The Better Care Ukraine Reform (2024–2028) aims to ensure that every child has the opportunity to grow up in a family environment. The reform envisions a major transformation of the child care system and relies heavily on local communities, as most programs and activities are implemented at the local level.
ContextUkraine operates under a decentralized governance model. As a result, local plans are often shaped by local political priorities. Moreover, municipal officials are often overburdened with day-to-day tasks, while opportunities for expert support remain limited. Therefore, it is crucial to create tools that help communities integrate their local priorities with the national strategy.
The Solution: Local Program Builder with a Financial Model
The Maestral team — Bohdan Malyniak (Affiliate), Dmytro Ignatov (Consultant), Lauren Morris (Consultant), Mari Hickmann (Senior Associate), and Philip Goldman (Founder and President) — introduced a digital solution: the Local Program Builder. Its goals are to:
- encourage communities to align with the priorities of the Better Care Ukraine Reform;
- simplify the planning process;
- improve the quality of local programs.
How It Works
The core function of the Builder is the use of catalogs of solutions, developed by experts based on the National Strategy and regional plans. These catalogs contain adapted tasks and measures for communities to implement to align with the national strategy, while leaving room for local initiatives. This creates a flexible link between local planning, regional frameworks, and the national strategy.
The Builder is implemented on Google Drive in the form of two modules:
- Support Module – a file with national and regional catalogs that are continuously updated by experts.
- User Module – separate files for municipalities containing tools for program development.
This setup ensures that users always have access to the latest versions of the catalogs and clearly separates the roles of experts and program developers. The User Module includes all the tools necessary for building a local program: assessing financial needs, defining implementers and timelines, comparing needs with budget plans, automatically generating documents, and preparing infographics.
First Results
On August 27, during a webinar organized by the Coordination Center for local authorities, the Builder and its user manual were presented to communities. The event attracted a large audience, and more than 500 participants requested access to the tool. This confirms the high potential of the Builder as a support instrument for local planning within the Better Care Ukraine Reform.
Prospects
The Builder can be applied not only to support the Better Care Ukraine Reform, but also as a universal tool in other policy areas where there is one goal-setting authority and many autonomous implementers working toward a common outcome. The Builder aims to demonstrate how digital solutions can foster effective collaboration among decentralized actors and make the implementation of large-scale reforms more coherent and impactful.