Ukraine

As a result of the war in Ukraine UNESCO has mobilised to denounce violence against journalists promote the importance and therefore the protection of cultural institutions and work for the maintenance of education to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities in Ukraine. From 6 to 11 July 2022 a UNESCO mission went to Ukraine to consolidate an initial assessment of the impact of the war on Ukraine’s culture sector coordinate the Organization’s support in this field with the government authorities and partners and define priorities for recovery and reconstruction.

A war is always a human tragedy and the war in Ukraine is no exception. The ripple effects of the conflict are extending human suffering far beyond its borders. The war in all its dimensions has exacerbated a global cost-of-living crisis unseen in at least a generation compromising lives livelihoods and our aspirations for a better world by 2030. The largest cost-of-living crisis of the twenty-first century has come when people and countries have a limited capacity to cope. The war in Ukraine has trapped the people of the world between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the severe price shocks in food energy and fertilizer markets due to the war given the centrality of both the Russian Federation and Ukraine in these markets. The hard place is the extremely fragile context in which this crisis arrived; a world facing the cascading crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. A shock of this magnitude would have been a significant challenge no matter the timing; now it is of historic century-defining proportions.

Preliminary objections

This section deals with the financial framework for urban development in Voznesensk with the aim of making recommendations for funding of future projects. It is a review of the main income and expenditure budget items to determine robustness and future scope for borrowing. It also reviews future sustainable projects and considers a range of finance options providing case studies to illustrate these. Finally there are key recommendations for future action.

Over the past two decades Ukraine has experienced a declining and aging population with notable consequences at the city level. The national population declined by 13 per cent (in 1993 Ukraine had 52.2 million inhabitants in 2017 42.4 million); and urban population declined by 9 per cent. This sharp decline is linked to emigration the overall aging trend and a significant decline in birthrates. Technically the country could be said to be continuing to urbanize because the rural population is declining faster than the urban population. However more than 80 per cent of Ukrainian cities are losing population but not homogenously. The eastern and southern regions are highly urbanized but have shown slower urbanization rates in the last two decades while the historically rural Western region currently shows faster urbanization rates.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 calls for the progress of cities and human settlements toward being safe resilient inclusive and sustainable from now until 2030. To achieve this several factors impacting urban life and development need to be taken into account such as urban planning social issues citizen awareness and participation the environment transport resource efficiency and the economy. In order to support the implementation of the SDGs at a local level UNECE together with other partners launched the “United Smart Cities” project.

The following international experts provided input in their areas of expertise. This mainly involved drafting a specific chapter however parts of their work also contributed to other chapters to ensure coherence and clarity. The final publication should therefore be considered a joint effort.

Loan Agreement (Second Road and Safety Improvement Project) between Ukraine and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (with schedules appendix and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development General Conditions for Loans dated 12 March 2012). Kyiv 11 October 2012