Early childhood is often perceived as the happiest period of a person’s life. While exploring, playing and enjoying outdoor and creative activities, children are learning life skills and developing their potential. Unfortunately, not every child has access to a friendly and suitable environment filled with joy, attention, care and love.

In Tutin, one of the poorest and least developed municipalities in Serbia, children with developmental or behavioural disorders cannot fully enjoy their childhood and develop their potential because of the lack of a suitable environment in the preschool educational system. “The main reason behind this is the lack of financial means and professional staff,“ says Mila Hadzic, a defectologist and speech therapist working at the Kindergarten “Habiba Stocevic”.

To remedy this situation, UNDP Serbia, in partnership with the Municipality of Tutin, is supporting the Kindergarten launch and equip a sensory room through a crowdfunding campaign (in Serbian).

Soft walls and floor coverings, mats and pillows, water-filled tubes through which balls of different colors move, projectors, music armchairs, multi-part soft cubes, interactive whiteboards and sprays with essential oils, complete this garden.

“By stimulating the senses of sight, hearing, smell and touch, this equipment relieves the tension of children with disabilities and encourages their independence”, explains Mila Hadzic. She points out that this helps children develop fine motor skills and basic skills for everyday life such as unbuttoning and buttoning buttons, zippers and belts, tying knots, bows and cleaning clothes, shoes and space.

West et al. (2017)[1] stated that sensory room can significantly reduce distress for both children and adults, while the research done by Spyhalski from the Michigan university[2] showed that the usage of sensory room can increase the childern classroom performance by 56%.

Each treatment in the sensory room is individual and in accordance with the child’s abilities and the type of developmental disorder. The work is carried out by a defectologist with the support of educators and parents.

For Elena, 5-years old, the sensory room in her Belgrade kindergarten, in addition to the love and care of her parents, was instrumental to overcome many challenges and obstacles. According to Elena’s father, colorful books that make sounds are her favourite toys and have enabled her to connect touch and sound.

Now, for 45 children aged 3 to 6 in Tutin, Elena’s joy is about to become a reality through the fundraising campaign carried out jointly by UNDP Serbia and the municipality.

After attending UNDP’s Crowdfunding Academy, UNDP Serbia’s team guided Tutin municipality’s representatives through the entire process, to engage with local and broader communities together with the private sector and implement a comprehensive communication strategy once the campaign was launched.

At the same time, having in mind the importance of leaving no one behind and helping Tutin become a sustainable city and community, UNDP Serbia is engaging with its partners to make the campaign a success.

Find out more and donate so that no child is left behind!

[1] West, M., Melvin, G., McNamara, F., & Gordon, M. (2017). An evaluation of the use and efficacy of a sensory room within an adolescent psychiatric inpatient unit. Australian occupational therapy journal, 64(3), 253–263.

[2] Spyhalski, M. C. (2019). Program evaluation of the impact of sensory room activities on student readiness in Muskegon county.

10. Shared Futures: Youth perceptions on peace in the Western Balkans
Across the Western Balkans, young people share a core of common hopes and dreams.

9. A digital generation where every girl counts
While the pandemic accelerated the transition to online learning, working and networking, it also heightened the risks of women and girls of being left behind.

8. Connecting girls to a bright future in ICT
Massive job losses could be offset by the “jobs of tomorrow.” But are those jobs for everyone? They are if we can make improve the pathways for girls.

7. For lasting impact, we need both domestic violence laws and changing mindsets
A prominent Kapucinski Lecture speaker, Bandana Rana, shares insights as a women’s rights activist of three decades in Nepal, the South Asia region and globally.

6. The energy transition is urgently essential — but will raise a series of justice questions
Anthony Bebbington, another #KAPTalks speaker, discusses the intersections of natural resource extraction, climate change and human rights.

5. Could air pollution be the other public health emergency?
Years of potential life are lost due to outdoor air pollution in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

4. What are the socio-economic impacts of an energy transition?
An energy transition not only helps combat climate change, but will have socioeconomic impacts that align with our need for a green recovery post-pandemic.

3. Violence against women politicians: an unacceptable cost of gender equality
Despite progress in politics, resistance to making parity between women and men in politics and decision-making is a reality.

2. When it comes to HIV and health services, social returns on investment matter
More action is needed to halt the spread of the epidemic as well as to address inequities in accessing prevention, treatment and care services among key and marginalized populations.

1.Cyberviolence disempowers women and girls and threatens their fundamental rights
As the first major pandemic of the social media age, COVID-19 has also intensified the prevalence of online and technology-facilitated violence.

By Elina Järvelä, Innovative Finance Specialist, and Yaera Chung, Innovations for Data and Civic Engagement specialist; UNDP in Europe and Central Asia

It’s 2021. People and ideas are traveling faster than ever before, social and political movements are quickly self-organizing, and decision-making has accelerated due in part to the heightened pressure of reacting quickly to a fast-changing environment.

In ancient Greek cities, an agora was an open public space serving as a gathering or assembly area. It is the best representation of the city-state’s response at the time to accommodate the social and political order of the polis and bring different areas of city life together. For the innovation team at UNDP’s Istanbul Regional Hub, Agorà is a City Transformation Portfolio — a template that can be applied in any city system for designing and managing pandemic response and renewal plans aiming for urban transformation.

In our current situation, there is a lot of uncertainty about what will happen “next”, making it much harder to make strategic decisions and predict the outcomes of planned interventions. The Covid-19 pandemic made the systemic effects across all sectors all to clear.

This is also becoming more visible in the development sector, where challenges are multi-faceted and cannot be tackled through linear thinking and single-point solutions.

Too large a proportion of recent “mathematical” economics are mere concoctions, as imprecise as the initial assumptions they rest on, which allow the author to lose sight of the complexities and interdependencies of the real world in a maze of pretentious and unhelpful symbols. — J.M. Keynes, Economist and Author of General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.

As both arenas of disease outbreaks and major socio-economic engines, cities are at the centre of the crisis and responses to it. But all social systems, such as cities, are complex in nature. Complexity as such is not the issue at hand. Our way of responding to it is.

Our current responses and organizational cultures are often ill-equipped to take on the uncertainty and the systemic challenges we face. We have a tendency towards saying that we know what the problem is and how to solve it. In this linear thinking, we too often oversimplify the problems and their evolving dynamics, hampering us from addressing the deeply rooted, systemic issues.

“No particular games should be expected to predict the future…Good simulations are not about coming up with a solution to put on a shelf. At best, they inform a continuing process…iterative learning is part of a healthy policy process, and policymakers may pay closer attention to replicated findings.” — Reid Pauly, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Security and Policy at Brown University

Designing responses with a systems approach takes time and new types of capabilities and funding modalities, which may be difficult during a pandemic where the urgency to respond leaves little room to explore, learn and adapt.

Since the start of the pandemic, our team has been working with the Chora Foundation to think through how we can better support UNDP country offices and their urban partners to tackle the uncertainties; to move away from single projects into more systemic approaches. Cities are tackling global SDG challenges on a local level. Poverty, inequalities, unemployment and air pollution are all outcomes of interconnected systems, which require new types of policy design and implementation.

We started with a set of questions:

• What are the characteristics of cities and pandemics?
• How can we identify and visualize the system that we are working with?
• Are there general elements that are common to urban systems?
• What are common interactions and ‘attractors’ in urban systems?
• How to contextualize the template in local contexts?
• How can we identify our role in the system?
• How is portfolio design different from project design?
• How could we better enable learning in the portfolio process?

And our solution to these was a set of design tools and service offers to help country offices and their urban partners to integrate a more systemic lens into their work through the portfolio design and management practices, and help cities build their urban transformation portfolios.

This set gives cities a unique decision-making approach to design actions and take decisions concerning pressing issues, acknowledging their complexities and fast-evolving dynamics. To look beyond the surface of seeing “events” into identifying patterns, structures and values of the system.

In short, Agorá’s tools and processes enable cities to get access to the spatial representation of the urban system, which can be contextualized, build understanding of common urban system attractors, guide them in identifying interactions and relationships in their local system, support in mapping and making sense of the current interventions and provide new entry points for their urban programming, where connected interventions and constant learning and adaptation create the value.

As Donella Meadows has wisely put it: “Systems can’t be controlled, but they can be designed and redesigned. We can’t impose our will upon a system. We can listen to what the system tells us and discover how its properties and our values can work together to bring forth something much better than could ever be produced by our will alone. We can’t control systems or figure them out. But we can dance with them!”

So we welcome you to the dance floor and invite you to follow us on our journey to develop tools and capabilities for urban transformation and apply them in practice with our country offices and partners.

This article is the first in our Agora series that will follow our work on urban transformation and portfolio design and management. The next articles will dive deeper into the Agorá process insights and learnings, introducing the design tools and processes in detail.

“There is no such thing as a man’s or a woman’s profession”

When she was young, Rafika Musaeva was inspired by scientific articles on engineering, which were in abundance in her home. Despite advice to the contrary, she decided to become an electric drive and industrial plants engineer.

A high achiever, she was noticed for her academic accomplishments, active social position and leadership skills during her studies. She was invited to join the Komsomol (communist youth league during the Soviet era), which would serve as a starting point for her political and policy-making career.

During the peak of the crisis and the civil war that hit Tajikistan in the 1990’s, Rafika, then an elected deputy in Parliament, defended the need to keep polygamy illegal. Following the success of the case, she initiated a number of law amendments that laid the foundation for the newly independent country.

In addition to being a politician, scientist and engineer, Rafika is also the founder and leader of Tajikistan’s first Association of Energy Professionals. Combining her love for science and technology with her policy-making experience, she is currently working with UNDP to expand opportunities for women in the energy sector, where they make up only about ten percent of professionals.

Read more of her story here.

At the age of just 7, Gloria Botnari knows what steps voters should follow at a polling station and, in particular, what precautionary measures they need to take to protect themselves from COVID-19, as well as those around them.

You could say she’s an early leader in civic rights and responsibilities, and happens to have won the second edition of the Electoral Vlogging Contest for children. Her know-how is thanks to the series of electoral comics that have made their way to her school in a village in Moldova. She’s one of 15,000 children throughout the country that received the respective comics through the Centre for Continuous Electoral Training (CCET) with UNDP Moldova and USAID Moldova support.

Natalia Zaiat, a high school principal in the same district, introduce more practical civic and electoral education in her school after a CCET training she attended. She learned new democracy teaching methods, games and alternative sources, which were useful in introducing the topic to classes of different ages.

She hopes she can also be a leader in democracy education. “We aim to be more active in 2021, to participate in different projects, including international ones. We shall continue learning and practicing democracy in school, because we have a beautiful country and we should develop it by being active from the civic standpoint,” she notes.

Read the full story here.

Mariam Bekurashvili is one of the first women mediators trained and certified by the Mediators Association of Georgia. As a conflictology professional, Mariam has a multidisciplinary vision of understanding, managing and resolving conflicts based on the principles of negotiation, agreement and non-violence.

“My first case was a family dispute. I was both excited and scared. This case taught me that it is very important to pay attention to details as the result often depends on nuances which you can reveal if you ask the right questions.”

She has been helping resolve conflicts since 2018, after receiving training from an EU-UNDP initiative to promote fair and efficient mediation and arbitration in commercial disputes, enhance the professionalism of Georgian mediators and arbitrators, and improve business environment and access to justice. By end 2020, fifty-five trained and certified professionals had joined her and the first cohort of Georgian mediators, coming from a variety of professional backgrounds and experiences, but all of them fascinated by the opportunity to help people resolve disputes in an efficient, speedy and cost-effective way.

“As a mediator, I have skills and knowledge to help parties transform their destructive conflict into constructive dialogue. I help parties to talk about their misunderstandings.”

Read the full story here.

Civic activist Ak-Moor Dzhanbolotova and family law attorney Nadezhda Prigoda are leading the efforts to reform alimony law and enhance the rights of women and children.

In August 2020, Kyrgyzstan adopted amendments to its Alimony Law to enhance the rights of women and children to collect alimony. In 2018, the country had documented over 40,000 alimony evaders.

The amended law increases access to alimony payments for children and mothers by introducing greater consequences for evaders and the addition of new criteria. The draft law was promoted by the joint UN-EU Spotlight Initiative, a multi-year partnership to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, in close collaboration with civil activists and lawyers like Ak-Moor and Nadezhda.

Ak-Moor, for instance, brought together a community of more than 800 single mothers and negotiated with women MPs to pass amendments to the Family Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. Despite the success, there still is work to be done. “As for implementation, more complex legal mechanisms are needed to be integrated into the judicial system,” says Nadezhda.

Read more about their fight here.

Unlike many young women in her society, Doruntina wanted to see new places and moved far from her family to explore. She made a life there, starting her own family, but still returned back to her hometown to see her family, despite the difficulties.

Maybe she doesn’t sound like such a hero, or that her story is so unique. But Doruntina is actually the “refashioned” heroine of an ancient Albanian fairy tale that is now being turned on its head.

In the original, Doruntina was given away by her brother to a prince far away.

Her mother didn’t approve and the brother promised he would bring back Doruntina home one day…a promise he has to rise from the grave to stay true to.

Fairy tales and traditional stories play a strong (but often subconscious) role in how our societies views stereotypical gender roles. For instance, a common wish in Albania is “next time, let’s hope it is a boy!” In this story, however, people say “next time, let’s hope it is a girl!” Through words and illustrations, children are exposed to more open, inclusive realities, such as a girl chopping wood and a boy knitting.

Doruntina has turned into a role model for freedom, commitment and the noble attribute of staying true to one’s words.

Read more about the new tale here.

“What’s it like owning your own business? It’s like putting out a fire that burns everywhere.”

Anastasiia Muranova is in the language business. From one room and five students, she has grown her English school enterprise to three schools and 800 students. She began to study English at the age of five. She practised for two hours every day, opening her first school at age 6. During her life, she has had six different businesses and different jobs.

Women’s role in business leadership in Ukraine is rising, and the country now ranks second in Europe in the share of women among managers and entrepreneurs (self-employed). The ratio of men to women among managers of legal entities and private entrepreneurs was 59.5 percent men to 40.5 percent women in 2020 — much higher than the world average.

Aigerim Akenova believes fashion should have a conscience.

“The textile industry, which is directly related to the fashion industry, is the second-most polluting industry in the world. Fast fashion has created conditions for an exceedingly consumerist life style.”

Her goal is to introduce more sustainability into the industry in general, and her business specifically. That can be everything from how the fabrics are sourced, to creating season-less collections that combat the idea of buying a new set of clothes each season.

The clothes are of a high quality to serve for longer time periods, produced fairly locally, and the brand remains transparent and actively participates in advocating for changes towards sustainable fashion in the local community.

She was inspired by Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Goal 12: responsible consumption and production. UNDP Kazakhstan helped connect her to people in the industry who could help her make a difference.

“Textile production consumes huge amounts of water (second after agriculture). It’s great that the government is finally paying attention to developing textiles locally, however my biggest wish is that sustainability will also be taken into consideration.”

She also sees gender as an issue in fashion. “The majority of fashion consumers are women, but women in the fashion business are the minority. However, in the industry/production there are mostly women, who are often paid unfairly.”

Her company AIKEN aims to have an impact on environment and social considerations of the fashion industry.

Read more about her journey here.

Jelena is a trained defectologist, a specialist involved in the development, training and education of children with physical and mental disabilities. She became interested in computer programming in university, where she saw the additional benefits these skills could bring to her work in human development.

“As a special educator and rehabilitator of persons with intellectual disabilities, I know that they need support in every aspect of life,” she says. “Since these people are generally very interested in computers and games, interactive and fun educational platforms based on new technologies can help them a lot. However, assistive technology is very expensive in Serbia. Although there are technological solutions in our country that have been imported from abroad and adapted to our language, there are not many people working in this area.”

Jelena participated in an IT Retraining program, tailored to the needs of persons with disabilities, organized by the Youth with Disabilities Forum with the support of the Office for IT, e-Government and UNDP. It emphasizes the importance of acquiring different skills in a rapidly changing world that increasingly relies on new technologies.

She hopes to one day develop her own tools and business. “My desire is to work on technologies that help persons with disabilities in their daily lives. It is a long-term plan for me, and I still have a lot to learn, but I hope that I am on the right path to achieving it.”

Read her story here.

“Men are generally at the forefront in engineering and opinions of women are being dismissed. Women should not keep silent and they should speak out louder.”

So says Dilara Dura, an electrical engineer who works at Turkey’s Mersin Model Factory. Women are disproportionally represented in the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but through this Covid-19 year they have also disproportionally borne the burden of the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, things became worse for women during the pandemic. Because people spent more time at home, it became a more challenging period for women who were victims of domestic violence. Responsibilities at home further increased. Everyone including children are at home. If psychological violence or pressure exists, women shoulder a greater burden.”

How do women in Turkey feel about their role during this time? Read more.

These are just but a few of the multitudes of women across the Europe and Central Asia region who are making the way in their fields. Whether large or small scale, Their role in everyday life — whether large or small scale — makes an impact on our societies everywhere.

It’s a clear indicator of how the pandemic and its impacts spread across all of our work here at UNDP.

Here’s a look back at our thoughts on Covid-19 and its relationship to everything from biodiversity to innovation.

12. The coronavirus pandemic has created a “perfect storm” for core government functions
by Irakli Kotetishvili, Anti-corruption and public administration policy specialist

11. Is the climate crisis partly responsible for the coronavirus outbreak?
Armen Grigoryan, Team Leader, Climate change and disaster risk reduction; Cansu Demir, Climate change and disaster risk reduction consultant

10. The colour of our post-pandemic world must be green
by Louisa Vinton, UNDP Georgia Resident representative

9. Finding opportunities in crisis: a view on the post-COVID-19 future in Serbia
by Francine Pickup, UNDP Serbia Resident representative

8. “Be Safe” — A mobile app to protect victims of violence
by Daniela Gasparikova, UNDP Montenegro Resident representative; Kaca Djurickovic, Gender programme manager, UNDP Montenegro

7. Solidarity is helping fight Coronavirus crisis, and paving the way for future development
by Francine Pickup, UNDP Serbia Resident representative

6. In a global pandemic, do we still have a right to privacy?
by Ainura Bekkoenova, Rule of law and human rights expert; Zana Idrizi, Governance and peacebuilding consultant

5. Coronavirus pandemic is an invitation to tackle uncertainty with innovation and creativity
by Agi Veres, Deputy director, UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS

4. Covid-19 will change our lives. And our way of working.
by Gerd Trogemann, Manager of UNDP’s Istanbul Regional Hub; Lejla Sadiku, Innovation specialist

3. Rethinking development after Coronavirus
by Milica Begovic, Global Innovation Advisor a.i., UNDP; Lejla Sadiku, Innovation specialist

2. If we want to stop future pandemics, biodiversity matters now more than ever
by Onno Van Heuvel, Global manager, UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative

1. The hidden health effects of Coronavirus
   by Camilla Malakasuka, Fellow for the African Young Women Leaders Program at UNDP in Europe and Central Asia’s HIV and Health team

Check out all of our thought pieces here on our Medium account, or on our Voices of Eurasia blog

The severe impact of the pandemic across the globe has exposed flaws of social, economic and political models, challenged our societies, tested our collective humanity, and aggravated inequalities. As the lack of social protection measures persisted, pre-existing inequalities, injustices and gaps in human rights protection have become more pronounced.

As the pandemic rages on, here are four areas of growing concern for human rights.

1. Weakening democratic practices

The often strong measures imposed to control the spread of COVID-19, such as movement restrictions and states of emergency, raised serious challenges regarding the functioning of good government, its relationship with its citizenry, as well as the protection of fundamental freedoms.

Powers of executive branches were extended, also disrupting the holding of free and fair elections, as seen in the Kyrgyz Republic and Belarus, and the day to day work of parliaments and the judiciary. The states of emergency have been used as a pre-text for postponing elections and reducing opportunities for competitive campaigning and politics. As an example, in Serbia protests were sparked by alleged underreporting of COVID-19 cases by the government in order to protest alleged misreporting of data.

The exceptional powers given to executive branch have also created conditions for misuse and abuse. There have been reports of police and security forces using excessive force to make people abide by lockdowns and curfews. In incidents in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, police sealed the doors of residential buildings, with hundreds of inhabitants inside — including some who already had Covid.

In most countries, parliaments and judiciary have significantly limited their activities during the pandemic, due to limited training of civil servants in using digital tools but also due to overstretched and under-funded capacities. Leaving a gap on the ability to safeguard and control measures has led to weakening checks and balances.

2. Enhanced state surveillance and impact on personal freedoms/privacy

In the name of containing the spread of the virus, there has been a proliferation in various forms of state surveillance over citizens, including through digital means. Data protection laws were amended in Armenia and Ukraine that provided governments broader powers to access personal data or location. Many states launched contact tracing apps which lacked safeguards for data and privacy protection and deployed electronic permits for movements, drones for policing, and facial recognition technologies to enforce quarantine. The mass exposure of personal health data led to sparks of hate speech and discrimination against people whose identities were exposed or leaked.

3. Restrictions on freedoms of information and expression

Restrictions were imposed in many countries to freedoms of media, information and expression, limiting the media’s ability to fight misinformation and fake news. This happened at a critical time when it was important for citizens to learn about the virus and follow proper guidelines. While some governments imposed harsh sanctions for misinformation — such as large fines, e.g. 995 euros in Tajikistan to US$10,000 and imprisonment of up to 10 years in Uzbekistan, some of them — Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia — revoked such sanctions amidst public pressure. Independent journalists, citizens and politicians were arrested and fined for publishing information revealing the true Covid-19 situation on social media, often without any clear criteria, as in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Turkey. Governments started a more rigorous monitoring of social media accounts to address pandemic disinformation. Simultaneously, there have already been significant issues relating to misinformation, particularly in regards to conspiracy theories about the “Chinese origins of the virus”. This resulted in the spread of discrimination, stigmatization and the dissemination of hate speech targeting minorities, refugees, Chinese and Jewish people, women, and the Roma community.

4. Unequal impact of pandemic on vulnerable populations

We’ve seen a disproportionate impact of the pandemic on people who were already disadvantaged, which pushed vulnerable communities even further behind. Although the virus is a threat to all of us, people who were already in vulnerable situations are suffering more intensely from both the health and the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. The latest issue of UNDP’s Voyages features stories of Nana Chkareuli from Georgia, Ila Tovmasyan from Armenia and many others which show just that.

While physical distancing was doable for some, groups with lower income faced an impossible dilemma between going to work and exposing themselves to higher risk of Covid, or staying home and not being able to put bread on the table. In our region alone, pandemic has led to the loss of 19 million full-time equivalent jobs and 10.6 percent income from labour.

The elderly and disabled poor who were already lacking access to basic services before the pandemic, experienced extreme obstacles in accessing essential support services, inability to communicate, access information and their stigmatization increased.

The crisis and lockdowns deepened pre-existing gender inequalities, including lack of women’s access to social protection services, their disproportionate share of unpaid care work, increasing gender-based violence and loss of income.

The working migrants in the region and in Russia and Europe have faced severe challenges followed by imposition of quarantine measures, travel restrictions, job losses and closure of businesses. This has already led to a drop in remittances across the region, a key factor in economic support to many countries. Central Asia migrants needing to return home as a result of the crisis were not always supported in doing so.

Last but not least, factors such as living in crowded and poor living conditions, food insecurity, and insufficient access to health services — as well as to lack of technology devices for the online education their children, have made displaced communities, including refugees, more vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19 as well.

How do we move forward?

Fortunately, many states in our region have started to adapt and deliver key services, such as provision of income support, emergency food supplies, access to healthcare and social protections, guided by human rights principles, i.e. protecting the most vulnerable people from the adversities of this crises and helping them get back on their feet.

At the same time, the main challenge posed by the pandemic still persists: how to ensure the balance between public safety on the one hand, and the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms on the other. Pandemic should not lead to weakening of democratic values and used as an excuse for human rights violations. The restricting measures on freedoms of information, expression, movement, assembly and privacy should be proportional and legitimate to the threats posed by public health crisis and are applied in compliance with human rights obligations.

As governments are developing policies and preparing for life after the pandemic, we must continue focusing our attention on prevention of casualties and addressing the needs of those who are both at high risk of contracting the virus and are hit the most by the measures taken to contain it.

Editor’s Note: Covid-19 is much more than a health crisis. Across the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, the pandemic has already left devastating scars on societies and economies. At the heart of that impact are the vulnerable communities feeling it the most.

The latest issue of Voyages: Surviving a Pandemic takes a closer look at people who are fighting hard to survive a threatening present and an uncertain future.

Experience the new issue of Voyages now.

Digital nomads are people who choose where they live and work, since their employment is mainly virtual, changing locations often. Their jobs cover a wide range from graphic design, digital marketing and writing to blockchain, e-commerce and programming.

At UNDP Serbia’s Accelerator Lab, we became interested in digital nomads because we have been working on understanding the topic of depopulation in Serbia for a while.

Depopulation is a global issue affecting a range of countries across the globe, some aspects of which are low birth rate, high emigration and no immigration. As a complex and multidimensional challenge, it can’t be solved with a single solution but needs a package of cross-cutting tools and answers.

During our research on depopulation trends, we discovered that Serbia was a country attractive to digital nomads, with a high number of digital and gig workers per capita.

The lifestyle of digital nomads is seen as reflective of current and coming trends. By seeing who they are and what they do, we wondered if we can encourage them to stay in Serbia longer. Our hypothesis was that if we can manage this task, the results can be applied to other freelancers or IT professionals in Serbian diaspora to help stop the brain drain affecting the country.

Together with the Digital Serbia Initiative, an organisation with the mission of building a strong, globally competitive digital economy in Serbia, we analyzed digital professionals from abroad who have decided to spend a certain period of time living and working in Belgrade.

First stop: The data

Our research shows that Serbia is a country attractive to digital nomads, with a high number of digital workers and gig workers per capita.

In the first half of 2020, the Nomad List website, one of the best-known Internet locations for assessing destinations for digital nomads, Belgrade was ranked seventh in Europe. These trends tell us that if we attract digital workforce, we may be able to tackle the problem of skilled emigration.

Our Digital Nomad Scanner looked at the current state of foreign digital workers in Belgrade, and what their “user journey” is. Who are they and why do they prefer this lifestyle? What are the most important factors in choosing a place for (temporarily) living and working?

Based on our survey, the average digital nomad who visits Serbia is a 34-year old man from North America, traveling alone. They are entrepreneurs in IT who know about Serbia from personal connections.

We found they consider a dependable internet connection and low living expenses, as well as culture, climate, the state of civil liberties, transportation, language, air quality and how long it takes to reach the beaches or mountains.

Lessons learned

1. Belgrade is attractive to outsiders

Belgrade as “Europe outside of the EU” is particularly attractive because it possesses the vibe and characteristics of a world-class metropolis, while being one of the cheapest and most accessible European capitals.

As for working, there are more than ten co-working spaces, many work-friendly bars, cafes and spaces suitable for joint work. These “working infrastructure” elements are crucial for location-independent digital professionals.

There is external recognition of the booming tech scene and startup ecosystem, with more and more major global startup companies emerging from Serbia. As per Startup Genome assessment, the Belgrade and Novi Sad ecosystems are seeing particularly noteworthy success in gaming and blockchain technology. BBC ranked Belgrade as one of the most creative cities in the world, and the Lonely Planet called it an “outspoken, adventurous, proud and audacious” city.

Our findings showed that reasons why some destinations are more attractive for digital nomads correlate to a great extent with why they are more attractive for tourists. Our city has a reputation of attractive and versatile entertainment and lifestyle options, so it can offer a vibrant nightlife that many tourists and temporary visitors find very unique and charming.

2. Belgrade has good connectivity

From the perspective of digital nomads, Belgrade is good place to be, because it is well connected both digitally and physically.

For digital work, the city’s good internet speed is crucial. Serbia ranks 65th in the world in terms of internet speed, according to the latest research by Cable.co.uk, which tested broadband internet speed in 221 countries and territories in the world for a year.

Geographically, it’s out of the Schengen zone, so those without a Schengen visa often come to Serbia to meet the requirement of not staying longer than 90 days in the Schengen area. Serbia is at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, and while our interviews didn’t touch on this, it’s proximity to other European countries and low visa requirements probably also contribute to its attractiveness.

There’s a good pedestrian culture, so it is easy to move around town on foot and the city is equipped with a variety of open, outdoor places to spend free time and meet new people. There is a low language barrier, as many people in Belgrade speak good English, and through different events and social gatherings, digital nomads can have access to world-class professionals and local talents relevant for their work.

3. We may need to address some… shortcomings

However, there are areas that fare less well in our analysis. Digital nomads dislike cold autumns and winters, smoking allowed in closed spaces (which is especially an issue in the cold seasons), rather poor air quality, and the lack of LGBTI-friendliness throughout the whole country.

Our research also shows that digital nomads stay in Belgrade longer than they do in Barcelona or London, but fewer of them overall come to our capital in the first place. This means we need to do a better job of promoting Belgrade, change the general perception of outsiders towards the city. One idea could be having local IT organisations involve digital nomads in their events. Developing policies aimed at creating a more favourable environment for foreigners who come to work in Serbia is another must.

Positioning Belgrade as a city that understands the needs of digital nomads would infuse much-needed skills into the domestic ecosystem. Digital nomads bring with them new knowledge and experiences, thus enriching the technological scene and giving it an international character. From this, new opportunities would open up, improving the reputation of our capital city.

International acquaintances become potential business contacts, domestic firms learn how to work with foreigners, and foreigners may decide to open firms in Serbia. This dynamic group of people can also push our society towards openness and diversity, which is what tends to make a city more attractive for others, especially to keep local citizens from leaving.

Online sources say that Belgrade was expected to be one of the most popular nomad destinations in 2020. However, the Covid-19 pandemic had its toll and it is now hard to make any predictions on how the crisis will impact digital nomads’ routes once it is finished. But if we work on making the city more attractive to nomads, we can create a more inviting environment for everyone. Making Belgrade, and Serbia as a whole, a good place to live, work, and invest in will make it a better place for also locals to stop emigrating, for Serbia’s large diaspora to return, as well as for future skilled immigrants or nomads to keep visiting.

— —

All the data gathered in the course of this research were analysed by the Digital Serbia Initiative, with the support of UNDP, and can be found in the Digital Nomad Scanner.

by Louise Chamberlain, UNDP Resident Representative to the Kyrgyz Republic

Boasting a reputation as the only parliamentary democracy in Central Asia and a country with considerable freedom of speech, Kyrgyzstan is approaching its next elections on 4 October. The campaign period leading up to the polls on is dynamic, and competition among the 16 registered parties intense.

With only three decades since independence, Kyrgyzstan does not have a long democratic tradition. The early years post independence involved a period of turmoil and complex social, economic and political changes, leading to revolutions in 2005 and 2010 to a second revolution and tragic events of ethnic violence.

The Parliamentary elections in 2015 were for the first time largely recognized as competitive thanks to significant investment in technology to eliminate voting fraud and manipulation through the introduction of biometric voter identification and automated ballot boxes. The 2017 Presidential elections further cultivated stability, and for the first time saw peaceful transfer of power via elections.

Still, observers raised concerns over limited inclusion, misuse of public resources, and pressure on voters. Women participated less than men; migrant workers and people with disabilities had difficulties registering; and the new biometric system automatically generated a category of eligible voters who were not yet registered to participate in the elections. Following official request from the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) for UNDP assistance, a Needs Assessment by the UN Department of Peacebuilding and Political Affairs (DPPA) identified these and other challenges as requiring attention, and mandated UNDP to develop support to the countries’ parliamentary and local elections.

In accordance with the key objective of UN electoral assistance to assist UN Member States in their efforts to hold credible elections that have the full confidence of the electorate, we recognized early on that — beyond upgrading IT systems and equipment — the game changer for the 2020 elections would lie in the “softer” factors.

With almost 55 percent of the electorate below the age of 40 — a very young voting population — the time is ripe for addressing five key areas.

1. Combat vote buying and voter intimidation

The financial factor — money — should not decide the outcome of an election. Still, concerns over the misuse of public resources, pressures on voters, and vote-buying are frequently cited in past reports by international election observers. Over time, sustained civic education for voters to understand all aspects of their rights in a democratic society is critically important. In the near term, the electoral commission has maximized the use of social media platforms to inform the electorate about voting rights and to build confidence in the integrity of the voting system. There is no possibility for anyone to see how another person has voted, as the biometric voter’s register is offline on election day, and the automated ballot boxes use an entirely separate system using only manual input. Unfortunately, voter intimidation tactics are sometimes used also to stop people from voting. The Youth Lab invited young people to contribute their ideas on how to persuade their peers not to sell their vote — and this generated 18 new communications products that are now online in several media. The CEC has also used humor as a tool to raise awareness of voting confidentiality and the campaign “Don’t Sell Your Vote” has been endorsed by a number of media “influencers”.

Some political parties apply undue influence — such as paying voters for their loyalty — to gain support and Kyrgyzstan is challenged in intercepting, investigating and prosecuting offenders, not least due to scant evidence. The recently adopted regulation of electoral campaign financing helps level the playing field by limiting contributions and imposing spending limits. It discloses the sources of campaign financing and spending so that the voter can make an informed choice of the party, including on the basis of funding.

With the help of UNDP, the CEC created “Candidate”, a digital platform which contains all information about political parties participating in the elections, including detailed information about campaign financing, such as spending pattern and transparent identifiable contributions. This is a groundbreaking new product, and the media have already begun querying and reporting on the parties’ financial performance. In addition, it allows the CEC to verify parties’ reports of funding source acceptability by consulting other governmental databases and thereby determining possible violations.

The introduction of the new platform included public dialogues on the importance of transparency in political party financing, as this legal regulation is being implemented in the national elections in Kyrgyzstan for the first time, and requires public discussion to form a new culture of reporting. Training sessions were conducted for political parties on the new rules of the game, and for NGOs and media on how to monitor campaign financing.

2. Include migrant and expatriate voters

Almost 800,000 Kyrgyz citizens were disfranchised in 2017 as they could not register their biometric data as prescribed by the law and thus not included in the voters register. Through successive registration rounds, this number has reduced to below 400,000, many of them in rural, remote areas. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic however, the conditions have disabled further outreach and registration rounds in the months leading up to elections.

In view of large numbers of labor migrants in the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, and Turkey there is a significant number of unregistered voters among labor migrants in these countries, a group that was also identified as disadvantaged in past elections. With support from UNDP, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the CEC has created “Mobile Registration Teams” who travel to places with a density of Kyrgyz citizens residing abroad and raise electoral awareness, collect biometric data and provide consular registration so that citizens can be included in the voter list. To reinforce the process, the CEC hosts weekly online meetings with Diaspora leaders and members of their associations. Through this work, 32,000 voters abroad are now registered to participate in elections, and polling stations in missions abroad now number 45.

A comprehensive information campaign underpinning this includes innovative new features such as a chat bot that responds to queries, and a special hotline for migrants where Kyrgyz citizens living in Russia and Kazakhstan can call free of charge and receive advice from the CEC on how to exercise their voting rights. The operators of this hotline are persons with disabilities, youth, pensioners and ethnic minorities, thus increasing inclusion on the side of the duty bearers.

3. Support women in politics

Women are increasingly underrepresented in elected office and in state bodies. On the campaign scene, discrimination and defamation of women is still common. A recent decision by the Parliament to also set a 30 percent quota for women in local councils is an important affirmative action for women to gain experience in politics at the local level and paves the way for being nominated in their own right to parliament. Efforts must continue to develop a positive perception of women in politics, dispel gender stereotypes and inform women on their right to participate. On election day, the CEC will uncover an exhibition of past women political leaders, developed with UN Women.

The CEC has made significant efforts to increase women’s capacity to participate in politics. An ongoing national information campaign informs the voters about increasing women’s participation in the electoral process. The platform “Our Vote” is being developed in the Kyrgyz and Russian languages, with educational materials on women’s participation in politics, including an online theatrical performance, a series of interviews with famous men and women of Kyrgyzstan on the importance of women’s political representation, and a series of comics on women’s participation as voters. There is also a relay race on social platforms Tik Tok and Instagram, which helps develop a positive perception of women in politics, dispels gender stereotypes and highlights the importance of women’s participation. Winners of the relay race will be invited to visit the Parliament and learn more about the legislative process.

4. Address human rights and hate speech

Professional and unbiased support from security forces is an integral part of the electoral process. Training law enforcement officials to provide security during elections and the planning processes is therefore an important step in ensuring that security forces are prepared to respond effectively to threats arising during the electoral process. Together with the OSCE and OHCHR, UNDP is conducting a series of trainings for law enforcement agencies on ensuring human rights and electoral security, as well as prevention, investigation and accountability for electoral offences.

The spread of hate speech complicates the electoral process by spreading misinformation, reducing confidence in the electoral process and contributing to polarization of society. The increased risk of complaints can lead to violence and instability. But as political parties compete, they often use strong statements that are not always hate speech. It is critical that law enforcement agencies remain non-partisan and clearly distinguish hate speech from other statements. We are conducting a series of trainings for criminal justice actors — judges, special forces, police and prosecutors — on countering hate speech as well. And have supported the CEC in developing a code of conduct and training material in this regard.

5. Safe voting during the pandemic

The Coronavirus pandemic has become a challenge for many areas of public services, and elections are no exception. CEC has carefully developed safety protocols and mobilized protective equipment to meet sanitary norms at all stages of the electoral process, ensuring all participants can perform their functions without fear of infection. UNDP has also played a key role in helping the development of safety protocols and in procuring PPE. At the end of the day, the day of elections will require the cooperation between local officials, elections commissioners, and the general public to ensure that safe and considerate voting conditions are maintained on election day.

In a few days, the people of Kyrgyzstan will go to the polls, and the CEC will service 2,475 polling stations. This round of elections in Kyrgyzstan could be the most inclusive yet. The work done now will determine whether voters in all areas and population segments have the courage and liberty to vote for the party they feel best represents their interests, in a true test of Kyrgyz democracy.

—

UNDP is working on a programme of assistance for the 2020 Parliamentary elections together with the CEC with funding from Japan, Switzerland and Germany.

Editor’s Note: A shorter version of this piece was originally published in Euractiv. If you’d like to read more about our support to elections in Kyrgyz Republic, check out this diary series.

Over the last few years, Kyrgyzstan has been working on making itself a destination sought after by travelers. The idea is to appeal to adventure seekers, not just those interested in a trip around the countryside. The natural environment is stunning, and the landscapes provide spectacular and intense hiking, rafting and mountaineering possibilities. They have not been promoted the way other more popular “adventure” destinations have been, but throw in historical caravanserai, equestrian traditions and a unique cuisine and you have quite a destination.

Tourism’s share of the country’s 2019 GDP was 5 percent: the export of services amounted to US$613 million, imports of $379 million. And this importance of tourism dollars is a trend across the world.

In 2019, tourism generated seven percent of global trade, employed one in every ten people and — due to many interconnected industries — provided livelihoods to millions of people. In the Europe and Central Asia region alone, tourist spending exceeds 20 percent of GDP in a number of economies, including Albania, Georgia and Montenegro, and 10 percent in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Overall, these economies are highly vulnerable to the collapse in global tourism that has followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Estimates say that international tourist numbers could decline by 58 to 78 percent in 2020. In countries that rely on tourism, tens of thousands have lost their jobs across all sectors of the industry. Many of these are small and medium sized business owners, often family-run and the only source of income.

Turning the region into a destination

Around the region, countries have been working to develop tourism industries. For many of these areas, lacking farmable land or regular employment opportunities, tourism is a way to bring visitors to the region and develop small businesses. The development of rural tourism in particular is seen as a way to bring down the level of rural poverty and pave the way for other avenues of development.

For instance, in Montenegro — a destination for both skiing and beaches — tourism development and the push for renewable solutions are progressing together. UNDP’s “Towards carbon-neutral tourism” has brought more environmental-friendly practices into an industry that has been growing exponentially, and potentially harmfully. This includes creating infrastructure for electric car road trippers and expanding an ECO Certified accommodation program. In Budva, a hugely popular seaside destination, the largest resort is committed to renewable practices for its property, from solar power operated water heaters to organic cleaning and hygiene products. This mirrors the EU Eco label, drawing more business from European tour agencies.

Another key factor in the region’s tourism models is to promote and maintain the economic, social, cultural, natural and human resources of these local areas. The Via Dinarica, which stretches across seven countries and territories in the Western Balkans, has been a successful example of this type of initiative.

While the concept of a thriving tourism industry is inviting and has been provided new opportunities for many regions, true success is not without challenges.

Beauty alone does not suddenly make a destination welcoming to visitors; there is also the necessary infrastructure to accommodate visitors in safe and healthy way. New business owners need to develop professional skills in line with international tourism expectations. And producers or businesses must ensure their popular products and services are consistent and can expand with growing interest.

In Georgia, for example, some regional governments — with support from local citizens –set sustainable tourism as a priority to improve their regions. Being famous for its wine and hospitality, this seemed a natural fit and UNDP supported the initiative with trainings, business development and municipal support. The municipality worked on improving roads, waste collection and upgrading a small local airport.

With beauty comes risks

A reliance on tourism as an economic booster has potential risks. An increase in visitors, especially to natural habitats, can lead to potential environmental degradation. But the need to be protected can clash with profit ideals.

Overall, tourism is a highly volatile industry. It can be affected by natural disasters (floods, hurricanes), conflict or instability, and health restrictions, as we’ve seen most recently with the Coronavirus pandemic.

This is why the idea of sustainable tourism is so important. “Sustainable” is not just about being environmentally friendly, although finding ways to be green and add value is part of it. It’s also about being resilient — to shocks, to nature, to changing interests.

The most recent shock — COVID-19 — has pushed countries to examine their tourism industries, not only for survival’s sake, but also for a more sustainable future.

Looking forward, resiliently

In the immediate term, many countries are shifting towards promoting domestic tourism, while others are using this time to introduce different technological and innovative approaches.

Armenia has been trending and the number of tourists visiting was increasing every year, to 1.9 million in 2019. The global tourism freeze stopped that flow, bringing only 311,000 visitors the first trimester of 2020, and an estimated $700 million loss in potential income. But it also affected its own citizens’ ability to travel outside the country. Still interested in exploration, Armenians started to rethink their booking and travel preferences, discovering new places inside their own country and boosting domestic tourism.

UNDP’s Gastro Yards project instantly became popular and on-demand spots for visitors. Bringing together beautiful nature, tasty authentic rural food, welcoming hosts and unforgettable wine, the Gastro Yards across the country saw 60,000 visitors in only four months. UNDP helped ensure these destinations are safely operating during the pandemic.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, places along the Via Dinarica similarly shifted to the domestic market, encouraging visitors with lodging vouchers and special programs.

Other countries, who have been slowly developing their unique niche in the tourism landscape, are focusing their energies on keeping that progress moving forward while waiting for restrictions to lift.

Montenegro, which saw 20 percent of their GDP come from tourism in 2019, expect to see a 70 percent drop in revenues this year. In June, it received an emergency loan worth $83.7 million under the IMF’s Rapid Financing Instrument, partly to help weather the economic disruption caused by the collapse of tourism. The low carbon tourism work has set a standard in the country though, and it seems the hospitality industry is ready to embrace the challenge to come back better, greener and more responsible.

In Kyrgyzstan, UNDP’s Aid for Trade program was working with the government to develop the new tourism sector, by focusing on high added value experiences and green, sustainable practices. Some operators are choosing to wait until they can sell tours to foreign tourists again, estimating that it will still be more profitable. In the meantime, one agency is creating a 3D map of the country to raise the interest of potential tourists, and the Ministry of Tourism is actively working to restore the sector with preferential credit resources for entrepreneurs.

This kind of direct economic support is a call that also came from the Secretary General in his note on tourism industry recovery. He also notes it is a time to recalibrate the industry so that it is more safe, equitable and climate-friendly. It needs to be “informed by a human-centred approach that puts rights, international labour standards and psychological wellbeing of workers at the heart of economic, social and environmental recovery strategies.” While the industry does cater to clients, it cannot be at the expense of those who deliver the experience.

Ironically now, after months of lockdowns and restrictions, people are itching to get out and see something fresh. Hopefully, countries around the region can whet their appetite so that when flights resume and borders re-open, countries around the region can once again welcome visitors and thrive again economically.

Editor’s note: As we move from immediate response to the COVID-19 pandemic to talking about recovery, we are given a chance to return with a greener, more sustainable future — one that will require all hands on deck, from the citizen to the business to the government. UNDP Ukraine has been working on just such an initiative for renewable energy and it can serve as a lesson for others to take as they start looking towards post-crisis response.

New inequalities are being triggered by technology and climate change, and they are increasingly determining people’s opportunities in the 21st century. These two seismic shifts, if left without a response, could undermine democracy and jeopardize sustainable development.

Climate change does not respect borders and affects every living creature on earth. It’s easy for individuals to feel overwhelmed at the sheer scale of this phenomenon.

But just as the climate crisis was created by companies, individuals, communities and countries doing (damaging) things, the key to solving it means all sides doing (better) things as well.

Ukrainians are well aware of climate change issues: According to social surveys, 80 percent consider climate change a serious problem for Ukraine. However only one in five rank this problem higher than other environmental issues like air and water pollution, waste management, or deforestation. But international climate movements have found support from local NGOs and young people who share their values, organizing campaigns on climate change and renewable energy.

Energy efficiency measures are among the most popular eco-conscious actions Ukrainians say they are likely to take, or already have taken. In 2018, one in five Ukrainians said improving energy efficiency was one of the main environmental actions that should be taken. In 2020, this number had risen by 50 percent, and now almost a third are open to insulating their houses and installing heating meters, energy efficient windows and lightning systems (although the main incentive for doing this is probably to reduce energy bills).

Solar power is also a hot topic. Ukrainians are not only starting to install solar panels, but are also investing in small-scale solar power stations to generate electricity for their own use, as well as to make income from selling their extra electricity back to the grid.

Renewable energy cooperatives are also now a reality in Ukraine. Last year, the first of three solar power stations was installed in the town of Slavutych by the Solar Town energy cooperative, funded through crowdfunding. All of the stations’ shareholders are ordinary people from Slavutych and other regions. The price of a share in the project was about $500 — quite a reasonable sum for a private investment in solar energy in Ukraine.

Recognizing these trends, as UNDP in Ukraine takes a multi-pronged approach to tackling the issue of climate change, we are looking at energy as an entry point.

We’re focusing on enhancing energy security through promoting investments in energy efficiency in public and private buildings and encouraging the use of renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind power and biomass for generating heat and electricity.

Ukraine is among the top ten most energy-intensive economies in the world — the amount of energy used to generate a dollar of GDP is three times higher than the average in the EU. Compounding that problem is the fact that so much of Ukraine’s energy is generated from fossil fuels — 70 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy sector. Moreover, high energy intensity coupled with aging and inefficient heating systems and heavy dependency on imports of gas and oil poses a real threat to energy security.

Over the past decade, Ukraine has made some progress in enhancing energy efficiency in public and private buildings. And one way we’re contributing to that is to mobilize Ukrainian homeowners and motivate them to improve energy efficiency in the buildings where they live. Our HOUSES project (Home Owners of Ukraine for Sustainable Energy Solutions, in partnership with the EU) supports the creation of Home Owners Associations*, which will develop energy efficiency improvement projects and apply for financing to the Ukrainian Energy Efficiency Fund, recently established by the Government.

Effectively, the project created links in an organizational chain stretching from individual homeowners to the level of the state, and since this chain has the aim of improving energy efficiency it helps in tackling multiple problems — Ukraine’s inefficient use of energy, its energy dependence and the need for infrastructure improvements, which in turn impacts the over-arching problem of climate change.

Over the lifetime of the HOUSES project, nearly half-a-million Ukrainians should benefit financially from incorporating new energy efficiency measures, and over one million will better understand efficiency issues and the choices we can make. That’s a lot of individuals, their actions linked together by one project, who together WILL make a difference.

But what about public buildings, where ownership (and responsibility) does not belong to a single person or entity, but is in essence shared by the public through the medium of the state?

Here we, along with the Global Environment Facility support, are taking a different approach, through using what is called the “ESCO” modality. We’re facilitating the collaboration between energy service companies (that’s what ESCO stands for) and the state to increase energy efficiency in public buildings. Energy service companies receive commercial loans to implement energy-saving projects. The benefit for the building owners is that they don’t invest in retrofits; the investments are made by ESCO companies, who are then repaid from the energy savings achieved. Newly established energy monitoring systems will gauge the results and ensure that gains are retained.

The project is vital because it’s estimated that 50 percent of the energy that goes to heat Ukraine’s 78,000 public buildings is simply wasted due to poor insulation, out-of-date heating systems, and the like, according to the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine data hence the immense potential to generate savings, protect the people and the planet, and ensure better use of public money.

And it’s not just heating energy that’s the target of savings — Ukraine’s building sector consumes an estimated 25 percent of all the electricity used in Ukraine, so even measures such as replacing old lighting with new, energy-efficient bulbs falls under the project’s remit. That’s where the energy monitoring systems come in — they are used to identify leakages of energy, from unnecessary continuous lighting to poor wall insulation to draughty windows and doors.

Through simple energy savings measures, done via private investment (by ESCOs), the project is achieving impressive savings both in terms of money for local budgets and in savings on emissions of greenhouse gases. For example, through one such project, the town of Chortkiv lowered its electricity consumption in public buildings in 2018 by 111.5-megawatt hours, or 4.9 percent, which translates into a reduction of 26.1 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Such savings, replicated across Ukraine, would soon add up, and translate into a measurable impact on Ukraine’s energy use and economic statistics. But with similar efforts from other countries, this will start to have an impact on climate change. Part of the purpose of the ESCO project is indeed to blaze a trail for others to follow, introducing a replicable approach for towns and cities across the country to implement.

With just these two examples from our work from here in Ukraine, you can see how the actions of individuals can indeed make a difference — it just takes a bit of organization to get people, companies, organizations and governments working together towards the same goals. Climate change is not irreversible, and we know what we have to do to limit its effects.

It’s time for us to act now, since time is of essence!

* UNDP Ukraine used this network — which includes 24 coordinators, 344 local authorities and nearly 4,000 homeowners’ associations — to help fight the COVID-19 virus and get urgent health information to nearly 2 million people.

If you liked this story, check out another one about solar power in the Turkmenistan desert.