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28.11.2024
Martina Quick: “Sweden continues to support decentralization and waste management reform in Ukraine”
During the opening of the Municipal Partnership Forum in Lviv, Martina Quick, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, spoke about the main areas of support for local government.
She also emphasized that municipal partnerships between Ukraine and Sweden can help solve many pressing issues for Ukraine: “Swedish municipalities have over 150 years of local government experience. Almost 30 years of EU membership experience. At the same time, municipal partnerships help Sweden better understand our common security challenges. Today, we know about 24 partnerships between Swedish and Ukrainian municipalities. It is important that the number of such partnerships grows.”.
The Cities4Cities initiative for establishing inter-municipal partnerships was co-founded by SALAR International in partnership with the city of Lviv in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion. As of today, the network has 53 partnerships with 7 European countries.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Sweden has already provided more than 5 billion euros in humanitarian, financial and military support to Ukraine. However, support is not limited to crisis response. At various times since Ukraine gained independence, Sweden has contributed to many important reforms in Ukraine, including the decentralization reform, which has given a huge impetus to the development of the Ukrainian state and strengthened its resilience in the face of external threats.
Last year, Sweden adopted a new multi-year strategy to support Ukraine’s reconstruction and reforms, with a total of EUR 522 million to be spent on the country’s development.
Among the key priorities of Swedish support for Ukraine:
- reconstruction and development of critical infrastructure, including energy, transportation and water supply
- reconstruction and development of basic public services in the healthcare, education and social protection systems
- development of rehabilitation and improvement of medical services
- support for green transition and sustainable development, including the development of a proper waste management system, energy efficiency, sustainable and climate-resilient reconstruction
- integration of IDPs and veterans.
“We are working with state institutions at the national level, but at the same time we are convinced that local governments have a key role to play in both the reconstruction process and European integration. 70% of EU legislation is practically implemented in communities, so we will continue to support the local level in Ukraine.”
Two Swedish programs for local government:
Polaris Program “Supporting Multi-level Governance in Ukraine”
This is the largest Swedish program to support reforms in Ukraine and was launched in October 2024. It is aimed at supporting communities and decentralization processes and works in nine areas, including:
- decentralization in education
- financial decentralization
- support for the availability of administrative services
- community restoration
- support for local government associations
- international municipal cooperation (support and development of the Cities4Cities initiative).
More:
Waste management in Ukraine
This new support program from the Swedish government aims to help Ukraine solve the critical problem of excessive waste pollution of territories. According to the European Waste Directive, more than 60% of the waste produced locally must be recycled by 2030. Achieving such targets is a big challenge even for many European countries. In Ukraine, however, this challenge is even greater due to the large number of buildings and infrastructure destroyed by the war.
The forum was organized with the support of the USAID Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI) and the Swedish-Ukrainian Polaris Program “Support to Multi-level Governance in Ukraine” implemented by SALAR International.