In the run-up to the international Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2023) to be organized in London on 21-22 June 2023, the Geneva Cities Hub published a policy paper, entitled “What reconstruction for Ukraine? How the need for a future-oriented reconstruction approach translates into concrete projects?”
In the policy paper the Geneva Cities Hub aims to present a new approach by international organizations to assist countries through collaboration on reconstruction with local and regional governments. Building a bridge from immediate humanitarian needs-based interventions to a future-conscious development program to build back better offers hope for a sustainable, people-centred future.
The UN4Kharkiv and UN4Mykolaiv projects coordinated by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) prove that with a strengthened multistakeholder collaboration the UN system can deliver tangible results on the ground despite ongoing armed conflicts or political tensions. The paper details the concepts, content, and envisaged outcomes of these projects, as well as offering recommendations to the international community.
As part of the process, the Geneva Cities Hub and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, in collaboration with the UNECE, organized the conference “What reconstruction for Ukraine? What has been lost and achieved in one year?” on 5 June 2023 with participants from all governance levels. As rightly put during the conference: “You can only rebuild a city in close collaboration with the local authorities.” Therefore, more room for cities in international cooperation and targeted foreign direct investment was argued for.
