Cooperation project for the reconstruction of Ukraine

The School of Engineering (JTH) and Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) at Jönköping University (JU) are contributing with expertise and students in a digitalisation project to rebuild Ukraine after Russia's war of aggression. The collaboration is between Jönköping Municipality and Berdychiv Municipality, in north-west Ukraine.

The project involves producing digital maps that Berdychiv municipality can use to restore infrastructure, residential areas, buildings and more that have been destroyed or damaged as a result of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. It is a Sida-supported ICLD (International Centre for Local Democracy) project on democracy issues and human rights, carried out between several municipalities in Sweden and Ukraine. The project between Jönköping and Berdychiv Municipalities is in its initial phase and will run for two years.

Berdychiv's mayor visited JU

Berdychiv's mayor Serhiii Oriluk and several politicians and municipal officials visited Jönköping 6-9 October and took the opportunity to visit JTH and JIBS.

“They want help with digitizing their maps and we can get help from them with crisis preparedness and how we can protect our open data. They are in the situation that we fear, and it feels urgent that we can support them in democracy issues. Because if Ukraine lose their democracy, they lose the whole war,” says Ann-Marie Dahl, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning at JTH.

She is a politician in Jönköping municipality and sits on the steering group for the collaboration with Berdychiv. It was she who involved JU and two master's students from JTH in the initiative. The international students Suryasri Mulangil Sukumaran and Niranjana Jagadeesh, who are studying the Sustainable Building Information Management programme at JTH, worked on developing digital maps of Berdychiv during their internship at Jönköping Municipality.

“It has been an exciting project to work on because it involves the community and the people of Ukraine. We are proud of our work, and it feels good to be able to help them in this way,” says Niranjana Jagadeesh.

Invited to Ukraine

They presented their work to the Ukrainian guests at JTH and were then invited to Berdychiv.

“They thought our presentation was good and they understood what we meant. We have produced a manual for them that is easy to follow, even if you don't speak English,” says Suryasri Mulangil Sukumaran.

They would have liked to continue working on the map project as their thesis in the spring and would not mind travelling to Berdychiv.

“They said we should come and see their botanical garden and it would be interesting to experience Berdychiv for real. From what we have heard that area is not particularly affected by the war, so we are not that worried,” says Niranjana Jagadeesh.

“It helps enormously”

Timur Uman, Professor of Business Administration at JIBS, lectured on Swedish municipal governance to the Berdychiv delegation during their visit to JIBS.

“We want to give a picture of how municipal governance works in Sweden that they can apply to their municipality. Together with several colleagues at JIBS, I have researched the governance of municipal organizations and entrepreneurship and innovation in the municipal sector. There are also several of us at JIBS who speak Russian, but without being Russian citizens. I come from Latvia and it helps enormously to know Russian because the people from Berdychiv that we are working with in this project do not speak English,” says Timur Uman.

He is already involved in a similar project with Jönköping municipality, to democratize and modernize the public sector in Konotop Municipality in north-east Ukraine. He sees great potential for development in both these projects.

“It is positive that high-level politicians and officials come here because they are the ones who make the decisions and can make a difference in their municipality. We learn from them too, about crisis management and war preparedness,” says Timur Uman.

Seeing it as his duty

As a Latvian who has been able to study and even get a job in Sweden, he says he sees it as more or less his duty to help Ukraine.

“What has happened in Ukraine could just as easily have happened in Latvia, I would say, and if Ukraine fall, who knows what will happen to the Baltic States? I am doing this for both Latvia and Sweden because both the Baltic States and the Nordic countries have a great common interest in Ukraine not losing the war.”