A woman passes in front of the Slaviansk sign, which is covered in bullet holes from clashes between the Ukrainian government and rebel groups, 3 April 2019. Photo by Cristopher Rogel Blanquet/Getty Images
4. Recommendations
Resilience relies on many components. When severe shocks happen the hardware of resilience is essential – such as effective infrastructure, conventional and cyber defence capabilities, rescue equipment, and natural-disaster urban planning and architecture. But when disruptions occur, soft elements such as people and ideas also have an important role to play. Institutions, organizations and individuals that demonstrate commitment, shared values, engagement, unity around a common purpose, and a sense of identity make a big difference in building resilience.
Despite the severe consequences of Russian aggression, this crisis could be seen as an opportunity to modernize industry in eastern Ukraine, invest in boosting the quality of human capital, regenerate struggling mono-industrial towns and provide more European-style urban development for the residents of Donbas. It is also an opportunity to adopt a more inclusive and sustainable approach to regional development. In short, it is possible to create resilience dividends out of this man-made disaster. The recommendations below focus on actors in Ukraine and international donors that support democracy and good governance.
Embed a resilience-based approach
- Systemic thinking and effective cooperation between state and non-state actors will improve responses to Russian aggression and preparations for future threats. National and local government should embed cooperation with CSOs, active citizens and business actors into the new systems of governance created through public administration reform and decentralization. This is not only a matter of democracy, but also of national security.
- Shielding society from Russian aggression should be a collaborative effort led by central government across the country. For a national strategy to be effective, central government should draw information from local communities. In the context of decentralization, active citizens should be empowered to participate more in local politics. This will help to foster the inclusion of citizens in policymaking, effective public consultations and the development of local democracy.
- Western donors and private philanthropic organizations assisting civil society should consider resilience as a core objective along with building the capacities of CSOs, cities and communities. Most donors want to see proof of sustainability in their investment projects, but sustainability is static and prioritizes the preservation of what has been achieved, while resilience is dynamic and enables actors to capitalize on changes and disruptions. This idea should be integrated into new projects and resilience assessment tools, similar to the Resilient Futures project,116 developed and promoted for wider use.
Reform and capacity-building for independent media
- There is still an urgent need to strengthen information security in Ukraine, as well as to increase the understanding and number of impact assessments of Russian disinformation operations. Western donors should boost funding to quality media and information security. This could provide media organizations and political parties with the tools and resources for big-data analysis of Russian disinformation.
- In addition to improving the quality of content, there is an opportunity for Western donors to assist capacity-building of editorial boards and promote the role and responsibility of the media in a democracy. These efforts should look to improve the reputation and self-regulation of the media sphere and journalists. Western donors should support this through targeted education programmes for journalists alongside responsibility awareness training for content dissemination. This could be done by supporting the expansion of the Ukrainian Commission on Media Ethics.117
- Western donors could provide technical assistance, funding and advocacy for sustainable public investment into the development of Suspilne TV, the national broadcaster, to ensure it operates in a transparent and accountable way.
- Local media can develop and nurture civic communities, which has a direct correlation with the quality of local governance. Western donors should consider approaching local media as a way of boosting community voices. Local and hyper-local media in Ukrainian regions can empower citizens. This can be achieved by supporting community radio stations and training in media management and social media marketing.
- Western assistance should focus on providing mentorship to motivated teams of local media. Donors could engage European and US media groups for mentorship programmes. For example, the Poynter Institute118 or the Membership Puzzle Project by New York University and De Correspondent119 could be valuable contributors. Once Ukrainian media professionals see the impact of their work, it will encourage them to build active linkages to communities and sustain their publications. This could lead to building a network to promote best practices among local media, local activists, community-based organizations and heads of newly amalgamated communities across Ukraine.
- Western donors should support new and alternative media through grants for the creation of grassroots initiatives. The example of Nakipelo in Kharkiv is a case in point: grassroots projects can learn to institutionalize their work and potentially replicate it in different regions. With the de-nationalization of media there are new opportunities to scale up successful new media outlets.
Cognitive resilience
- As outlined in the previous Chatham House research paper,120 the development of critical thinking and media literacy is crucial in order to build resilience against disinformation and information manipulation. This is the objective of IREX’s media literacy courses in schools. This cognitive resilience-building goes hand in hand with wider efforts at reforming the education sector.
- The general public and youth are not the only groups in need of critical-thinking courses. In the media sphere, journalists should systematically undergo training and education in information warfare tools, cyber hygiene and basic cyber knowledge.
Social cohesion
- In order to identify future points of social tension and lines of polarization, the Ukrainian government should develop an Index of Social Cohesion for each region and train government officials to use it to develop regional policies.
- Reintegration of Donbas should be inclusive and accompanied by efforts to strengthen national unity. Kyiv must demonstrate that local populations in the NGCA are valued as equal citizens, and include them in the reintegration process. At the same time, the government should engage western Ukrainian regions that are anxious about the reintegration of Donbas, and address their concerns about a possible disruption to the European integration of Ukraine. Reintegration policies for Donbas should include measures to strengthen support for human rights, social tolerance and pluralistic Ukrainian identity.
- Efforts to strengthen national unity should focus on improving connectivity. Upgrading transport infrastructure is an important task. As is scaling up and launching new exchange programmes for professionals and students.
- The government should facilitate a nationwide conversation between policymakers, CSOs, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), media and regional elites. Discussions could address the preconditions to peace, the terms of potential compromises, and elaborate on the safe reintegration of Donbas. The Ukrainian leadership and members of parliament should embark on listening tours in order to take stock of citizen grievances. If the voices of Ukrainians are not heard, even the best peace deal will fall apart.
- Ukraine still suffers from a disconnect between citizens and formal CSOs, especially advocacy and human rights groups. Local community-based organizations also struggle to engage citizens, especially in anti-corruption work. Closing this gap will boost civil society’s role in driving social change and delivering a resilience dividend. Donors should promote the model of individual membership of CSOs (including membership fees as a source of income), volunteering, stakeholder consultations, civic oversight and needs assessments of beneficiaries. CSOs should increase their capacity to use social media and other communication tools to listen and engage with wider audiences and run public information campaigns.
- The concerted efforts of state and non-state actors are needed to reintegrate and support IDPs and veterans. Systematic and comprehensive programmes of psychological rehabilitation for veterans and IDPs, and similar care for active forces, should be created and scaled up nationally. However, this is difficult to achieve especially with the shortage of trained psychology experts to work with the military. Economic opportunities, such as providing microfinance for SMEs run by veterans and IDPs or support for businesses that are inclusive of veterans, would undermine the appeal of criminal or right-wing groups.
- Ukrainian CSOs, cultural institutions and local media should provide citizens, particularly vulnerable groups (IDPs, veterans, or those at economic risk), with a safe space to voice their concerns. Despite necessary budget cuts related to tackling COVID-19 it is important to sustain levels of funding, especially for the Ukraine Cultural Fund, in view of the positive role cultural institutions play in social cohesion. This space should be both online and offline. Face-to-face exchanges among groups help build connections and are crucial for resilience. The first step in any dialogue is understanding the position of the other side.
- In the current digital age, the role of individual activists is increasing and that of traditional organizations is under pressure. That is why it is critical to develop the infrastructure for citizen participation across various sectors (environment, social protection, youth policy, urban development, education). The government should prioritize projects that create such infrastructure and encourage a culture of citizen engagement.
- Ukraine’s reforms are very uneven. Decentralization is patchy, and the implementation of sectoral reforms varies from region to region. In such circumstances social cohesion is valuable to support the exchange of best practices between local government officials, local media and activists from different regions. State agencies and donor technical assistance projects should support high standards of digital democracy, environmental protection, cultural management, business development and education, and internal connectivity and transport infrastructure development.
- The future of Ukraine depends on the transformation of relations between citizens, politicians and businesses. With the generational change and emergence of new political parties after the 2019 presidential election, civil society and progressive leaders must launch political reforms to enable more representative democracy. The cornerstone of reforms should be an amended electoral code that increases transparency of political campaign finance and limits the amounts that political parties and individuals spend on campaigning. Such structural changes would make the political system more responsive to citizens and better insulated against Russian negative influence.
120 Boulègue, Lutsevych, and Marin (2018), Civil Society Under Russia’s Threat.