REGIONAL PROGRAMMING AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Authors: KOLESNIK Tetyana 
Published: February 2020

The article emphasizes the limited possibilities within a market mechanism for regulating externalities and providing citizens with public goods. Therefore, there is a necessity for state regulation of the economy and the related areas such as life of people and the use of natural resources. It is noted that regional programming is an important tool for such regulation (regarding sustainable development of various territories, in particular, rural ones).

The purpose of the article is to find the scientific and practical ground for programming rural sustainable development in Ukraine by means of a series reforms.

In the article, regional programming is considered as an important tool of state regional policy, which is implemented by using long-term strategies, plans and programs for development of territories or regions. It is noted that regional programs are a type of state target programs, which may be either complex or special considering content, and either short or medium or long-term in terms of implementation. Examples of complex (development of the Tennessee Valley in the USA) and special (sustainable development of rural areas of the EU) regional programs are shown in the article.

The article suggests including suburbs and territories outside a city or town with private buildings to rural area.

The author proves that sustainable development is a good decision for the territories as well as for other ones. For that purpose, it is important to harmonize the interaction of three components - the environment, society and economy. That is possible in case of achieving Pareto optimum, which does not allow increasing the effect of one of the components, without reducing the effect on other constituents.

The features of regional programming of rural sustainable development are shown with the example of the regional program "Rural Development" development and implementation (hereinafter - the Program) based on presentation and scientific analysis of individual components of its conceptual scheme.

The normative-legal support of the Program consists of documents of a methodological and informative nature. It is noted that the content of the Program should be based on the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine "On the Principles of State Regional Policy", the State Strategy for Regional Development up to 2020 (hereinafter - the Strategy) and other important documents.

The strategy focuses on intensifying the endogenous potential of territories (regions), in particular, rural, rather than on their direct state support. At the same time, sustainable development of rural areas is directly related to the problems of territorial and political unity of Ukrainian regions.

The author considers that significant impact on the implementation of the Program was made by adoption of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine the Resolution "Some Issues of National Strategy Implementation for Regional Development for the period up to 2020", dated September 12, 2018, which includes the concepts presented by Min Region of Ukraine.

After having conducted a rigorous analysis of the Program the author concluded that, it is presented in a schematic form, and therefore requires in-depth scientific analysis, refinement and concretization, starting from the preconditions for its development and ending with the justification of corrections. It is shown that in order to solve the problems of sustainable development of rural areas in Ukraine; a dialectical approach is needed that involves coordinating the development trends of rural and urban areas. It is noted that this was reflected in the purpose of the Program.

The objectives of the Program, in accordance with the Strategy, are set out in three directions: 1) diversification of entrepreneurship in the countryside; 2) improving the quality of life in rural areas; 3) creation of conditions for social development. It specifies the persons responsible for the implementation of the Program, outlines its geography and features of financing. The research says that since the Program is very important for the future of Ukraine, it is necessary to use not only EU grants but also financial resources from other sources envisaged by the legislation for its realization.

One of the significant shortcomings of the Program is the lack of necessary pre-investment research. It is indicated that the most popular are studies aimed at justifying which regional development projects (in the direction of the Program) should be supported by the state. The importance of the most critical projects of the Program is foreseen: in its first direction - diversification of agricultural production, as well as development of alternative types of economic activities, organic farming and processing and service enterprises on the basis of cooperation; the second - creation (improvement) of conditions for returning youth in rural areas, improvement of engineering, informational and educational, social and ecological infrastructure of the countryside; the third - planning of rural development, development of partnership of business and government, activation of rural development on the basis of the received support.

In each of the three areas, the author advises to set the expected results and indicators of the implementation of the Program, which is necessary for its adjustment, based on the possibilities of state support for individual projects.