Ukraine reconstruction needs money and tough oversight

Significance

The Lugano conference was an important launch-pad for efforts to mobilise international support. The Ukrainian government presented a Recovery and Development Plan, a lengthy but still sketchy outline of possible reconstruction activity. Estimates of its cost vary from USD500bn to USD1.1tn; the plan puts the figure in the middle at USD750bn.

Impacts

• Similar events will follow: an EU meeting later this year and a UK conference in 2023.
• Pledges of support should give Ukrainians more confidence in their future.
• The plan must build in inclusive participation if Ukrainians are to buy into it rather than feel excluded from governance, as in the past.
• Although private-sector involvement promises to be limited, recovery may eventually lead to more foreign investment.