Strengthening Urban Resilience in the Areas of Supply Infrastructure and Housing in Ukraine (SUR)

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the transitional development assistance project “Strengthening of Urban Resilience in the Areas of Supply Infrastructure and Housing in Ukraine (SUR)”, implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, supports cities and communities in Eastern and Central Ukraine in coping with the dramatic consequences of the war and the challenges of local reconstruction.

IWO e.V. joined SUR at the end of 2024 to strengthen the “Municipal Housing Sector” component of the project. As part of this project, IWO is carrying out the following tasks:

• Developing strategic documents in partnership with cities and in dialogue with key stakeholders in the city’s housing market, including:
  • an analysis of the current state of the housing sector;
  • recommendations for developing local housing strategies, required by the State housing strategy (draft) as a part of Ukraine Facility Plan;
  • a concept for a social and/or affordable housing operator within the local community.
• Strengthening the capacity of local self-government bodies to implement housing policy and introduce new forms of housing provision through educational activities, workshops, and consultations, as well as participation in key national and international events.

From the perspective of the SUR project, the goal of developing local housing strategies is to review approaches to housing management at the local level and align them with the objectives of Ukraine’s new housing policy—which is evolving in line with European legislation and standards—as well as to integrate the concept of resilience into the housing management system to address the consequences of armed aggression for the housing sector.

Achieving this goal is key to preparing cities for post-war recovery, particularly for securing investments to build the necessary new forms of housing—social and affordable housing for the local community—that meet the new structure of demand. In addition, the pilot development of local housing strategies provides the national level with information on the state of affairs in cities and the current requirements for strategic planning horizons in the housing sector at the local level.

The project focuses not only on challenges caused by the consequences of the war but also on long-standing problems in the housing sector that reduce its adaptability and transformative potential for overcoming these consequences. The approach declared by the Government of Ukraine—“to rebuild better than before”—is particularly relevant to housing. It entails transforming approaches to housing provision, management, and maintenance; ensuring sustainable financial support; developing institutions; and formalizing the system of housing relations.

A central milestone of the project is the analysis of the city’s housing sector and the development of a corresponding analytical document that outlines its key parameters, enables an informed discussion among all city stakeholders, helps identify shortcomings and opportunities, and allows for the informed formulation of strategic development priorities in light of changes at the national and international levels, as well as recommendations for enhancing the resilience of the housing sector. This document is intended to serve as a common analytical foundation for professional discussion, the adoption of well-founded management decisions, and the subsequent formulation of goals, priorities, and mechanisms for implementing the local housing strategy. The German Housing Market Monitoring (Wohnungsmarktbeobachtung) instrument served as a model for conducting such an analysis.

In May–June 2025, a training program was conducted for 17 cities. Four cities continued to participate in the project’s subsequent phases: Zhytomyr, Poltava, Kremenchuk, and Bila Tserkva. After a year of intensive work, strategic documents were prepared for three of these cities.

Based on the results of the analysis and the formulation of recommendations for local housing policies in the partner cities, IWO, together with experts and partners from SUR, is developing methodological guidelines for local communities on preparing local housing policies. These guidelines will assist communities and other stakeholders in the process of data collection, selection of relevant indicators, and formulation of well-founded conclusions and development goals for the housing sector. The guidelines will be included in the final publication based on the results of the project “From Evidence to Reform: Building Housing Resilience in Recovering Ukrainian Cities,” in partnership with DOM Publishers.

In 2026, two more cities—Mykolaiv and Kalush—joined the project, and the development process will be repeated for them, taking into account the findings from the first iteration.

Partners

Zhytomyr

Bila Tserkva