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Lyudmyla was an intern at the Intellectual Forum in 2023. She was a postgraduate at Â鶹ԭ´´ studying for an MPhil in Public Policy.

Within Public Policy, Lyudmyla is interested in governance, entrepreneurship and innovation policies, and sustainable infrastructure delivery in the context of Ukraine's reconstruction.

Her research at the Intellectual Forum was focussed on the means of delivering sustainable infrastructure for Ukraine's recovery, including transport, housing, and other social infrastructure. 

In the future, she hopes to continue working in international development on projects relating to Ukraine's sustainable socio-economic development, including potentially working for the Ukrainian government.

We spoke to Lyudmyla about her research and the impact she hopes her final report will have on Ukraine's reconstruction. 

What inspired this project?

My project is centred on how to deliver sustainable infrastructure for Ukraine’s recovery. I’m trying to make sure that whatever we’re going to deliver is not only efficient in economic terms but also meets global objectives around environment and objectives around social inclusion. Ultimately, we, the people of Ukraine, are going to be the owners of this infrastructure, so I feel like it’s very important to make sure that whatever is built is there not only to cater to the needs of this generation but for future generations to come.

How are you going about it?

I think the most important bit is to understand what’s happening in Ukraine and to understand the context that sets the limits to what is possible for what could be done. I’m trying to understand what’s happening in terms of initiatives, legislation, and institution-building around reconstruction in Ukraine, particularly around infrastructure. It’s constantly moving, and things are evolving every day, which makes it interesting for me but challenging to understand what’s happening.

There are a lot of these components that have to deal with reconstruction which are closely also related for us in geopolitical terms to the strategic orientation of the country. The project touches on different things, but EU accession and meeting climate and environmental goals through reconstruction are something I try to keep in mind and streamline through my project.

In my research, I’ve talked to people from Cambridge, the experts in this field, and beyond. In particular, Kristen MacAskill was very helpful in providing the New Zealand view on reconstruction after the earthquakes in Christchurch and how everything was rebuilt. What is interesting in this case is how they involved local people and communities in the decision-making process. This is something that I would like to look into as well as part of my research. How do we make sure that people have a say about what is built and make sure it’s built in a way that is accessible to them and delivers the values that they want delivered?

How are you navigating the tension between present-day needs and long-term goals?

I think this tension is so challenging but at the same time it’s offering so much in terms of what could be done better. It not only needs you to think big, but also to think realistically. You literally have people who have lost homes and have nowhere to return to. You can imagine that there’s such a huge displacement of population, so making sure that they come back and we can rebuild our economy means that we first need to get people back. It’s a chicken and egg problem: you need to deliver the infrastructure so that people come back, but you can’t deliver the infrastructure unless people are there and they’re interested and they’re going to stay.

What do you hope the impact of this project might be?

I hope that my research findings will be able to contribute to the thinking around how to make sustainability actually work for Ukraine in the context of reconstruction. Myself, I’m still thinking whether there is a scope to engage with some kind of cross-country initiative—I’m going back to France [after my internship], so it would probably be France-Ukraine where there could be some civic engagement around sustainability. But more broadly it’s about contributing to the discussion and talks around what is sustainable infrastructure and what does it mean to reconstruct sustainably in Ukraine’s case.

Download Lyudmyla's final report on 'Delivering sustainable infrastructure for Ukraine's post-war reconstruction and recovery'. 

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