In this article, we show how transparency tools such as DREAM and digital local governance are helping Ukrainian hromadas (communities) become more independent in planning and shaping their own development.
Decentralization in Ukraine has long ceased to be merely an administrative reform concerning "more power to the locals." Since 2014, it has gradually evolved into a mode of state organization that allows communities not only to make decisions closer to the people but also to survive amidst the pandemic, full-scale war, mass internal displacement, and infrastructure destruction.
The data reveals a compelling duality. On one hand, local budgets are growing:
in the first quarter of 2026, the general fund of local budgets received UAH 139.6 billion, an increase of UAH 19.5 billion compared to the same period in 2025.
The highest growth was recorded in several western and central regions where IDPs and businesses from frontline and occupied territories have relocated. On the role of IDPs we wrote previously.
From this follows a vital premise: the war did not stop decentralization but altered its sence. Previously, the reform primarily meant the transfer of resources and powers from the center to the periphery. Now, it increasingly signifies a hromada's capacity for rapid restructuring, coalescing with neighbors, collaborating with international partners, maintaining a network of basic services, and ensuring governance continuity even when parts of the territory are under threat or occupation.
This is clearly evidenced by monitoring data as of January 1, 2026: 762 inter-municipal cooperation agreements, 2,119 international partnership treaties, and the active participation of 487 hromadas in international cooperation.
This gives rise to a new role for local self-government as Ukraine's "soft power" in the European integration process. Genuine trust from European partners is currently being forged not through diplomatic protocols alone, but through direct horizontal ties and the collaborative resolution of crisis tasks at the local level.
Such a paradigm shift suggests that Ukraine's post-war reconstruction will also be decentralized. Resources and investments will increasingly be channeled not into an abstract "center," but directly to communities that can demonstrate a high level of accountability.
The key instrument here is the digital recovery management ecosystem, specifically the state platform DREAM. The implementation of such tools of transparency, alongside the development of local e-democracy, establishes the hromada as the most efficient manager of funds, where oversight for every project is conducted directly by the residents.
Thus, decentralization is transforming Ukraine into a "network state," where the resilience of the entire system is ensured by the autonomy and agency of each individual node.
Decentralization can be viewed through the lens of "antifragility." Under wartime conditions, a centralized system is vulnerable to fragility. Decentralized Ukraine operates like a neural network, where damage to a single node does not lead to a total system failure.
The transformation of Ukrainian decentralization during the war extends far beyond the administrative allocation of resources, turning the hromada into a comprehensive "security hub."
The ability of communities to swiftly assume functions of logistics, defense, and humanitarian provision allows for the hypothesis that decentralization in Ukraine is evolving into a system of "comprehensive defense."
The hromada is a needed link in national security, where civil protection, energy autonomy, and local logistics are integrated into a single viable network. Moreover, this prevents social entropy (the decay of social ties); the hromada becomes a "melting pot."
Decentralization generates a Big Data corpus that enables a shift toward predictive governance. Each hromada serves as a distinct dataset. We can model the developmental trajectories of communities not as a national arithmetic mean, but as a system of interconnected agents. This, in turn, would be useful during the reconstruction processes.
Consequently, something akin to "algorithmic subsidiarity" is emerging. This is the assumption that digital tools (e-democracy, participatory budgeting) create a new form of solidarity where geographic distance carries less weight than the intensity of digital interaction within the community.
This is the path to "smart decentralization," where resources are allocated based on real-time governance rather than obsolete planning indicators.
Decentralization in Ukraine functions as an "anti-entropy filter." By transforming communities into "melting pots" for human capital, the reform fosters social solidarity. The hromada has become a vital node in a global network that, among other things, bolsters national security.
