Over 400 representatives from Donetsk, Luhansk, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions took part in the discussion of the Public Investment Management (PIM) reform being implemented by the Government of Ukraine.
In June and July, presentations were held in Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Kyiv, Lutsk, Mykolaiv, Uzhhorod, and Chernihiv. In total, about 3,500 representatives of local self-government bodies and regional military administrations from all Ukrainian regions participated in regional events.
These practical presentations are aimed at strengthening the capacity of authorities to implement the PIM reform at local and regional levels. Participants gained access to an extensive array of valuable resources — sample documents, successful case studies, and comprehensive answers to questions — all of which will help them better understand the next steps within the reform and adapt to upcoming changes.
Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine Oleksii Riabykin, in his address to the participants, emphasized the importance of the reform in addressing disparities in regional development. Digital tools such as DREAM play a vital role by allowing real-time tracking of every invested hryvnia's impact.
UNDP Ukraine Project Manager Federica Dispensa noted that the reform is part of a broader, integrated recovery effort for Ukraine and represents a significant governmental contribution to building transparent and accountable governance at all levels. To ensure balanced development, communities must clearly understand and articulate their needs, including for international donors.
The agenda of the Poltava meeting included the legislative framework regulating the reform, institutional support at the local and regional levels, the importance of strategic and medium-term planning as a foundation for public investment management, a new methodology for preparing public investment projects and programs, as well as the principles for forming sectoral pipeline and the Single Project Pipeline (SPP).
Communities and RMAs have already begun establishing management structures under the PIM reform and forming the Medium-Term Plan of Priority Public Investments (MIP). While preparing MIPs at the local and regional levels, communities and RMAs must define priority investment areas based on approved development strategies relevant to their level. The next stage involves creating public investment projects and programs, as well as forming sectoral pipelines and SPP for the respective levels.
To strengthen the capacity of local and regional authorities, an interdepartmental group has been created at the state level to support project preparation (PPU) and provide expert and consulting assistance (PPF). DREAM Project Office Head Viktor Nestulia outlined the reform's logic and how DREAM is being transformed into a public investment management system. As part of the PIM reform, a unified digital model is being introduced for the creation, evaluation, and prioritization of projects at all levels, based on leading international practices. DREAM serves as a single-entry platform for investment management at the community, regional, and national levels.
"The PIM reform aims to fundamentally change Ukraine's approach to strategic investment planning and synchronize it with the European Union's requirements and budget cycles. It introduces systemic changes and unifies approaches to public investment management in line with EU standards. The digital architecture enables the implementation of these complex solutions and optimizes management processes through integration with national e-registers and systems. Furthermore, digital tools such as DREAM help build trust among international partners and citizens in the recovery process," said Viktor Nestulia.
The DREAM Project Office will provide users with methodological support and guidance at each stage of reform implementation. Webinars are currently being held for communities on preparing MIPs at the local level.
The event was held jointly by the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, the DREAM Project Office, and Open Contracting Partnership with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine as part of UNDP's flagship partnership with the European Union "EU4Recovery — Empowering Communities in Ukraine", as well as the "Support to Inclusive Recovery for Resilience and Human Security in Ukraine" project funded by the Government of Japan.
