In the third web meeting of the project, led by Malmö University, we started with a discussion of the homework from last time. Representatives of local authorities from Estonia, Georgia and Sweden participating in the project thus shared their experiences with post-crisis reflection and audits. We also talked about the need for an easy-to-use document tool for local authorities to analyse crises.

After discussing the homework, we were given an inspiring presentation by Dr Oleksandra Keudel. Her presentation “National resilience in local hands? Contribution of Ukrainian local self-government to managing crisis due to the Russian full-scale invasion” led to a number of questions from the participants, such as whether and how the preparation of local governments in Eastern and Western Ukraine differed.

Dr. Keudel focused on the importance of collaborative governance several times in her presentation and stressed that it has been one of the key factors of Ukraine’s resilience at the local level. This means that the role of local communities and volunteers in empowering local governments has been very important in Ukraine.

The next meeting is scheduled for May 28 as a hybrid meeting to take place simultaneously in Tallinn, Malmö, and Batumi. At this meeting, we will summarise what we have learned from the project and map the main obstacles on the road to post-crisis governance.

The results of the project will also be used to put together a concept for post-crisis learning at local level in the three countries, which will help to map both the current situation and the main obstacles to the development of the field in the participating countries.

🟧 Malmö University is the main partner of the TPCL project, which main activities will be carried out within spring 2024. The project is funded by the Swedish Institute.

Photo: May 2 meeting (Crisis Research Centre, 2024).