Regardless of whether there is damage in the community or not, before starting the recovery process, communities need to develop a strategic document called a Comprehensive Recovery Programme. It will help communities to start the process of restoring their territories and attracting funds from partners.
This was discussed at the Covenant of Mayors in Ukraine: Working Together for Green Recovery conference in Lviv on 10 May.
The Covenant of Mayors is the world’s largest local climate and energy movement. The European Covenant of Mayors was launched by the European Union in 2008. It currently has around 9,700 signatories from 48 countries.
This programme involves local and regional authorities making voluntary commitments to improve energy efficiency and increase the use of energy sources in their territories.
This year’s conference brought together many government officials, journalists and civil society activists to discuss key aspects of municipal development in Ukraine, including financing, government-municipal cooperation, restoration and reconstruction of territories, and community engagement in climate and energy projects.
Olena Shulyak, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, said that the Parliament is working hard on approaches and a concept for reconstructing Ukraine. A tool called the Programme for Comprehensive Recovery of the Oblast (Region) and Territory of the Territorial Community (its Parts) has been proposed to ensure rapid recovery and adaptation, given the complexity of the situation.
“All communities should analyze their local economy (which businesses have left the community, closed or relocated, etc.), then the demographic indicator (2 million Ukrainians are abroad), so communities should plan to bring these people back by creating new jobs and attracting investment. The environmental indicator should also be considered, for example, the construction waste generated by damages. The Parliament is now actively working with communities to develop legislation to recycle construction waste so that it is not buried in the ground. We will learn from other countries’ experiences,” said MP Olena Shulyak.
According to Mustafa Nayem, Head of the State Agency for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine, all the reconstruction processes will be digitized in the DREAM Reconstruction Management Ecosystem to ensure complete transparency and accountability. This system is designed to track every stage – from registration of damage and destruction to financing, procurement, construction and commissioning. The information will be available to the public.
A communication platform was launched in early May to provide information on DREAM’s objectives, structure and principles and a step-by-step plan for its implementation during 2023. It is available at www.dream.gov.ua
The Reconstruction Agency is already testing one of the key modules of DREAM – the Sectoral Infrastructure Reconstruction Management System – in the regions most affected by the war. Reconstruction agencies and local governments add information about projects that need funding to build the Reconstruction Agency’s project portfolio for 2023.
Oleksandra Azarkhina, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, stressed that energy efficiency is essential to reconstruction. Municipalities will be supported in this by establishing the Fund for Decarbonization and Energy Efficient Transformation of Ukraine, which will be replenished with revenues from the CO2 tax. The fund will become a permanent source of financing for numerous energy efficiency programmes already being prepared for various sectors of the economy. Hanna Zamazeyeva, Head of the State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine, said: “Energy efficiency is the driving force that will stimulate economic processes, contribute to the budgetary capacity of municipalities and their sustainable development“.
It is vital that the Parliament has already set high requirements for the quality of construction materials, as required by EU Regulation 305, introduced a ban on potentially harmful materials and established mandatory energy efficiency conditions.