Cities4Cities is supported by Sweden’s new flagship program for Ukraine — Polaris

On October 3, 2024, Kyiv hosted the presentation of the Polaris Program “Support to Multi-level Governance in Ukraine”, funded by the Swedish government through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and implemented by SALAR International, a part of the Swedish Association of Local and Regional Authorities SALAR, which represents the association in international activities.

Polaris strengthens Cities4Cities in one of its nine areas of work: international partnerships between communities. Thanks to Salar International’s cooperation, we have already established more than 15 partnerships with Swedish cities, and their experience is important for Ukrainian cities in various areas, including waste management and democratic governance.

“Through the Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine initiative, we support Ukrainian and European municipalities in establishing partnerships. We emphasize the importance of long-term support from EU municipalities for Ukrainian communities. Such cooperation brings positive results and contributes to a better understanding of local government needs, which is especially important in the context of Ukraine’s future integration into the European Union,” said Ryan Knox, Managing Director at SALAR International.

The Polaris Program provides both short- and long-term support, focusing on addressing the needs of the multi-level governance system, while strengthening the capacity of communities to deliver public services and to participate directly in recovery and reconstruction processes, in line with EU accession requirements. One component of the program involves cooperation with national actors and policy issues, while the other focuses on providing direct support to local governments.

“It is difficult to focus on future needs during a war, but we believe that in the current situation, rebuilding a resilient Ukraine requires a combination of operational support to municipalities and strategic planning at all levels of government to prepare the country for EU membership. This approach is supported by the Polaris Program, which aims to strengthen multi-level governance,” said Malin Pergult, Head of Ukraine team at Sida.

SALAR International has been working in Ukraine since 2014, supporting the decentralization reform. And since 2022, SALAR International has been co-founding Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine.

“In the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, together with the SALAR International team, we saw that Ukrainian communities needed to seek out and work with twin cities. This is how the initiative was born. A friendship between cities is about support, experience, and joint projects,” says Svitlana Blinova, coordinator at the Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine initiative.

Together, we advocate at the national and European levels, defending the role of local governments in the process of European integration. Through educational initiatives such as Cities4Cities ACADEMY and the Residence of Ideas, we train community leaders in international cooperation tools. More than 4,000 participants have already completed this training.

We are glad to be a part of the Polaris Program and to strengthen the capacity of Ukrainian communities and Ukraine as a whole on its way to the European Union.

Learn more about the Polaris Program on the website www.polaris.org.ua and Facebook page.

Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine are partnership initiatives that joined forces in September 2022. United4Ukraine was launched by SALAR International and the city of Lviv (Ukraine) with the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Cities4Cities was founded by the city of Sindelfingen (Germany) under the auspices of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.