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The role of municipal cooperation in the sustainable development of territorial communities
The article explores the role of municipal cooperation in ensuring the sustainable development of territorial communities in conditions of decentralization and security uncertainty. The relevance of the topic is due to modern challenges associated with the reform of the local government system, the consequences of a full-scale war, the need to restore territories, increase the efficiency of using community resources and ensure their sustainable functioning. The purpose of the article is to study the role of municipal cooperation in ensuring the sustainable development of territorial communities, determine modern trends in the development of intermunicipal interaction, identify the main problems of the functioning of cooperation mechanisms and substantiate the directions of their improvement in conditions of security challenges and post-war restoration of Ukraine. In the process of research, a complex of general scientific and special methods was used, in particular, methods of theoretical generalization, systemic analysis, comparison, statistical analysis and regulatory and legal research. The dynamics of concluding intermunicipal cooperation agreements were analyzed and a positive trend towards an increase in the number of joint projects of territorial communities was established. It was determined that the most common areas of cooperation are housing and communal services, solid waste management, development of transport and social infrastructure, provision of administrative services, education, healthcare and implementation of security measures. It was proven that in conditions of martial law, intermunicipal cooperation became an important tool for ensuring the livelihoods of communities, supporting internally displaced persons and implementing projects for the restoration of territories. The article identifies the main problems of the development of intermunicipal cooperation, in particular, the imperfection of regulatory and legal support, the complexity of implementing agreements, insufficient financial support and the need for digitalization of community interaction processes. Directions for improving cooperation mechanisms by strengthening state support, developing human resources and expanding international partnerships are proposed.
Keywords: municipal cooperation, community, sustainable development, decentralization, local self-government, security uncertainty, post-war reconstruction.
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