METHODICAL APPROACHES TO ASSESSMENT OF THE CAPACITY OF PARTNERSHIP IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN TERMS OF DECENTRALIZATION

Abstract

In the modern terms of the implementation of the administrative and territorial reform and the formation of the local communities in Ukraine, the issue of partnership relations is becoming more relevant. The purpose of the article is to develop the methodological approaches for assessing the capacity of partnership of territorial communities in terms of decentralization. The methodology of assessing the capacity of partnership of communities should take into account the assessment of the potential of communities and their relationships with other economic subjects, such as public sector, business and government. At the same time, the lack of necessary statistical information complicates the process of calculating the degree of the capacity of partnership in local communities. Also, taking into account the fact that the categories as «capacity» and «partnership» are relatively qualitative indicators, the assessment of their level requires the use of the most effective approach and methodology that is adapted to modern economic conditions. The basic elements of the developed methodical approaches are the determinants that were obtained on the basis of the results of structured interviews with the leaders of the local communities in Zakarpattia region and the coefficients of the expert assessments of the partnership capacity. The analysis of the capacity of partnership is proposed to be carry out in the context of three blocks, in particular "local community-public sector", " local community -business" and " local community-government". Taking into account the largest amount of the initial base for the analysis of partnership capacity in the block "OTG-public sector" (based on the results of structured interviews analysis), the evaluation method is proposed based on the analysis of this component of the capacity of partnership. It is proposed to divide the local communities according to the level of partnership capacity to three groups, in particular, communities with low, medium and high level of capacity, that makes it possible to use a selective approach to the development of local communities and could be used by the leaders of the local government during the realization of different programs and plans of regional and local development.