Background information

Expertise France is the French international technical cooperation agency, with the status of public institution under the joint supervision of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) and the Ministries of Economics and Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty. It is the second largest technical cooperation agency in Europe. Expertise France designs and implements projects that strengthen public policies over the long term in developing and emerging countries.

As the French public agency for international technical cooperation, Expertise France operates in more than 100 countries, implementing more than 400 projects. The agency works in close collaboration with French public institutions, as well as with the European Union, in order to respond to the needs of partner countries that wish to improve public policies that tackle these challenges. To do so, the agency coordinates and implements national- or regional-scale projects in major areas of public action:

•       Democratic, economic and financial governance

•       Peace, stability and security

•       Climate, biodiversity and sustainable development

•       Health and human development

Ukraine is a key partner for Expertise France, which has had a local presence since 2006 with a representative office and projects. Over the years, Expertise France has built up a relationship of trust with its partner administrations.

Since the start of the of unjustified full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine is daily suffering human losses as well as big-scale destruction and damages all across the country. According to the World Bank Recovery and Reconstruction Needs Assessment, the estimate cost of the recovery and reconstruction in Ukraine has grown to EUR 383 billion. Considering cost of the reconstruction, Ukraine would need mobilisation of both public and private funds.  

Ukraine’s need for support is of great scale and priority in the context of the ongoing war and starting to prepare for recovery processes. At the same time, Ukraine’s European and international partners are heavily mobilized to offer their support, both financial and technical in response to the growing needs of Ukraine.

In the response to the existing situation and challenges, France has launched a coordinated assistance to Ukraine. The mAIDan Ukraine program is a multisector technical assistance facility funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a part of the French support to Ukraine coordinated by the French Special Envoy for Ukraine Relief and Reconstruction. The program’s main objective is to identify needs and propose technical cooperation projects that support resilience, reconstruction, and the accession process in Ukraine.

Program sub-objectives include mobilisation of the technical solutions to meet the most urgent needs and initiate structuring cooperation, as well as financing or co-financing technical assistance projects during 2023-2026.

General context related to the assignment

During Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano in July 2023, France has expressed the commitment to support Chernihiv region in terms of recovery and reconstruction processes. In the light of the decision, one of the priority projects within mAIDan programme will aim at support of Chernihiv region.

The Chernihiv region of Ukraine, which was hit hard by Russian bombings during the first weeks of the war, has strong old historical links with France, notably through Franco-Ukrainian technical cooperation. In July 2022, at the Lugano conference, France reiterated its commitment to supporting Ukraine through humanitarian, economic, financial, diplomatic and military aid and announced that it wished to concentrate its support on the Chernihiv region in terms of reconstruction by supporting several public and private initiatives.

In terms of decentralization, Ukraine made significant progress between 2015 and 2020, but territorial governance system is in the middle of the process with reforms initiated but not completed. In the Chernihiv region, regional and local development strategies for the period of 2021-2027 have been developed, but must be updated and adapted to the war context and the most urgent local needs. In the current situation, reconstruction needs remain very important and a priority for the Hromadas, particularly for road and connection infrastructure.

In short, the region is a concentration of current Ukrainian challenges: war and reconstruction, the need for a new balance in terms of territorial governance and the revitalization of areas that were already disadvantaged before the war.

The « Support to the authorities in Chernihiv’s Region for reconstruction and decentralization » project is structured around three pillars:

•           Pillar 1: Reform (adapt the strategic documentations to the recovery context)

•           Pillar 2: Capacity building (in the sectors: Mobility, Agriculture, Culture & Heritage, Innovation)

•           Pillar 3: Reconstruction through partnership with French municipalities

The project will operate in the Chernihiv region in general and in particular in the following 6 hromadas and 1 rayon: Ichnia, Oster, Nova Basan, Novyi Bilous, Pryluky, Semenivka and Novgorod Severskiy rayon.

The expected result of Pillar 1, Reform, is a review and alignment with the national guidelines of the strategic documents in terms of decentralization and local governance, at all levels of local governance.

The expected result of Pillar 2, Capacity Building, is a strengthening of the capacities of agents at the different regional and local administrative levels. Pillar 2 adopts a multi-sectoral approach (mobility, agriculture, culture and heritage, innovation). It is important to note that each hromada will be supported only in 1 or 2 of the sectors mentioned, depending on its priorities. A large part of the sectoral intervention will consist of carrying out diagnostics and feasibility studies which will make it possible to constitute a solid base for the future projects.

The expected result of Pillar 3. Reconstruction, will consist of the mobilization of French municipalities in a peer-to-peer dialogue with Ukrainian local authorities as well as the purchase or subsidy of equipment for the benefit of the targeted hromadas. This pillar will allow the feedback of experiences, and the dissemination of the French territorial governance model.