Evidence From Ukrainian Municipalities: The Importance Of Collaborative Crisis Governance

Despite the high human and materi - al costs that the Russian full-scale invasion imposed, Ukraine main - tains the constitutional order and provides basic public service amid the emergen - cy. A substantial contribution to Ukraine’s soci - etal resilience comes from local self-government authorities (LSGs) who organize citizens’ access to infrastructure and essential social services, such as water, electricity, heating, healthcare, and education, among others. 1 This piece will unpack how LSGs contrib - ute to societal resilience in Ukraine through collaborative governance. The basic defini - tion of collaborative governance emphasizes “the processes and structures of public policy decision making and management that engage people constructively across the boundaries of public agencies, levels of government, and/or the public, private and civic spheres in order to carry out a public purpose that could not otherwise be accomplished.” 2 I will demon - strate that through cross-sectoral collaboration, local coalitions involving LSGs, civil society, and business, and by cooperating with oth - er municipalities and the state, institutions can mobilize necessary resources to address war-related crises. Notably, this contribution does not discuss the effectiveness or efficiency of the crisis response at the local level: indeed, most municipalities were not prepared for the Russian aggression, and there has been a con - siderable variation in their crisis functioning and adaptation. 3 Instead, this paper presents a research-based account of collaborative governance mechanisms that supported crisis response in diverse municipalities without implying that all of these mechanisms were present in all municipalities.