OPEN Seed Fund Awards Grant to Professor Freya Baetens, Dr Ievgeniia Kopytsia and Dr Daryna Dvornichenko for Ukraine Project

The Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN) Seed Fund has awarded a grant for the project “RE: Building Ukraine For All: Inclusive Recovery for a Resilient Ukraine”. This Project, led by Professor Freya Baetens, Dr Ievgeniia Kopytsia and Dr Daryna Dvornichenko, aims to address the multifaceted challenges of how Ukrainian society can recover from the war, not merely by rebuilding what was destroyed, but also through reform and improvement of previously existing tangible and intangible structures.

By covering a broad spectrum of concerns, such as macro-economic stability, security, energy resilience, climate and environmental protection, healthcare, education and gender equality, the project focuses on ensuring that, in recovery, ‘no part of society is left behind’.

The Project proposes three key strategies:

• Inclusive dialogues: engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including marginalised communities, local authorities, civil society organisations, academia and international experts, through online and in-person discussions;
• Developing evidence-based policy recommendations for the Ukrainian government and international partners based on insights gathered from dialogues and research. The focus is on integrating inclusive practices into recovery efforts and supporting vulnerable groups;
• Promotion of best practices: showcasing successful examples of inclusive recovery from other post-conflict and post-disaster cases and adapting them to the Ukrainian context.

The Project activities include the production of a podcast series, a workshop and a policy brief involving experts and stakeholders from various fields. The outcomes include an enhanced understanding of inclusive recovery practices, concrete policy recommendations and amplified representation of diverse Ukrainian voices in recovery discussions.

Project findings will be widely disseminated, by leveraging platforms like the “RightsUp” podcast series led by Professor Baetens at the Oxford Human Rights Hub and co-designing the project outputs with a policy partner (Heinrich Böll Foundation, Kyiv office-Ukraine), as well as project partners from Ukraine, the UK, the USA and Germany.