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Ukraine Support Team (UST) coalition invites you to join the discussion of the processes, priorities, and principles of recovery of the regions affected by the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. 

The Forum “REBUILDING LIVES: PRIORITIES AND PRINCIPLES OF RECOVERY” will be a platform where representatives of the central and regional authorities, donor organizations, civil society, business, and other stakeholders of recovery processes will gather to coordinate joint efforts for the effective reconstruction of Ukraine.

The focus of the forum discussion is:

• The first steps in the recovery of communities: a vision of restoration processes at the national level, problems on the ground and opportunities for improvement, cooperation with donors;
• Approaches to prioritizing recovery needs;
• Experience of donors and partners in cooperation with communities, plans, and opportunities for improvement;
• Preparation for the reconstruction of Ukraine, the role of business in reconstruction.

When: December 13, 2023, 10:00 Kyiv Time

Where: Kyiv

Form of participation: online and offline

Organizer: Ukraine Support Team (UST) 

The venue and event program will be sent to confirmed participants. Please, register here.

On November 14th UST in Mykolaiv held the coordinational meeting of international organizations, and national NGOs working in the field of education in the Mykolaiv Region, the regional military administration representatives on problems and challenges in restoring access to education in the region and child protection, prospects for strengthening cooperation and establishing permanent ties, coordination, and presentations of presence strategies in the Mykolaiv region and concrete activity plans for 2024.

There are 35-40 organizations that participate directly in the education cluster in the Mykolaiv region. It seems impossible to resume in-person education in most communities of the region due to the proximity of the war zone and the high probability of shelling. Digital Learning Centers and the conversion of existing premises into temporary schools have proven to be effective solutions in communities that have been under occupation for a long time or on the front line of hostilities and have suffered significant destruction.

The main needs of the region in restoring access to education:

• arrangement of shelters;
• restoration of access to drinking water in Mykolaiv;
• increase in educational centers, extracurricular activities, and safety classes;
• reconstruction of professional education institutions;
• provision of psychological support and cyber security, etc.

Among the participants of the meeting were representatives of Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Mykolaiv City Council,  UNICEF, Plan International, SavED, NGO “10th of April”, Charitable Fund “Children of Heroes”, Association of innovative and digital education, MontessoriUA, MontessoriMykolaiv, IREX, SURGe, NRC, Peace Winds Japan, IsraAID, NGO Oleksandr Pedan’s movement JuniorS, NGO ISTOK, Charitable organization “Club of benefactors”, Save the Children, Charitable fund «Schedryk».

Representatives of territorial communities of the region met with national and international NGO’s that provide expert and donor assistance in the field of restoring access to education in order to coordinate joint efforts in overcoming the problems of the sector caused by the war. The forum was organized by the Chernihiv office of UST together with the Regional Office of International Cooperation of Chernihiv Regional Military Administration

“This year’s indicators inspire hope that with joint efforts we will be able to make up for educational losses. Today, 38% of schools in our country study offline, 46% – in a mixed form, and only 16% study remotely.”

It is the coordination of joint work between state and local authorities and NGOs that can speed up the reconstruction process, according to Tetyana Yasochko, adviser to the head of the Chernihiv Regional Military Administration:

“The purpose of this event is to establish communication between donors and communities that need help. We want to build this dialogue so that our joint work to restore the industry is as effective as possible.”

One of the serious problems in the field of education in Chernihiv Region, according to Andrii Kuzhel, head of the UST Chernihiv office, is the uneven implementation of projects in the region:

“Help is often focused closer to Kyiv. The Kyiv highway is like a conditional demarcation line. We all understand that it is logistically more convenient, but we have to remember the borders, where many donors are afraid to go. People leave from there, and the lack of access to education is one of the factors of this migration.”

Thus, in the 20-kilometer zone on the border with Russia, where face-to-face education is prohibited, there are 19 schools and 17 kindergartens, where almost 2 thousand children study in total. According to Tetyana Kovalchuk, head of the education department of the Novgorod-Siver city council, in two months of the school year, the number of students in community schools decreased by 20 children. Out of 13 schools in the community, only one is open.

“We are a community that is in the zone of possible hostilities, we have a 20-km zone. If we don’t have a school, we have less than 200 students, and funds are usually taken for large schools, – says Tetyana Kovalchuk. – In Novgorod-Siversky, we have a large lyceum for 800 students, where there is no shelter. We are developing project documentation for its construction, we are asking designers to break it into complexes in order to implement it in parts, but there is no donor for this either. We need to work on finding funds that are willing to join together.”

As part of the forum, representatives of international organizations presented their policies and areas of activity, talked about work plans for 2024. Anna Putsova, the head of the operational direction of the SavEd fund, on the initiative of which the first 8 digital educational centers were created in the schools of the region, emphasized the importance of the proactive position of local self-government bodies.

“A correctly articulated need with the right reasoning is equal to the satisfaction of that need. International funds can help you, but it is important to offer your vision on how to solve this problem, to work out legislation and possible solutions. Only then can this mechanism move from its place,” she addressed the representatives of the communities of the region.@

Mykolaiv volunteers, public organizations, and local authorities discussed cooperation in the recovery processes of the region. The participants of the meeting agreed to create a platform to coordinate actions, improve cooperation, and exchange information.

Olena Koltyk, head of the Ukraine Support Team (UST) coalition, during her speech at the event, spoke about the main principles of the coalition’s work and noted that a developed civil society is the key to the development of a democratic country. The problems in decision-making on recovery issues by the authorities at the central level with insufficient understanding of the needs of local communities were also highlighted. “It is very important that the public, despite the war, does not lose its voice,” she added.

Dmytro Tarasenko, Head of the Mykolaiv office of the UST coalition, proposed to start the practice of dialogues on a permanent basis. The creation of a structured and effective communication mechanism will allow all stakeholders to effectively interact in the recovery processes of the Mykolaiv region.

Simon Muschyk, a representative of the Stabilization Platform, emphasized, that the strengthening of public and state structures is a basic prerequisite for sustainable stabilization of society. Cooperation between all participants is extremely important. The participation of a wide range of parties, especially civil society, increases the legitimacy of initiated projects, which are supported and their implementation is monitored. A key factor is transparency in terms of financial support, as well as open access to all processes.

“The already acquired experience in the Mykolaiv region can become a valuable example for other regions,” Simon Muschyk emphasized.

Mykola Marinov, deputy head of Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, spoke about several approaches to the interaction between public and donor organizations. He also noted that prior to the creation of international cooperation working groups in each oblast at the initiative of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine, the function of prioritizing the needs of communities in the Mykolaiv Oblast was performed by the UST team.

Next, the speakers of public organizations shared their own experiences and voiced the main problems and proposals for the cooperation of interested parties. Attention was drawn to the fact that currently, the state authorities do not have enough resources to clarify all methods of interaction and support, and this implies the involvement of assistance from public organizations and coalitions.

The fund encourages everyone who cares to join, as well as to concentrate on the development of the economic component, and Natalya and her team in particular pay a lot of attention to grant opportunities for small businesses, free retraining of employees of enterprises in connection with the loss of jobs at destroyed or stopped enterprises. The speaker expressed her desire to sign a memorandum of cooperation.

The event was attended by:

• Olena Koltyk, Head of the UST coalition,
• Dmytro Tarasenko, Head of the Mykolaiv office of the UST coalition,
• Simon Muschyk, Representative of the Stabilization Platform,
• Mykola Marinov, Deputy Chief of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration,
• Ihor Filippov, Deputy Director of the Mykolaiv city mayor’s department,
• Oleksandr Korolev, Director of the Department of Economic Development and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Head of the Humanitarian Staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
• Yevhen Babkov, Director of the Regional Development Agency of the Mykolaiv Region,
• Evgeny Gilin, Representative of the NGO “City of Power”,
• Serhiy Tatarenko, Representative of the NGO “Development of Ukraine”,
• Ihor Yakovenko, Representative of the NGO “My Direction”,
• Vitaly Butuchel, Representative of the NGO “Hope is”,
• Natalia Horbenko, representative of Charity Foundation”Shchedryk”.

The public discussion “Cooperation of public organizations, local authorities, and donors in the recovery of Mykolaiv region” took place on September, 28, in Mykolaiv and was organized by the Mykolaiv office of the Ukraine Support Team (UST) in partnership with the Regional Office of International Cooperation. The project in the Mykolayiv region is implemented by the NGO “BRDO” with the support of “Stabilization Platform” on the order of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany.

The first episode of the UST podcast “Living Now” is out on our YouTube channel.

In focus: the beginning of the second school year during the war, how to give Ukrainian children the opportunity to get an education despite the ongoing war.

We talked to Anna Novosad, co-founder of the SavED Charitable Foundation, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine 2019-2020, and UST (Ukraine Support Team) expert on education.

Host of the podcast: Olena Koltyk, Head of the UST Coalition.

English subtitles are available.

For the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war, the civil society of the Chernihiv region gathered to discuss the coordination of recovery processes with the participation of the authorities and community representatives with the aim of creating a single coordination platform. As part of the event, the participants discussed increasing transparency in the recovery of the region and the need for a quality selection of projects for the recovery of life in communities affected by the aggression of the Russian Federation.

“An urgent need that could be covered by the public sector is help with submitting applications for the “eRecovery” program (especially the category of elderly people) and drafting documents for property rights, and legal consultations. As of September 7, we have about 2,000 applications from residents of the region, almost half of which are being processed by commissions.”

According to Pavel Pushchenko, an expert on the Swedish-Ukrainian PROSTO project, local councils in Chernihiv Oblast have only begun the process of creating special commissions for reconstruction planning, when almost a year and a half have passed since the de-occupation.

“We have an example of comprehensive reconstruction of the village. Yagidne, where the community asked people how they see this reconstruction. This is a great example of public discussions, as it should be. But this is a pilot – there is support from the state and powerful funds. What should a community that has suffered but has neither money nor a plan to rebuild do? This is an important question. Communities must have a political understanding that citizen involvement is a necessity, not a formality.”

As one of the possible solutions, he calls for consultations and training of community leaders in the tools of involvement of civil society.

Simon Muschik, representative of the Stabilization Platform – a project that implements and supports programs in Ukraine with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany and foreign policy instruments of the European Union, addressed the participants of the event:

“At the local level, cooperation between military-civilian administrations, local government, and civil society is extremely important: joint approaches to assessing needs help build communities, which is necessary for the sustainable strengthening of state structures, especially de-occupied ones. The experience gained in the Chernihiv region can become a valuable example for the reconstruction of other regions.”

The participants of the event identified the main directions for the further work of the platform:

• Consultations for the public on the preparation and execution of documents for receiving compensation for destroyed or damaged housing.
• An information campaign for citizens about real recovery processes in the country.
• Training of the leadership of territorial communities on public involvement.
• Institutional support of public organizations of Chernihiv region.

“The UST team organized this meeting to start a public dialogue regarding the involvement of the civil society in the processes and planning of reconstruction, because everyone has a common goal, but everyone’s vision may be different,” said Andrii Kuzhel, Head of the Chernihiv UST Regional Office

“The UST coalition, with the participation of national experts, developed the SMART prioritization methodology. It was created in order to change approaches to reconstruction processes: not to agree to all offers of funding, instead to prioritize our needs – to show donors what help is critically needed now,” said Olena Koltyk, encouraging communities to use the methodology tool in their work.

The event was attended by:

• Yuriy Sukhomlyn, Deputy Head of the Department of Economic Development of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration
• Serhii Kurenya, acting Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration
• Andriy Halyuga, Head of the Volunteer Association “Bo Mozemo!”
• Alina Kolomiets, Spokeswoman of the Service for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure in Chernihiv Region
• Pavlo Pushchenko, Expert of the PROSTO project, author of the manual “Informing the Population in Crisis Conditions and Involving Them in the Process of Planning and Reconstruction of Communities”
• Viktor Nikitenko, Deputy Head of the Kyinska TC (Territorial Community)
• Volodymyr Shelupets, Head of Kyselivska TC
• Petrenko Svitlana, Head of the Department of the National Medical Center of the Ivanivska TC

The event “Involvement of Civil Society in the Recovery of Chernihiv Region” took place on September 7, 2023 in Chernihiv and was organized by the Chernihiv office of the Ukraine Support Team (UST) coalition. The project in the Chernihiv region is implemented by the NGO “BRDO” with the support of “Stabilization Platform” on the order of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany.

_{Фото: Влад Спешилов}

Despite the war, families return to their homes, and children go to kindergartens and schools. The greatest need for restoring access to education remains the availability of shelters in educational institutions. Shelters make it possible to resume full-time or mixed forms of education, which is extremely important for obtaining quality education and socialization for children, who for the fourth year (first because of COVID-19, and then because of the war) are mostly receiving distance education.

More about the situation in the education sector of Chernihiv Oblast and Mykolaiv Oblast in our material.

Chernihiv Region

52% of schools in the Chernihiv region will return to full-time education in the new academic year. Such data were announced in the regional department of education of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration, however, it was noted that these figures are not exact, but projected. For comparison, last academic year only 21% of schools worked offline.

^{Lyceum in the village of Ripky, Chernihiv Region}

Schools in which shelters are deemed suitable are returning to full-time and mixed forms of education. In total, there are 355 institutions of general secondary education (8 of them are currently in the process of arranging shelters). According to the Chernihiv State Administration, during the full-scale war, it was possible to repair 249 school shelters and install 7 modular shelters. Funds for these shelters were provided from the state and local budgets, as well as charitable organizations.

A mandatory condition for returning to full-time education in schools is also the consent of local self-government, pedagogical, and parent teams.

Currently, there are 27 schools in the Chernihiv region that do not have their own or nearby shelters that could be used during air raids. The lack of equipped shelters is the most acute problem in the organization of the educational process, as the regional education department says. Such institutions will study exclusively remotely, regardless of their location.

Distance education is also introduced in educational institutions located in a 20-kilometer zone near the border with the russian federation, these are 23 schools and 18 kindergartens, with a total of almost 2.5 thousand children. During 2022-23, teachers received more than 5,139 laptops in border schools, and students received 1,797 laptops and tablets for learning, reports the Regional State Administration.

As for kindergartens, 324 institutions (81%) plan to start work on September 1, 2023, with 18,728 children enrolled in them. Of them:

• 245 (61%) – full-time;

• 52 (13%) – by mixed form;

• 48 (12%) – remotely.

If necessary educational institutions can switch from one form of education to another during the academic year, Regional Education Department notes.

Mykolaiv Region

In the Mykolaiv region, 429 institutions of general secondary education are preparing to accept students this academic year. They are expected to provide educational services for about 109,000 students.

^{Arkas Gymnasium, Mykolaiv. Destroyed by four C-300 missles.}

Regarding preschool education, as of January 1, 2023, there are 510 preschool institutions, where 26,870 children are already enrolled. This means that almost 91.4% of the child population of the region is in the preschool education system.

Currently, 236 preschool education institutions (46.3%) in 33 territorial communities are operating and providing educational services in the region, in which 9,304 pupils (34.6% of the number enrolled in preschool education institutions) receive education.

Of these, 236 institutions (46.3%) operate in the usual mode, 162 (31.8%) work remotely, and 26 (5.1%) use a mixed approach.

As for the form of education in secondary schools, according to the results of monitoring, 71 (17%) schools chose offline education, 175 (41%) will provide educational services online, and 183 (42%) – mixed.

The process of organizing training also requires important measures. Among them are capital repairs, reconstruction of protective structures and shelters, installation of video surveillance systems, arrangement of security classes, and organization of access regime. In addition, when resuming offline or mixed education format, more than 12 thousand students will need transportation. For this, an additional 128 buses will be needed.

Also, it is important to note that 5,965 (23%) students of education returned to general secondary education institutions from abroad. At the end of the previous academic year, 19,677 (17.7%) students were studying abroad.

As for the teaching staff, at the beginning of the last academic year, 759 teachers were abroad and engaged in educational activities, 224 returned to Ukraine during the year.

The “Get It Back” team, with the support of the Ukraine Support Team, launched an online compensation calculator for owners of housing destroyed during the war.

The calculator is posted on the project website. It will be useful to everyone who wants to know the amount of future compensation they can count on.

Making an online calculation is very simple, for this, you need to make a few clicks.

• choose the type of destroyed real estate – an apartment or a private house.

• specify the main real estate parameters:

for an apartment:	for the house:
• location region; • specific district/city/district in the city; • area; • construction period; • a number of rooms.	• region or city of location; • area.

• Get acquainted with the calculation of the amount of compensation (it is possible to download the calculation in a separate file with more detailed information), where all the components of the formulas for calculating the amount of compensation are indicated. Compensation commissions will use such formulas in their work.

The calculation algorithm takes into account the normative condition that the amount of compensation is set at a level not lower than the cost of construction of housing of the corresponding area, calculated according to the index of mediated cost in the regions of Ukraine. If the amount of compensation received based on the parameters entered by the user is less than the mediated indicator, the calculator will automatically determine the correct amount of compensation, that is, the minimum amount of compensation that the victim can count on.

The report “Rebuilding Life: A Comprehensive Need Assessment of War-Torn Regions” summarizes the work result of the UST (Ukraine Support Team) – a coalition of public organizations, analytical centers, and national and regional teams that united to develop an effective recovery approach through strengthening communities, establishing interaction with donors, attracting aid to the population to ensure all the necessary conditions for Ukrainian citizens to return home.

The project team consists of national experts and regional teams in two chosen pilot regions – Chernihiv and Mykolaiv.

We focused on three areas of public life: education, health, and energy security. Based on the experience of piloting the project, we decided to use a comprehensive approach to analyze regions and include communities’ strategic development in the overview.

Read or download the report “Restoring Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of the Needs of War-Torn Regions”.

Below you can also find the Catalog of Projects in Chernihiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv Regions.

On July 7, 2023, during a visit to the Chernihiv region, the adviser to the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Artem Husak, the head of the UST coalition Olena Koltyk, the head of the Chernihiv office of the UST Andriy Kuzhel met with the head of the Chernihiv Region Military Administration Vyacheslav Chaus discussed the first results of the work of the Regional Office for International Cooperation on the reconstruction of Chernhiv region.

According to Mr. Husak, Regional Offices for International Cooperation have already been established in all regions of Ukraine. Each region will have its own specificity of work, in particular, the most affected areas will focus on recovery.

Vyacheslav Chaus noted that the goal of creating the Regional Office of International Cooperation is permanent systematization and uninterrupted work with all existing and potential partners. “Chernihiv region cooperates with more than 300 donor organizations, development partners, and charitable organizations,” he said.

Ukraine Support Team is also working on the reconstruction of the Chernihiv Region, in particular helping to restore access to education, health care services, housing and communal services, and ensuring stable heat and electricity supply. The head of the UST coalition, Olena Koltyk, noted that the establishment of cooperation between donors, local authorities and civil society is the key to effective reconstruction. “The work of our office is aimed at increasing the capacity of communities. We help communities identify priority needs for reconstruction, find optimal technical solutions, and attract financing,” she added.

As part of the visit, Artem Husak and the Ukraine Support Team also visited the Chernihiv Regional Children’s Hospital, the Lyceum in Mykhailo-Kotsyubinsky, and the village of Yagidne.

The small village of Yagidne in the Chernihiv region, which was occupied by the russians for almost a month, is called by local residents “Chernihivska Bucha”. Here, the invaders also shot unarmed civilians and destroyed their houses. Reconstruction works are currently underway in Yagidne. The village was included in the national experimental project on comprehensive restoration. It is planned to repair 101 private houses and 17 apartment buildings, 2 objects of social infrastructure, and 2 – commercial real estate. Works are divided into several phases. The first has 41 buildings.

The Regional Office for International Cooperation is an initiative of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine, which aims to develop the interaction of local and regional authorities with international partners who seek to cooperate at the level of the region and territorial community.

Фото: СпешиLove

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