The DREAM ecosystem is a single window for local governments to work with restoration and modernization projects. As of December 2023, over 1,500 projects have been added to the system, with confirmed funding of almost UAH 50 billion. Most of these projects were initiated and formalized by community representatives from different regions of Ukraine.
DREAM allows communities to directly draw attention to the needs of residents, raise funds for recovery projects, and effectively manage their implementation. Since September 2023, more than 150 communities have joined the ecosystem's beta testing and received training and support in project implementation. Currently, more than 500 communities are successfully working in DREAM. The ecosystem provides project initiators with all the necessary information at all stages of its life cycle, from recording losses, calculating needs, and developing details to commissioning the facility.
Three Ukrainian communities with experience in launching projects in DREAM and receiving funding for restoration projects shared their challenges and impressions of working with the system.
Irpin community. Kyiv region
Community profile in DREAM: bit.ly/48zGRvk
- During the occupation of Irpin, the city's infrastructure was damaged by 70%. According to the Kyiv School of Economics, 700 million euros are needed to rebuild the city.
Today, Irpin's critical infrastructure has been fully restored. The social infrastructure, including education and healthcare, is only 90% restored. One of the main priorities of our community is to rebuild the housing stock. It is crucial for us that the residents who lost their homes due to russia's armed aggression can return home. I want to note that we have been working with the DREAM ecosystem since its beta release.
Our community actively participated in the focus group and further developed it. It was also a vivid example of how to implement restoration projects on this platform for other participants. DREAM is an ecosystem for attracting donors, but at the same time, it is a full-fledged base for reporting and openness of the community.
We are currently structuring and hierarchizing the system. We are teaching project initiators how to use the program to enter and update information promptly. It is essential for us never to give up, to overcome difficulties as quickly as possible, and to move forward despite everything. After all, only those who work get results. And we will make every effort to attract funding for the complete restoration of the affected community infrastructure, - said Maksym Levytskyi, Digitalization Leader (CDTA) of the Irpin community.
Photo: Kindergarten "Vesnyanka" Irpin
Trostianets community, Sumy region
Community profile in DREAM: https://bit.ly/41A8UJ7
- According to the Rebuild Ukraine project, the total losses of the Trostianets community after the de-occupation amounted to $104.7 million. Our primary goal is to ensure the sustainable operation of the city's infrastructure, the functioning of critical infrastructure, and, of course, to provide housing for residents and counteract the population outflow.
In 2023, our main focus was to enter information about the facilities that had suffered the most damage in the community to raise funds from the Liquidation Fund. Due to the limited local budget, we seek alternative funding sources for reconstruction projects.
And already in 2024, the community plans to submit promising community development and modernization projects to the DREAM ecosystem, - said Olena Koshtur, Specialist of the Capital Construction Department of the Trostianets City Council.
Photo: Trostianets City Hospital 
Balakliya community, Kharkiv region
Community profile in DREAM: https://bit.ly/3NKI9vM
- The community suffered significantly during russian occupation and due to the aggressor's shelling. Housing stock, road and bridge facilities, and social and educational institutions were most damaged. Therefore, the reconstruction is currently focused on these facilities. Jobs and housing are the main priorities for the restoration of life and development of the Balakleya community. Residents must return. Before the large-scale invasion, more than 42,000 people lived in the community, and during the occupation, most of the residents were forced to leave their homes. After the de-occupation of the community in September 2022, people gradually began to return to their places of permanent residence. Today, we have 29 thousand residents, and for this trend to continue, we need to ensure the operation of businesses, schools, and kindergartens and the functioning of shelters so that people can return, live, and work fully.
We are actively looking for financial partners for restoration projects. Today, we cooperate with international projects, in particular, with the German GIZ, the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the American USAID, with which we have signed a memorandum of cooperation under the Decentralization Offering Better Results and Efficiency (DOBRE) Program. The Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, with which we are implementing projects to restore educational institutions, and the Agency for Restoration, which is working to restore facilities damaged by the effects of russia's armed aggression in the community through the regional restoration service, also help.
This year, the Balakliyska community participated in a pilot project to work in the DREAM ecosystem to register post-war reconstruction projects in the community. It began filling this system with reconstruction projects. In particular, projects for overhauling educational institutions have already been entered to attract investment in the community. This work will continue next year.
Life goes on, the community is gradually restoring, and we are actively working on it. For many projects this year, design estimates have been prepared at the expense of the local budget, and in 2024, we will begin their implementation, which we will report to DREAM, - said Vitalii Karabanov, head of the Balakliia City Military Administration of the Izyum district of Kharkiv region.
Photo. Kindergarten in Balakliya
