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The UST Model of Social Market Development of Communities

UST proposes to view a community not merely as an administrative unit or a recipient of assistance, but as a local social market system.

This means that assessing a community’s development should include not only demographics, budget, land or infrastructure. It must answer a deeper question: is the community capable of creating prosperity and fairly transforming it into quality of life for its residents?

Within this logic, the UST model of social market development of communities can consist of several key blocks.

1. Fair Rules for Business

A social market economy begins with rules. Not with a specific investor, not with one large plant, not with the “manual” selection of priority companies, but with a predictable environment for everyone.

For a community, this means transparent procedures for access to land, municipal property, infrastructure, information and local support programmes. Businesses must understand the rules under which they enter the community, what conditions they receive, what obligations they have and how their rights are protected.

The criterion of a social market community is this: the authorities do not appoint winners, but create fair conditions for competition.

2. Small and Medium-Sized Business as the Basis of Resilience

Large investment projects are important. They can create jobs, taxes, logistics or industrial clusters. But a social market economy cannot rely only on large players.

Community resilience is created by small and medium-sized businesses: local producers, workshops, service companies, farmers, processing enterprises, family businesses, social enterprises, creative industries, local trade, crafts and services.

SMEs provide broader employment, competition, flexibility and a link between the economy and local people. Therefore, UST’s methodology should assess not only “who can be attracted from outside”, but also who can be grown from within the community.

3. Social Justice as the Result of the Economy

A social market economy is not reduced to the slogan “more business”. Its meaning is that economic growth must translate into better quality of life.

For a community, this means a direct connection between business development, budget revenues and social outcomes: education, healthcare, support for veterans, inclusion, services for children, elderly people, persons with disabilities and internally displaced persons.

If a community attracts investment, but residents do not see improvements in services, housing, jobs, transport, education or safety, such a model is not fully social market-oriented.

UST’s criterion: economic development should be measured not only by the volume of investment, but also by how it changes people’s lives.

4. Human Capital and Vocational Education

Erhard’s ideas were aimed at releasing the economic energy of society. For modern Ukraine, this is impossible without human capital.

A community may have land, logistics and investment ideas, but without people who have the necessary skills, economic development will remain on paper. Therefore, a social market approach at the level of territorial communities must include vocational education, retraining, work with youth, veterans, women, internally displaced persons and people returning from abroad.

The key question is not only “what business do we want to attract?”, but also “what people and what professions do we need to prepare for this economy?”

5. Responsible Budget Policy

A social market economy requires a responsible budget. For a community, this means that additional revenues should not simply be “spent”, but should work toward long-term capacity.

UST’s methodology can assess whether a community understands its own fiscal base; whether it knows which assets are used inefficiently; whether it evaluates the future cost of maintaining infrastructure; whether it has transparent budget priorities; whether it explains to residents the connection between taxes, business and quality of services; and whether it uses the budget as a development tool, not only to cover current needs.

In social market logic, a strong budget is not an end in itself. It is an instrument for financing quality services and building trust in the community.

6. Municipal Services as the Foundation of Trust

A social market economy at the community level is impossible without quality basic services. Business will not come to a place where there is no road, electricity, water, clear connection procedures, housing for employees or school for their children. People will not stay where there is no accessible education, healthcare, safety, transport or living environment.

That is why, in UST’s methodology, municipal services should be viewed not as “costs”, but as part of the community’s economic infrastructure. Water, roads, energy, schools, kindergartens, medical and social services are not only a social obligation. They are the foundation of investment attractiveness, residents’ trust and the community’s ability to compete for people.

7. Partnership Between Government, Business and Civil Society

One of the main mistakes of many development strategies is to view the community only as a local government apparatus. In reality, a community is a system of interaction.

Local authorities, businesses, civil society organisations, educational institutions, donors, residents, veteran communities, youth, farmers and investors must all be participants in development.

Therefore, a social market community needs institutional mechanisms for dialogue: business councils, investment offices, public consultations, partnership platforms, joint working groups, transparent KPIs for officials and regular reporting on strategy implementation.

UST’s criterion: community development cannot be a document written behind closed doors — it must be a social agreement.

8. From Donor Assistance to Economic Capacity

International assistance is critically important for Ukraine. But the strategic goal is not for communities to remain permanently dependent on grants. The goal is for assistance to launch economic mechanisms that will continue to work after funding ends.

This means that every donor or infrastructure project must answer the following questions: what long-term effect does it create; does it increase the community’s capacity; does it create jobs; does it reduce future costs; does it improve quality of life; can it be scaled; does it help the community become less dependent on external financing?

This is one of the key principles of the social market approach: assistance should not replace development, but launch it.

Possible Criteria for Assessing a Community

For the social market approach not to remain merely a philosophy, it must be translated into practical criteria. UST can use them to analyse communities, prepare strategies, project applications, investment passports and development programmes.

Such criteria may include:

• transparency of access to land and municipal property;
• availability of an open register of investment sites;
• number and dynamics of small and medium-sized businesses;
• share of own-source revenues in the community budget;
• fiscal return from land and municipal assets;
• availability of an investment passport in Ukrainian and English;
• existence of an economic development office or a responsible official;
• number of vocational programmes linked to the needs of local business;
• quality of municipal services;
• presence of mechanisms for dialogue with business and residents;
• energy resilience of critical infrastructure;
• share of donor or investment projects with long-term economic impact;
• availability of indicators of social outcomes: jobs, income, access to services and support for vulnerable groups.

These criteria make it possible to assess a community not only by the number of projects, but by its ability to create sustainable prosperity.

The Ukrainian Perspective

Ukraine has a chance not only to rebuild, but also to rethink its economic model. At the national level, this means deep reforms, fair rules, protection of competition, development of entrepreneurship, strong institutions and social responsibility.

But it is not necessary to wait until all reforms at the central level are completed. Part of this logic can be implemented already now — in communities.

Territorial communities can become laboratories of the social market economy: with transparent asset management, support for entrepreneurship, vocational education, social services, investment passports, fair rules for business, dialogue with residents and measurable development results.

A new economic culture of Ukraine can begin with such communities.

Ludwig Erhard showed that after great destruction, a country can choose not the path of distributing scarcity, but the path of creating conditions for prosperity. For Ukraine, this lesson is especially important.

A social market economy for Ukrainian communities is not an abstract theory. It is a practical answer to the question of how to create communities after the war where business has freedom and fair rules, people have jobs and services, the budget has its own capacity, and partner assistance turns into long-term development.

Ukraine Support Team sees its role in helping communities follow this path — from project-based recovery to social market capacity.

This is not a substitute for nationwide economic reform. But it is a real beginning — at the community level, where the future Ukraine is being shaped every day.

Ukraine’s post-war recovery cannot be limited to rebuilding destroyed facilities. Schools, hospitals, roads, housing, energy systems and infrastructure must be restored. But the key question of the next stage is broader: what kind of economic system are we building after the war — at the national, regional and community levels?

Ukraine needs more than infrastructure reconstruction. It needs a renewal of its economic logic: greater freedom for entrepreneurship, fair rules of competition, responsible government, strong communities, development of small and medium-sized businesses, quality social services, and a clear link between economic growth and people’s well-being.

It is in this context that Ukraine Support Team views community development not as a set of separate projects, but as the formation of new managerial and economic capacity at the local level.

UST is working on an approach that can be defined as a model of social market capacity for communities. It is a set of criteria and practical tools that allow a community to be assessed not only by the existence of strategies, investment ideas or recovery plans, but by its ability to create prosperity, fair rules, jobs, social services and long-term economic resilience.

Ludwig Erhard’s Lesson: Prosperity Is Not Distributed — It Is Created

After the Second World War, West Germany faced the challenge of large-scale reconstruction. One of the main architects of its economic rise, Ludwig Erhard, proposed an approach that became known as the social market economy.

This model was not simply a compromise between the market and social policy. Its essence was that the state must create clear rules, protect competition, avoid suppressing private initiative, and at the same time ensure the social responsibility of the economic system. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung describes the social market economy as a model associated with Ludwig Erhard and the post-war success story of the Federal Republic of Germany; its principles include private property, responsibility, freedom of contract and trade, a stable currency, open market access and reliable long-term economic policy. (kas.de)

Erhard was not a supporter of manual control over the economy. He was a supporter of framework conditions: strong rules, competition, stability, responsibility and space for entrepreneurship. In his logic, “prosperity for all” does not emerge through the distribution of scarcity. It emerges when people and businesses have the opportunity to work, invest, compete, create added value and feel protected by fair rules.

For Ukraine, it is important not to mechanically copy the German experience of the 1950s. The time is different, the war is different, the structure of the economy is different, and global competition is different. But Erhard’s main lesson remains relevant: after great destruction, a country must not only restore buildings, but also create conditions for mass economic life.

Why This Matters for Ukraine

Today, Ukraine’s economy largely operates under conditions of wartime mobilisation, external support, budget deficits, high risks and constant uncertainty. This is the objective reality of war. But the post-war stage will require a transition from an economy of survival to an economy of development.

The European Union has created the Ukraine Facility, which provides up to EUR 50 billion in stable and predictable support in 2024–2027 for recovery, reconstruction and modernisation. (Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood)

However, even the largest international programmes cannot replace the country’s internal economic capacity. Donor funds can restore infrastructure, launch projects and support the budget. But long-term prosperity is created by entrepreneurs, workers, local budgets, investment, competition, education, production, exports and trust in rules.

That is why it is important for Ukraine to rethink its post-war economic model in the direction of greater competition, entrepreneurship, state responsibility, social justice and community capacity.

Why It Is Possible to Start with Territorial Communities

A full transformation of Ukraine’s economic model is a task for the national level. It concerns tax policy, the judiciary, antimonopoly regulation, the financial sector, the labour market, education, industrial policy, European integration and many other areas.

But the foundations of these ideas can already be implemented at the level of amalgamated territorial communities.

A community is the place where people see every day whether the state works. Decisions on land, municipal property, local infrastructure, education, social services, public amenities, local economic development and interaction with business are made here.

This is where trust or distrust is formed. This is where an entrepreneur encounters not an abstract “economic policy”, but a specific procedure, a land plot, a permit, a connection, a road, a school for employees’ children and the quality of local governance.

Therefore, a social market economy at the level of territorial communities is not theory. It is a practical question: does the community create rules and an environment in which business can operate, people can earn a living, and the budget can finance quality services?

In its report on Ukraine’s recovery, the OECD emphasised that multi-level governance, regional development and decentralisation can support reconstruction, the recovery of local economies and the strengthening of community resilience. (OECD)

The Experience of German Communities: A Practical Reference Point for Ukrainian Territorial Communities

The ideas of Ludwig Erhard should not remain only a historical analogy. Their practical value for Ukraine can be revealed through the experience of modern German communities.

It is at the local level that the social market economy appears not as theory, but as everyday governance practice: transparent rules for business, development of small and medium-sized enterprises, vocational education, quality municipal services, energy resilience and partnership between government, business and citizens.

German municipalities have the right to manage local affairs within the law and are much more than mere implementers of state policy at the local level. Municipal services of general interest include water and energy supply, maintenance of roads, schools, kindergartens and hospitals. (SKEW [DE])

For Ukrainian communities, this is an important reference point: a territorial community should be not only a recipient of subsidies or a balance-holder of assets, but a manager of local development. This means inventorying assets, working with business, planning infrastructure, training personnel, strengthening energy resilience and ensuring transparent rules for access to resources.

The German experience also demonstrates the importance of the Mittelstand — small and medium-sized businesses that are often family-owned, regionally rooted, technologically advanced, export-oriented and linked to vocational education. Such businesses form the economic foundation of many communities: not one large investor, but a network of enterprises that create jobs, pay taxes, keep people in the area and shape a local economic culture.

For Ukrainian territorial communities, this may mean establishing local economic development offices, business councils, registers of investment sites, SME support programmes, partnerships with vocational schools and colleges, municipal energy plans and systems of regular reporting to the community on the results of the economic strategy.

The area of German-Ukrainian municipal partnerships is also important. In 2025, the seventh German-Ukrainian Municipal Partnership Conference in Münster focused on the transition “from solidarity to transformation” and brought together representatives of municipalities and participants of the partnership network. (SKEW [DE]) According to BMZ, the German-Ukraine Municipal Partnership Network grew from 70 to 250 partnerships after the start of Russia’s full-scale aggression in 2022. (bmz.de)

For UST, this can become a practical channel: not only humanitarian aid, but also the exchange of governance models, energy solutions, SME support tools, vocational education and approaches to local economic development.

What Community Strategies Often Lack

Many community strategies already include demographics, SWOT analysis, lists of investment ideas, recovery plans, tourism potential or an environmental vision. This is an important foundation. But it is not enough for a social market approach.

A social market strategy must answer not only the questions “what should be built?”, “which investor should be attracted?” or “which projects should be submitted for funding?” It must provide answers to deeper questions:

• what development rules the community guarantees;
• how fair competition is ensured;
• how small and medium-sized businesses are supported;
• how new budget revenues are transformed into quality services;
• how the community trains personnel for the new economy;
• how residents are involved in decision-making;
• how it measures not only investment, but the real well-being of people.

This is where the boundary lies between an ordinary development strategy and a social market model of the community. The former often describes desired projects. The latter creates rules, institutions and mechanisms that allow the community to generate prosperity systematically.

The UST Model of Social Market Development of Communities

UST proposes to view a community not merely as an administrative unit or a recipient of assistance, but as a local social market system.

This means that assessing a community’s development should include not only demographics, budget, land or infrastructure. It must answer a deeper question: is the community capable of creating prosperity and fairly transforming it into quality of life for its residents?

Within this logic, the UST model of social market development of communities can consist of several key blocks.

Experts and authorities are looking for opportunities to produce new construction products from recycled debris. A wide range of stakeholders met at the round table “Overcoming the consequences of war: determining the volume and debris management” on March 6 in Kyiv to discuss approaches to demolition waste management and ways to solve problems with it in the war-affected regions.

The issue of debris management is one of the priorities in the recovery process and requires coordination of efforts at all levels, government officials and Members of Parliament say. According to Deputy Minister of Community, Territories, and Infrastructure Development Natalia Kozlovska, at this stage, along with cleaning the territories from destruction, it is important to focus on proper sorting and preservation of these types of waste. The Ministry considers debris as a possible resource for the construction industry in the process of further reconstruction of Ukraine, she says.

“Already during a large-scale war, in 2022, we adopted the law “On waste management”. Unfortunately, when this law was adopted, we did not understand the estimated volume of this waste would generate. Therefore, debris management was not regulated separately. Now we have to reflect it in the legislation so that the Cabinet of Ministers has grounds to develop relevant by-laws,” says MP Oleg Bondarenko, head of the Committee on Environmental Policy and Environmental Management.

Ukrainian parliamentarians are currently working on a bill on the basic principles of recovery. Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Chairwoman of the Committee on the Organization of State Building, Local Self-Government, Regional Development, and Urban Planning Olena Shulyak notes that the document will include, among other things, the issue of debris management as an economic component of the reconstruction process.

A member of the Ukraine Support Team coalition, the ReThink NGO, is working on solving the issue of accounting the amount of debris. In cooperation with the Ministry for Restoration, they are developing methodological recommendations for determining the projected volumes of this type of waste based on foreign experience. Similar methodologies are effectively used in many countries, in particular Japan, to calculate the costs of dismantling, grinding, and processing debris. However, it is impossible to apply foreign formulas 100% for Ukraine due to the peculiarities of the climate, typical building materials, and the scale of destruction, says the head of the UST coalition and ReThink expert Olena Koltyk:

“Correct accounting of the volume of debris will help communities build effective comprehensive recovery plans. As well as business representatives involved in this recovery will get the understanding of how much raw material they will potentially have in one or another region.”

Representatives of Ukrainian businesses present at the event along with scientists assure that the reuse of waste from destruction is possible and can even improve the properties of products. However, the director of the “Kovalska” Innovation and Technology Center Victoria Spivak notes that it is important to qualitatively sort, grind, and fractionate waste to achieve this.

Since December 2022, UNDP has been working on solving this task. According to Roman Shakhmatenko, coordinator of the group of energy and environmental protection projects, during this time the organization supported the clearing of more than 170,000 tons of waste from the demolition:

MPs, representatives of the Ministry for Restoration and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Kyiv Regional State Administration, UNDP, the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine, companies producing building materials “Kovalska” and CRH, scientists of the Ukrainian Research and Design Institute of Building Materials and Products, as well as representatives of the affected territorial communities took part in the event. More than 350 participants from different regions of Ukraine joined it online.

According to the latest estimates of the Ministry for Restoration, based on the reports of territorial communities affected by Russia’s armed aggression, more than 600,000 tons of debris have accumulated in the territories controlled by Ukraine, and only 6% of them are being reused. Management and processing of waste on a post-war scale will require a comprehensive approach, including the creation of the necessary regulatory framework; the development of a catalog of construction products manufactured using raw materials based on recycled waste; development of standards for the manufacture of such construction products.

The round table was held within the framework of the project “Rethink: Recommendations for Debris Management on the Frontlines” as a part of the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative, implemented with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The team of the ReThink NGO, a member of the Ukraine Support Team (UST) coalition, continues to investigate the situation on the ground as part of a project to develop recommendations for the debris management.

“It is already clear that the majority of opinions boil down to the use of crushed debris for filling roads or leveling the terrain. Now it is important to understand whether it is possible to use the generated waste for the production of more valuable products, for example, construction products,” says the head of the UST coalition Olena Koltyk.

General situation in the region

According to the Kyiv Regional State Administration, as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, 28,800 objects were damaged in the territory of the region, the vast majority of which are private and multi-storey buildings – 26,000 objects. Demolition waste is currently stored at 32 sites for temporary storage in various communities. 

What is the situation on the ground?

In Bucha, debris is stored at a specially designated site. According to Yaroslav Duchenko, head of the Urban Improvement Inspection, the rubble of 130 buildings and one section of a high-rise building has already been dismantled in the city. The total volume of debris that reached the site of storage is 75,000 cubic meters. Most of it is concrete and bricks (about 51 thousand m³), as well as asbestos-containing materials (about 8 thousand m³). The main mass of debris is not sorted.

In Borodyanka, work on the dismantling of destroyed buildings is still ongoing, and sorted debris is stored at a special site, says the first deputy head of the village, Dmytro Negresha. Currently, negotiations are ongoing regarding the installation of a processing line nearby.

Near the village of Gorenka, ReThink experts discovered places of unauthorized dumping of hazardous waste from demolitions. In particular, a dirt road covered with crushed asbestos-containing slate, which is land pollution and a violation of Art. 239 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Project “Rethink: Recommendations for Debris Management on the Frontlines” is a part of the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative, implemented with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

With the administrative support of the Ukraine Support Team (UST) coalition, the school in the village of Voznesenske in Chernihiv Region will receive a current roof repairs and major renovation of the food block along with a dining room. The total cost of the works is over 150,000 euros.

During one of the shelling, the roof of the educational institution was damaged by projectile fragments. During heavy rains and after heavy snowfalls, it flows, says the director of Voznesensk Gymnasium, Leonid Horbach.

Full-time education was resumed here already in September 2022, thanks to the available shelter. Currently, 66 students study in the gymnasium (including those from the village of Novoselivka, which suffered large-scale destruction during the Russians’ attempts to take Chernihiv), as well as 14 kindergarten students.

Another 97,000 hryvnias for the development of the project and estimated documentation are provided by the Kyselivska community council.

The report summarizes the work result of the UST (Ukraine Support Team) – a coalition of local and national organizations committed to facilitating recovery and resilience in war-affected regions of Ukraine. Our mission is to create and sustain recovery ecosystems through social engagement, economic revival, and strategic collaborations.

Eight non-governmental organizations, analytical centres, and experts have united to work comprehensively to restore life in the front-line and de-occupied regions in 5 key directions of social sphere: energy and utilities, education, health care, legal advice on compensation for damaged housing and debris management.

Read or download the final report below.

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.

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