With financial support from Global Affairs Canada, the Recovery for All (RFA) project is launching a new call for partner municipalities to work together on planning effective and inclusive recovery.

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RFA’s goal is to help municipalities build back better so that its residents – those people who have stayed in the municipalities and those that temporarily left can not only survive this war but thrive.

What opportunities does the RFA partnership offer to municipalities?

• Expert support to develop and implement Local Development Strategy and Action Plan;
• Assistance in establishing project management offices and strengthening your capacity to attract funding and implement recovery initiatives;
• Guidance in carrying out recovery efforts across key sectors such as healthcare, social services, inclusive education, local economic development, and project management;
• Training and mentoring opportunities, as well as tools for partnership-building and attracting resources.

Having a high-quality and up-to-date Development Strategy for a municipality means:

• A clear planning document for international partners, donors, and potential investors.
• A prerequisite for obtaining financing — under recent amendments to Ukraine’s Budget Code, it will be impossible to attract funding for public investment projects (or even use local budget funds) without relevant strategic documents.
• A foundation for attracting external investors — before committing resources, any investor needs to understand the municipality’s development priorities and long-term vision for a given territory.

Who can participate?

Municipalities from Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy and Vinnytsia regions (excluding regional centres) that:

• Lack up-to-date Local Development Strategies and Action Plans;
• Require comprehensive support for a demand-driven and citizen-oriented recovery;
• Require long-term sustainable recovery, rather than urgent humanitarian response.

Municipalities that meet these criteria can submit their application until December 26 (inclusive): https://forms.gle/Katp3mdRnxRLWi589

Please note that we can only work with communities that are NOT within the operational reach of FPV-drones and are not subject to regular or sustained attacks that could endanger the project team or impede stable project implementation.;

Selection results will be announced in early February, and RFA will begin communicating with shortlisted municipalities in mid-January.

As a reminder, RFA is currently partnering with 19 pilot municipalities. Together,  the project team and local partners have already:

• Developed and approved 18 Local Development Strategies and corresponding Action Plans – with 15 municipalities already actively implementing their Strategies;
• Completed the Strategic Ecological Assessment;
• Aligned municipal development priorities with the public investment management framework;
• Designed and begun implementing recovery initiatives identified in municipal development strategies across key sectors, including healthcare, social services, inclusive education, and local economic development;
• Strengthened municipalities’ capacity to attract resources for Strategy implementation – six pilot municipalities have established project management offices and begun targeted work on attracting funding for recovery;
• Build partnerships to launch mobile kindergartens and expand access to early childhood education with support from SIDA;
• Secured and delivered school buses to municipalities through a partner organization;
• Helped a municipality prepare all required documentation to obtain a medical licence for operating its own municipal non-commercial enterprise;
• Supported improvements to services at a Day Care Centre for children with special needs;
• Helped establish a Social Services Centre;
• Launched a mentorship program to support inclusive education in schools across four pilot municipalities.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Behind these achievements are dozens of visits to municipalities, hundreds of hours of strategic planning, meaningful discussions, and decisions that have a daily impact on residents’ lives. Ahead lies the continued development of essential services and improved well-being, ensuring that—despite everything—people can live with dignity and plan their future at home.

If you have any additional questions, please contact the RFA team at: rfa@alineainternational.com