Universities give hints to communities

In the third year of the full-scale war, resilience remains the most critical issue for territorial communities. This is evidenced by the results of a study presented at Ukraine Crisis Media Center by the Alliance of Ukrainian Universities as part of the project “Strengthening the capacity of communities to rebuild through piloting their interaction with universities”.

The majority of the surveyed communities (8 out of 12 communities) consider resilience to be a top priority. In particular, the availability and quality of shelters received the lowest rating among community residents.

Another problem is the lack of adequate contingency plans in many communities. There are often no backup supplies of power and other resources needed to respond quickly to crises. Infrastructure needs to be improved: significant problems with the availability and quality of educational, medical and other services, and interruptions in mobile and internet connectivity make it difficult to access important information and services.

One of the weakest links in the communities is the testing of IT systems used by the local government: representatives of local authorities rarely mentioned that they had been tested for vulnerability in the past year.

“Traditionally, there are problems with road infrastructure and economic development, but new issues of inclusiveness of space and vulnerable groups are also emerging,” added Myroslava Savisko, project manager at the Centre for Sociological Research, Decentralisation and Regional Development at the Kyiv School of Economics.

According to Kateryna Shuvarska, Executive Director of the LRHub Centre for Economic Growth, coordinator of the project “Strengthening the capacity of communities to rebuild through piloting their interaction with universities”, this study will be useful for both communities and experts or the public sector working with communities.

“We, as universities, have set ourselves the goal of developing a universal methodology for assessing the needs of communities, both frontline and rear. Thus, anyone interested will be able to use it to collect data, analyse the situation and find solutions. A special feature is that the opinion of not only the authorities but also the population, business, the public sector and certain categories of the population, such as IDPs or families of military personnel, is taken into account. In this way, a comprehensive picture can be formed of what is happening in the community, what problems are recognised by everyone, and what interaction exists between different social groups in the community. Next, the Alliance will work with communities to address the biggest challenges by engaging its specialists, Ukrainian and international experts. We encourage other stakeholders to benefit from our experience,” she said.

The project “Strengthening the capacity of communities to rebuild through piloting their interaction with universities” is implemented by the Alliance of Ukrainian Universities with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.

Source: UCMC

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