Mariupol shares best practices in community restoration at Ukrainian Construction Congress
The IV Ukrainian Construction Congress took place in Kyiv, bringing together leading builders, developers, architects, government officials and business representatives. The participants discussed key issues of Ukraine's reconstruction, new approaches to urban development and strategies for attracting investment. Mariupol shared its expertise on community restoration after de-occupation.
Deputy Mayor of Mariupol Sergiy Zakharov said that the municipality's team began developing a plan for the city's revival after de-occupation, Mariupol Reborn, in May 2022. With the support of partners USAID, EBRD and SCM, 4 teams of leading world-class architects and urbanists were involved. They studied the experience of European cities that recovered from the Second World War.
Thanks to this cooperation, documents have been developed that provide a deep understanding of how the recovery of a de-occupied city can take place under different scenarios. These are the Fast Recovery Plan, which allows us to understand the necessary step-by-step actions to restore critical infrastructure. And also the Spatial Development Plan, an urban vision of Mariupol for 20 years, which covers the principles of long-term reconstruction, urban planning logic and planning.
The expertise of Mariupol has become valuable for the recovery of other communities. That is why it was decided to use it to create the Community Recovery Academy educational program, which was supported by the UK Government, the Association of Ukrainian Cities, Metinvest and SCM, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and other educational partners.
This is an example of how the work of a temporarily occupied community like Mariupol can benefit Ukraine's development right now. After the first year of training, the School's graduates have already begun to develop their own recovery strategies. This is exactly the task set by the mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko: to ensure that the valuable expertise in planning the recovery of Mariupol does not wait for its time, but works for the recovery and development of Ukraine today.
