Recommendations

The National Recovery Council, spearheaded by the Ukrainian President, has created a National Recovery Plan postwar, that has a cumulative ask of $750 billion in accumulated investments in recovery, and a 15-point agenda to achieve reconstruction in 10 years. One of the agendas for recovery is the strengthening of resilient housing and urban planning frameworks in line with international best practices. The World Bank and EU’s $349 billion ‘Relief, Recovery and Resilient Reconstruction’ Plan dedicates a section of its priorities to building resilient infrastructure and energy systems as per the European Union’s Green Deal. The Center for Economic Policy and Research’s ‘Blueprint for the Reconstruction of Ukraine’ establishes a phase-wise ‘short-term’, ‘medium term’, and ‘long term’ reconstruction agenda in accordance with the previously mentioned phases of disaster resilience (Brookings, 2022). 

The American Planning Association provides its own set of recommendations based on an urban-focused and planning-oriented approach to reconstruction and long-term resilience. In accordance with the selected International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning by the UN-Habitat that pertain to climate change and disaster risk management, the APA’s Ukraine Rebuilding Action Group suggests phase-wise reconstruction and resilience-based recommendations: 

The following are the UN Habitat’s International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning that are relevant to hazard mitigation and disaster recovery and that form the basis of this paper’s recommendations: 

(a) Formulate urban and territorial plans as a mitigation and adaptation framework in response to climate change and for increasing the resilience of human settlements, especially those located in vulnerable and informal areas 

(c) Locate essential urban services, infrastructure, and residential developments in low-risk areas and resettle, in a participatory and voluntary way people living in high-risk areas to more appropriate locations 

(d) Assess the implications and potential impacts of climate change and prepare for the continuity of key urban functions during disasters or crises 

The following recommendations are also suggested in response to the current context of disasters prevalent in Ukraine, possible suggestions for applicable international best practices and techniques, the gaps identified in the current disaster management and hazard mitigation policies of Ukraine, and possible best approaches.   

While the recommendations are provided in a series of time-bound steps, the techniques are suggestive rather than prescriptive and provided for a range of different urban contexts and scenarios.