Lviv Forum, supported by FELICITY II, builds momentum for financially resilient and future-ready communities

On 18–19 Sep­tem­ber 2025, over 200 par­tic­i­pants gath­ered in Lviv for the Forum on Finan­cial Sus­tain­abil­i­ty of Com­mu­ni­ties — a key venue for dia­logue between local gov­ern­ments, nation­al insti­tu­tions, and inter­na­tion­al part­ners. Organ­ised by the Lviv City Coun­cil in coop­er­a­tion with the Asso­ci­a­tion of Ukrain­ian Cities and sup­port­ed by the FELICITY II Pro­gramme, U‑LEAD with Europe, and the Polaris Pro­gramme, the Forum respond­ed to one of the most urgent chal­lenges of our time: how to finance sus­tain­able local devel­op­ment dur­ing war.

With crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture under pres­sure and com­mu­ni­ties fac­ing grow­ing eco­nom­ic demands, the Forum focused on the readi­ness of munic­i­pal­i­ties to access recov­ery fund­ing, man­age pub­lic invest­ments effec­tive­ly, and align their strate­gies with EU inte­gra­tion. Dis­cus­sions cov­ered a wide range of top­ics: from local bud­gets and the 2026 plan­ning cycle to inno­v­a­tive finan­cial instru­ments, donor coor­di­na­tion, and decen­tral­i­sa­tion of pow­ers.

Sus­tain­able recov­ery in Ukraine requires more than just tech­ni­cal exper­tise or finan­cial sup­port — it requires both. They are two sides of the same coin. Only by com­bin­ing them can we deliv­er cli­mate-smart projects that tru­ly serve com­mu­ni­ties in the long term, stat­ed André Fabi­an, Head of Pro­gramme, FELICITY II, GIZ.

Andriy Moskalenko, First Deputy May­or of Lviv for Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment, high­light­ed the city’s mul­ti-dimen­sion­al role:

Lviv has sev­er­al crit­i­cal objec­tives: from reha­bil­i­ta­tion and infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment to strength­en­ing the city’s abil­i­ty to sup­port the state. That requires resources. That’s why we active­ly work with both grants and loan instru­ments, often com­bin­ing them. This allows us to imple­ment need­ed changes today because tomor­row, we must be stronger than we are today.

FELICITY II is an inter­na­tion­al ini­tia­tive sup­port­ing sus­tain­able urban infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment in East­ern Euro­pean and Cen­tral Asia coun­tries, aim­ing to reduce green­house gas emis­sions. The pro­gramme pro­vides tech­ni­cal and ana­lyt­i­cal assis­tance to munic­i­pal­i­ties to help them design and imple­ment cli­mate-friend­ly invest­ments in water sup­ply, waste­water man­age­ment, and ener­gy-effi­cient build­ings.

FELICITY II is imple­ment­ed by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) GmbH in coop­er­a­tion with the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank and with the sup­port of the Ger­man Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment, under the frame­work of the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI).