work only with those who are truly ready for change? Why is the focus placed not on strategy or numbers, but on children trying to find their place in this country?

These questions and more are addressed in the first part of a wide-ranging conversation with Valentyna Poltorak, DECIDE Project Manager. No PR, no hype, no showboating. Just depth, consistency, and sincerity. Just like the Project itself.

The first phase of DECIDE Project has now been completed. It took five years. What was achieved during this time?

Well, the first phase actually lasted a little longer – five and a half years – because it was extended. This is an important point to clarify, because we made the most of this time.

We started with a budget of CHF 4.5 million and ended up with more than three times that amount – CHF 15 million. This enabled us to maintain all the planned areas of focus and add those that became critically important due to the challenges posed first by the COVD-19 pandemic and then by the full-scale war.

The Project focused on the issues that mattered most to communities. We started immediately after the local elections, when communities had just been granted educational powers. It transpired that the newly formed education departments were in urgent need of support; many were led by enthusiastic yet unqualified specialists. We provided them with training and consultations.

In 2020, we launched a large-scale campaign called ‘Education in New Communities from A to Z’. This was intended as a short-term anti-crisis solution lasting 3–4 months. However, it is still ongoing – five years later. We support more than 1,400 communities with webinars, individual consultations, and expert support. We provide support on everything from budgeting and legislation to strategic planning and communication with citizens.

Valentyna Poltorak during public discussions on specialised senior secondary education reform in Poltava region

We do more than just teach – we build infrastructure for participation. For instance, 16 partner communities have advisory councils operating under relevant local governments. These councils provide a platform for active citizens to engage in education management. People get involved in monitoring, searching for resources, and implementing strategies.

Another focus is on creating an education management system that is based on real data, rather than guesswork. This has resulted in the development of AIKOM-2, an analytics tool which is currently undergoing testing. It contains over 200 indicators of educational development within the community, including inclusivity, school enrolment, environmental quality, and demographic trends. The tool is expected to be fully operational by 2026. In the second phase, we will continue to improve it.

This tool has already helped to reduce bureaucratic reporting in education by half, which is very important. We plan to reduce it by three-quarters. After all, administrators should be working with people, not doing paperwork.

Moreover, this tool is crucial for developing educational strategies. We helped communities draft these documents. Since sectoral strategies cannot be effective in isolation from the overall vision for community and regional development – because a school involves not only education, but also transport, safety, infrastructure and jobs – we went further. We helped create comprehensive community development strategies. We already have 20 such cases. We also contributed to the development of the Regional Development Strategy for Odesa region, and we believe this was a very successful experience.

DECIDE team

In other words, the Project has helped to reduce bureaucracy in education. Does the new system, created with the support of DECIDE, help community leaders to make effective decisions in education?

Absolutely. This system is an effective tool for community leaders and heads of education departments alike. It shows where everything complies with the law, but could be improved, as well as areas where progress has already been made that is not seen in other communities.

The uniqueness of the tool lies in the fact that it can be used for self-comparison – to track changes in dynamics. However, there are also indicators for inter-municipal comparison, such as comparing communities of a similar size or type. We are already testing this. Our current plan is to give every community the opportunity to compare itself with others. 

The general idea is simple: to help the community develop without waiting for instructions from higher authorities. Not every manager has the time or opportunity to study legislation in depth, particularly sector-specific legislation. Therefore, together with experts from the Ministry of Education and Science, we translated complex issues into plain language and packaged them into dashboards. These dashboards conveniently and clearly show the basic requirements for educational institutions, the structure of the network, whether there are enough staff, how safe and comfortable the environment is, and the level of education provided.

The Ministry of Education and Science has approved a list of 190 indicators that we developed with local and regional education administrators over a period of four years. These indicators should form the basis of strategic planning at community, regional, and national levels. However, this does not mean that everyone has to cover all 190 indicators at once. A community can select the two or three areas that are most important to it and focus on those. This is entirely in line with international practice. It is crucial that all indicators are automatically taken into account based on the data that schools and communities enter into their AIKOM profiles.

You mentioned training and consultations, which are usually referred to as ‘soft infrastructure’. However, DECIDE also promotes children’s access to offline education in the form of bomb shelters and educational spaces. Could you please share more details about this work and the results you have achieved?

In all partner communities, we piloted a participatory budgeting tool to bring residents of newly formed communities together and demonstrate how they can change their environment through practical action. Education was the unifying component on which we focused, as almost all residents are involved in it in one way or another – through their children, grandchildren, siblings, or other relatives.

This formed the basis of the ‘Public Budget for Children’s Dreams’ initiative, through which we developed a community budget and a school public budget. Each community could choose how to vote: either via the E-dem electronic platform or by paper ballot among schoolchildren. All 108 projects initiated by school teams were implemented in 16 communities, totalling over UAH 16.6 million. DECIDE Project funded 64 per cent of these, with the communities co-financing the remaining 36 per cent.

During the discussion of ideas for projects within the framework of the ‘Public Budget for Children’s Dreams’ initiative

We have seen various approaches. Some communities selected several large projects, while others involved every school. In the first stage, community co-financing amounted to 30 per cent, but we reduced it to 5 per cent for Chernihiv region, for example, where communities were affected by shelling. Ultimately, however, the average level of actual co-financing reached 58 per cent, indicating a high level of interest and involvement on the part of communities.

And importantly, we only count monetary contributions. It is difficult to measure how much community leaders, administrators, school principals, and teachers have invested in terms of time, effort, and support. School teams underwent training, participated in hackathons and workshops, independently prepared projects and promoted them.

Gymnasium No. 13 in Chernihiv that was renovated by DECIDE

Joint commissions consisting of local council and school representatives were set up in communities to verify the results. This simulated the real electoral process, teaching even the youngest residents how local democracy should work.

Turnout was also impressive: in Koropska community, 39 per cent of residents voted – almost as many as in local elections. In Menska community, the oldest voter was 98 years old. Ukrainians living abroad also voted, demonstrating their motivation.

These budgets have become the real social glue for small communities. After all, DECIDE is not just about administrative capacity; it is also about fostering living, tangible democracy at the local level. We will definitely continue this practice. It may be less noticeable in large cities, but in small communities it is a tool that unites, educates, and brings people together.

Children going to the renovated Gymnasium No. 13 in Chernihiv for the first time

All 108 implemented projects can actually be viewed on the website: https://kidsprojects.decide.in.ua

In the bomb shelter of Gymnasium No. 32 of the Chernihiv City Council

In what ways has the level of trust in local authorities changed in communities following the introduction of participatory budgeting? Have you noticed any changes in residents’ attitudes towards governance processes?

We are currently finalising a sociological study, but even without the figures, it is evident that trust has increased. This growth is not just formal, but genuine – it has grown in the daily dialogue between the authorities and citizens. People saw that their opinions were not only heard, but also acted upon. The authorities became partners rather than unreachable leaders.

I remember the head of the Dubovetska community in Ivano-Frankivsk region saying, ‘God, I finally heard my citizens and found out what they really want.’ The community was newly formed and still focused more on industry than civic activism. However, when they witnessed the people's enthusiasm, they not only backed the three winning projects, but also allocated additional budget funds to those that came fourth and fifth. They understood that this was important and that there was a real demand for it.

There are many such stories. In communities that had recently amalgamated, this process acted as a unifying force. Where there was scepticism yesterday, there is a community today.

Another significant advantage is the participation of young people. After taking part in participatory budgeting at school, children felt that their voice was important now, not at some point in the future after they turned 18. This is how political culture is formed from an early age.

I believe that trust is about more than just politics. Rather, it is about the feeling: ‘I am part of this community and social group.’ When this feeling arises, everything changes.

One of DECIDE Project’s components is grants. Please describe this in more detail. What type of grants are these, and what are they for?

Our Project is focused on development. All grants are directed towards launching specific tools for local self-government, as well as towards providing education on how to work with these tools. This education is primarily aimed at children, but also at local educators, school principals, education administrators, and community leaders.

One such tool is the ‘Teaching to Live in a Community’ course. It is taken by students in Grades 8–9. It is not just theory – it is practical democracy. Children learn how local authorities function, where the community gets its funds from, who councillors are, how the chairperson is elected and what the local council is responsible for. They learn to be active citizens, visiting council websites, checking budgets, and understanding what is happening and how. After all, if we are truly building a democracy, we must prepare responsible citizens from an early age.

This course has a very practical structure. First, children explore their community and create a research project. Then, in the second term, they design a development project. This is where the mini-grants come into play. Although these grants are small, they are extremely valuable as they give children their first experience of project management and responsibility.

A mandatory condition is co-financing from the community. To date, more than 60 such mini-projects have been implemented, involving over 5,000 children.

In what communities was this implemented? And who supported you?

We worked in our 16 partner communities and in several others. In particular, as part of our collaboration with the private company Astarta-Kyiv and its charitable foundation, we implemented projects in their communities, too. The company co-financed the mini-grants and we provided training for teachers and supported the process. The course is really interesting and effective, so we plan to expand it first to communities in new partner regions and then across the whole country.

After the outbreak of full-scale war, when many communities faced funding restrictions, especially for elective courses, this became a challenge. However, the budget deficit did not stop most communities. They found the funds themselves because they could see that children were beginning to understand local self-government, the community economy, decision-making processes, and the importance of getting involved.

What exactly did the children put into practice in their mini-projects?

There were many environmental initiatives, such as waste sorting, plastic collection, and recycling. The children themselves suggested these topics.

One of the most unusual projects was in Biloberizka community, one of the highest communities in Ukraine. Children wanted to grow cypress trees. At first, we were surprised – there are forests all around, so why do they want more trees? However, when we invited the children to present their idea, we realised that this was part of their biology lessons and that the children were passionate about it. They are now growing the trees themselves and showed us the results.

Most of the projects focused on improving the school environment, creating areas for socialising, gadget-free zones and comfortable spaces outside the classrooms. These are simple but important things. Children want a place where they can be together, discuss things, and create.

Dialogue platform with senior students during the presentation of research results on senior school reform

You mentioned support for cooperation between communities. Is this also a grant-funded direction?

Yes, inter-municipal cooperation is one of the Project’s 10 key directions. We worked on it very systematically.

Initially, there was a lot of scepticism. Some donors said, ‘The communities will sign the agreement, but then they will not provide funding.’ However, we took a different approach: we researched the needs of small communities, particularly those in rural areas. For example, inclusive resource centres (IRCs) are not available everywhere. Some communities have them and some do not. It is difficult to set them up from scratch as they require speech therapists, psychologists and rehabilitation specialists, who are almost impossible to find in villages.

Therefore, we proposed joining forces: signing agreements and sharing resources. As a result, 56 communities signed 23 cooperation agreements. Most of these were related to IRCs because after the outbreak of the full-scale war the number of children with special educational needs increased by more than a quarter in some de-occupied regions, particularly in Kyiv and Chernihiv regions.

How exactly did you support this cooperation?

We awarded small grants of slightly over UAH 100,000 per contract. Nevertheless, despite these limited resources, communities achieved remarkable results.

For instance, Hradyzka community in Poltava region created a recording studio under a grant contract. Previously, the building had been abandoned. Within a month, it had been transformed into a modern centre where children’s programmes and community television shows are recorded. Seeing the smiling children is inspiring – I still have photos of them in front of my eyes.

These grants also helped to purchase equipment for extracurricular activities, establish new club spaces, and furnish the premises. The communities co-financed the projects too, contributing up to 20 per cent of the costs.

Schoolchildren at DECIDE Career Guidance Hub in Chernihiv

Are all these partnerships still in place? How long does the effect last?

It has been three years since we finished this work, and almost all of the partnerships are still in place. Some communities were so inspired by what they saw that they created their own IRCs.

We have developed sample contracts, step-by-step instructions and recommendations, all of which are available on our ‘Education in New Communities from A to Z’ platform, which has been operating for six years. There are also success stories and interviews with community leaders who are happy to share their experiences of the changes that took place.

Read the second part of the interview to find out about the plans for the second phase of DECIDE Project, the rationale behind the funding, how the legislative basis for the reforms is being prepared, the lessons learned from Switzerland, Germany, and other countries, how the transition to 12-year schooling and investment in laboratories will overcome educational inequality, and how introducing a career guidance system across the country will improve prospects for young Ukrainians. 

Share your experiences in the comments section or via private message. We will publish the most interesting contributions here and in the Facebook group for educators. 

Read more stories and blogs in the publications of our online resource Education. Experts Comment, created within DECIDE Project, implemented by the consortium of DOCCU and PH Zurich with the support of Switzerland.

The DECIDE project is implemented by NGO DOCCU and PHZH International Projects in Education with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine.