“Reconstruction and recovery have to be carried out at the same time”

Peace and conflict researcher Solveig Richter of the University of Leipzig is an expert on peace processes and reconstruction in post-war countries. She was appointed to the “Ukraine Recovery” platform by the Federal Government. Ahead of the recovery conference in Berlin, she talks about the challenges in Ukraine, experience gained in other regions and the wide range of support required. 

Professor Richter, how important is the issue of reconstruction and recovery while Ukraine is still at war?
The biggest challenge is indeed the fact that Ukraine is still under attack from Russia. As such, the current focus is more on arms deliveries than on concrete recovery measures. But reconstruction and recovery have to be carried out at the same time. Ukraine needs support in maintaining its infrastructure, for example. It’s also vital to take action now to establish institutions that are able to take control of development measures. And last but not least, we have to look at how the war will impact on the people in Ukraine. Some civil society structures have been destroyed. 

What do reconstruction and recovery involve beyond rebuilding destroyed houses and infrastructure?
One example is democratic reform processes, which will be important in view of the fact that Ukraine is seeking EU membership. If you think of schools, reconstruction doesn’t just mean repairing buildings, it also involves return-to-work programmes for teachers and revising curricula. But more than anything else we have to realise that this is a traumatised society. People need points of contact and programmes to deal with the conflict and its consequences. Later on there’ll certainly be a need to set up integration programmes for soldiers, too.  

You’ve done research into reconstruction and recovery in various other countries and regions, such as the Western Balkans and Colombia. Are there discernible patterns or experience gained here that can help Ukraine?
One task is to ensure that the large amount of financial support is democratically controlled so as to prevent corruption. Another key point is to coordinate between the donors – from the various countries through to non-governmental institutions and companies. The greatest risk is that everyone will go their own way, with some projects being funded twice and others not at all. Experience in other countries also indicates that some of those that received funding were not sufficiently rooted in society. So ideally financial support should be distributed locally and unbureaucratically.  

How can reconstruction aid be well coordinated?}
One possibility is to set up funds and have the various donors pay into these. It’s also important to have institutions in Ukraine that control and coordinate the processes in a similar way to the German development bank KfW. This type of institution has to be carefully monitored too, however.  

Furthermore, action at local level should be decentralised to a certain extent. Here you could make use of town twinning partnerships, for example, because those involved know the local area well and are more familiar with where the needs lie.  

At the moment the main thing is to mobilise more support for Ukraine. How important is the private sector in addition to state-level aid?
Very important. Private companies and foundations have a key role to play in rebuilding Ukraine in the long term. And that doesn’t just mean big corporations. Collaboration between SMEs will be particularly important to promote decentralised economic development.