COMMUNITY RECOVERY ACADEMY FOR TRAINING OF UKRAINIAN RECONSTRUCTION SPECIALISTS WAS PRESENTED AT PRESTIGIOUS WASHINGTON DC CONFERENCE
Academy founders had key roles in “Doing Business in Ukraine 2024 Conference: Building Ukraine’s Security through a Modernized Economy”
The project aims to provide qualitative training for specialists of post-war reconstruction and the further development of their territories, one of the key conditions for people’s return to Ukraine and its full recovery
From Kyiv, 30 September 2024 – Ukraine’s new Community Recovery Academy played an integral part in last week’s event in Washington DC: “Doing Business in Ukraine 2024 Conference: Building Ukraine’s Security through a Modernized Economy”. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko spoke about developing restoration and development strategies, and a delegation of the Association of Ukrainian Cities and the NGO Mariupol Reborn, founders of the Community Recovery Academy, also attended the conference.
In his speech, Boichenko, chairman of the Section for development of de-occupied and temporarily occupied communities of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, said, “We need to create plans for the restoration of affected communities and teach people to respond to modern challenges. Therefore, we are using our experience of attracting finances and creating reconstruction projects to train municipal managers to restore their communities. Timely solutions are our opportunity to live and build the future”.
The conference was organised by The Center for Strategic & International Studies and included Ukrainian leaders from both the private sector and municipal administrations, alongside representatives from multinational corporations, the Biden Administration and the US Congress. The objective was to catalyse the reconstruction and modernisation of Ukraine through focused discussions on different sectors that are essential for the nation’s economic recovery.
The Community Recovery Academy is based on Mariupol Reborn’s experience of planning the city’s regeneration, using international expertise of reconstruction after World War II. The main purpose of the Academy is to exchange expert knowledge and to implement the best solutions to restore Ukrainian cities affected by russia’s aggression.
At the conference, the delegation from the Association of Ukrainian Cities discussed the deepening of cooperation between Ukrainian and American communities. There were also discussions about further improving the transparency of financing the recovery processes, particularly with Ukraine currently doing a lot to attract funding and the world community responding.
The Community Recovery Academy is supported by the UK government under the UK International Development and the International Republican Institute (IRI UKRAINE), in partnership with Rinat Akhmetov’s Metinvest Group and SCM. The educational partners of the project are the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the Metinvest Polytechnic.
Mariupol Reborn developed Ukraine’s first city-wide post-war reconstruction plan. International experts in different fields, including urban planning, architecture and desovietisation, were involved in the development of this project, addressing key questions, including: What will be the focus of post-war Mariupol? What is needed to encourage people to return? How can we rebuild the city in a financially and environmentally sustainable way? The expertise earned during this process has informed the Community Recovery Academy’s professional programme that will train municipal teams from all over Ukraine.
Ukrainians, particularly young people, have made it very clear that one of the first considerations for any plan is the creation of decent living conditions, which involves the restoration of housing and economic potential. In turn, this requires a community restoration process.
For more information please contact:
Hanna Korotych
hanna.korotych@scm.com.ua
Edwin Shankar
Edwin.shankar@leidar.com
