The Transparent Cities program has been working hard since 2017 to make Ukrainian municipalities more sustainable. We analyze the activities of city councils, amendments in legislation, advise city councils on various issues, check the availability of open data and adaptation to war conditions, and collect best practices for transparent interaction with residents. Our team encourages city councils to engage in a dialogue between the government and society, promotes tools for involving citizens in decision-making and monitoring the work of the authorities. 

In light of Russia's aggressive actions, enduring instability, and continual challenges, city councils may face resource constraints that hinder their ability to perform effectively. Cities that have been or are now under occupation, those experiencing ongoing shelling, or are in the process of rebuilding post-de-occupation, face particularly challenging circumstances.

Therefore, within the framework of Transparency International Ukraine's Transparent Cities program and with the financial support of the European Union, at the beginning of Russia's full-scale military aggression, we created the Emergency Fund to support cities. Its primary objective is to assist cities in addressing their requirements amid war and destruction, specifically in terms of equipment, specialized resources, and more.

We control the entire process of aiding cities, from developing the application to monitoring delivery, ensuring that all purchases reach their intended destinations as planned. 

The foundation helped 22 cities that were selected as part of the competitive selection and those contacting us with emergency requests: Chernihiv, Chuhuiv, Izium, Kupiansk, Lyman, Kherson, Druzhkivka, Okhtyrka, Pavlohrad, Sloviansk, Sumy, Bakhmut, Kropyvnytskyi, Zaporizhzhia, Irpin, Korosten, Konotop, Pokrovsk, Pokrov, Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, and Nikopol. 

During the war, various cities came to us for emergency assistance — de-occupied, those that suffered from the bombing of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant by the Russians or the destruction of the Ukrainian energy system, as well as those that were under the enemy's blockade or constant shelling.

The received equipment helped the cities to:

• set up heating points;
• resume operations of local self-government bodies (where all administrative institutions were looted or destroyed);
• open hubs and support centers for displaced persons.

For example, a support center for IDPs was set up in Konotop. And in Irpin, the local Administrative Service Center received laptops and a charging station to provide services to the local population and IDPs. Zaporizhzhia and Nikopol use the received tablets for the work of teams recording the consequences of attacks on cities by Russian troops, and Sloviansk uses the received generators to overcome the consequences of enemy attacks, as well as for arranging shelters. 

In total, the Fund's geography covered 11 regions of Ukraine — Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Luhansk, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv. 

The total price of purchased goods is about UAH 2.7 million.

The city councils mostly asked to purchase the goods ensuring: 

• elimination of the consequences of destruction caused by Russian aggression (pumps for pumping water, special generators);
• creation of special hubs and IDPs centers (generators, charging stations, heaters, heat curtains, LED lamps, flashlights, power banks, etc.);
• organization of operation of city councils, including inspection of damaged and destroyed buildings (laptops, tablets, multifunctional equipment, for example, printers, scanners and copiers).

"Recognizing the extensive challenges cities are currently grappling with, especially the formidable task for smaller cities that have suffered destruction, we acknowledged the limitations of resolving these issues independently, the program took the initiative to invite the EU delegation to Ukraine, presenting our plans for review and proposing the allocation of a portion of project funds to aid cities in meeting their operational necessities. And our initiative was supported! So we created a Fund that helped cover basic needs, for example, in technical equipment", says Anastasia Mazurok, COO at TI Ukraine.

Also, from July to December 2022, our Fund collaborated with Central Ukrainian Volunteer Organization” (Kropyvnytskyi).  Together, we promptly helped to cover citizens' requests for food, hygiene products, and medicines. A total of 79 tons of cargo were sent. This assistance covered 10 regions — Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Cherkasy. 

The team supported hub coordination and operation, monitored and managed resources as they moved and stored, collected requests from communities and supported logistics within the country (fuel supply).

We thank our partners for their support and joint achievements!