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05/10/2022
Renovation of Ukraine

“Each of us is an active participant of Ukraine’s restoration because this is our country which we build.” – Victor Liakh, East Europe Foundation President

Victor Liakh, East Europe Foundation President, took part in the conference “From Resilience to Recovery: the Critical Role for Ukrainian Civil Society” that was taking place on September 29-30 in Kyiv and Lviv and was broadcasted online.  

The event gathered representatives of civil society, industry experts, volunteers, independent media, businesses, social innovators, government, local authorities, donor community, and international organizations representatives.

“Of course, we can be working on restoring the country we had before February 24. However, we would like to rebuild Ukraine so that it has better democracy, greater participation of civil society, and a more substantial economic potential,” – emphasized EEF President in his speech.

Victor talked about the digital instruments implemented by EEF within the Swiss-Ukrainian EGAP Program as well as about open data and its role in Ukraine’s renovation.

Particularly, e-consultations with the public allow to consider the opinion of residents of a particular community when it comes to the plans and concepts of renovation. For example, this way, authorities can gather thoughts of residents on the appearance of a new square or a center for the provision of administrative services.

Participatory budgeting as a tool will allow citizens to put forward their own projects on community renovation and receive finances for their implementation if these projects are supported by community residents. 

Open data can be used for geospatial planning. During the renovation, we will have to rethink each object of spatial infrastructure, its role, essence, and number of people who will be visiting it.

Victor Liakh emphasizes that renovation is not just reconstruction and physical rebuilding, but rather it is recovering the essence of state institutions, buildings, and local government bodies.

Photo credit: International Renaissance Foundation, “Prostir.ua”