SCEEUS: The Reconstruction Process in Ukraine

2023-01-25 | Expert publications, Reconstruction

By Hugues Mingarelli. In order to mitigate the suffering of the Ukrainian people, it is imperative that the Ukrainian authorities and international partners put in place the main components of a reconstruction process as soon as possible: the governance architecture, a recovery plan, a financing scheme and a monitoring mechanism.

Eleven months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine is facing disastrous social and economic consequences: about 15 million Ukrainians have had to leave their homes to relocate to the western part of the country (8 million) or the territory of an EU member state (7 million); Ukraine’s gross domestic product fell by 32% in 2022 and 30–40% of its energy and transport infrastructure has been destroyed.

The Ukrainian authorities and their international partners have been exchanging views on the best way to handle the reconstruction process for many months. There were international conferences in Lugano in June, in Berlin in October and in Paris in December. The Ukrainian Government presented its National Recovery Programme in Lugano and set up a Recovery Fund. On the basis of the lessons learned in other post-conflict situations, such as the Balkans; the specificities of the damage inflicted by Russia’s aggression; and the current stage of Ukraine’s political and economic transition, the main features of the required recovery process are summarised below.

Read the full publication.