Cooperation under pressure: experiences with LEADER in Ukraine

The LEADER method – community-led local development based on partnership, trust and bottom-up decision-making – has long been part of the European policy framework. In Ukraine, however, the method and ethos are not being introduced formally; they are emerging as a necessity.

The Partnership for Sustainable Recovery of Ukraine (P4UA) programme, implemented by the Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation together with Ukrainian and Czech partners, has launched a process that goes far beyond technical capacity building. It is about restoring agency – empowering local actors to make decisions and shape their own future.

The P4UA programme has matched eight Czech Local Action Groups (LAGs) with representatives of eight municipalities in Ukraine (policymakers and civil society representatives), including Stryi, Turka, Katlabuh, Severynivka, Pryvilne and Zviahel.

Since 2025, the initiative has supported the creation of eight Czech-Ukrainian LAG partnerships. Activities include study visits in both countries, peer-to-peer learning, exchange of practical experience with community-led local development, strategic planning, and preparation of future local projects.

More broadly, P4UA has organised internships and study visits for Ukrainian local leaders, supported follow-up activities, workshops, networking events and exchanges between municipalities, NGOs, businesses, and educational institutions. The programme has already created a network of more than 200 local leaders and alumni across Ukraine.

One of the most important outcomes has been the emergence of local partnerships inspired by LEADER principles. While Ukraine does not yet have a formal LEADER framework, local stakeholders are already working together to prepare community-led development initiatives and advocate for the future introduction of LEADER mechanisms in Ukraine.

Today, eight Czech-Ukrainian LAG partnerships have been established, and more than 20 communities across eight Ukrainian regions are engaged in different stages of applying the LEADER principles – from active pilot initiatives to emerging groups and new local efforts. They are being supported by Czech Local Action Groups and an increasing number of connections to wider European networks.

Lucie Řehoříková is the Coordinator of the P4UA Programme at the Environmental Partnership Foundation and has been involved in facilitating Czech-Ukrainian cooperation on local development and the transfer of LEADER principles to Ukraine. In this article, she shares her personal experiences and views with us.

LEADER ‘under fire’

These are more than pilot projects in a conventional sense. They are living laboratories of cooperation under pressure. In Stryi, for example, local actors have already formed a first partnership group, and presented their Local Development Strategy in early 2026, marking a shift from exchange to concrete action.

“For us, LEADER is not just a programme – it is a tool that helps us organise ourselves and take responsibility for our future,” says Sviatoslav Surma, Head of LAG Stryi and a key coordinator of the transfer of the LEADER approach within Czech-Ukrainian peer-to-peer cooperation.

While discussions on rural development in Europe often take place in meeting rooms, in Ukraine they unfold under very different conditions. In the midst of war, local communities are not only surviving, but actively shaping their future.

A Ukrainian poet and soldier, Artur Dron from Lviv, who went to the front at the age of 19 and returned wounded at 24, writes in his latest prose work about where Europe is happening: “Perhaps once it was in Athens, then in Rome, Paris, Brussels. But today it is in Ukraine – because this is where the future of our civilisation is being decided.”

This thought resonates deeply with what P4UA witnesses on the ground. Ukraine is not only defending its territory; it is also redefining the values on which Europe stands. And, perhaps unexpectedly, the LEADER approach is becoming one of the tools through which these values take shape.

LEADER as a ‘superpower‘ of communities

In stable contexts, LEADER can sometimes risk becoming procedural. In Ukraine, it is rediscovering its essence.

Communities are organising themselves, forming local partnerships, defining priorities and preparing strategies – often while dealing with displacement, economic disruption, and the ongoing threat of attacks. What emerges is not just a development method, but a form of social infrastructure: a way to organise cooperation, test solutions, and build trust at the local level.

Study visits and exchanges between Ukrainian and Czech municipalities organised in the frame of the P4UA programme further underline this dynamic. Local governments are not acting as passive recipients of support, but as active drivers of stability. In many cases, they ensure essential services such as energy, healthcare, and social cohesion under extreme conditions, while communities themselves remain deeply engaged through volunteering and mutual support.

This context highlights the importance of approaches such as LEADER, which enable local actors to organise themselves, cooperate and take responsibility at the community level. It also highlights the importance of social resilience – the ability of communities to adapt, cooperate and remain cohesive in times of crisis.

What makes LEADER unique in this context is its ability to connect people, responsibility and decision-making at the local level – even under extreme conditions.

In this sense, LEADER becomes something more than ‘just funding’: a kind of ‘superpower‘, and not in a rhetorical sense, but as a real capacity of communities to act, decide and remain cohesive under extreme conditions.

Beyond institutional frameworks, the current transformation in Ukraine is also ingrained in questions of identity, belonging, and connection to land. As communities face the loss of homes, livelihoods, and loved ones, there is a growing need to rebuild not only infrastructure, but also social and cultural ties.

In this context, local cooperation, volunteering and shared work play a crucial role. They become a way of coping with trauma, transforming it into collective action and creativity. This process strengthens a sense of responsibility and ownership, allowing communities to move from a position of vulnerability towards one of empowerment.

The connection to place – particularly rural areas – becomes a source of stability and identity. In this sense, the LEADER approach resonates naturally with the deeper dynamics of Ukrainian society, supporting not only recovery, but also the emergence of a more conscious, resilient and self-defined future.

Learning from Ukraine

For many European practitioners, LEADER is associated with structures, funding mechanisms and administrative processes. These are, of course, essential, but Ukraine reminds us that these structures are only meaningful if they are grounded in genuine participation.

This reflection echoes the legacy of Václav Havel’s essay The Power of the Powerless, which emphasises that every individual voice matters, regardless of position or status. In Ukraine, this principle is not theoretical: it is practised daily in communities that are rebuilding their agency from the ground up.

It also resonates with contemporary Ukrainian thinking. Philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko reminds us that the strength of a society does not lie in the image it presents to the outside world, but in the values it cultivates within – in its capacity for trust, dignity and human relationships.

The Czech experience – built over decades of implementing LEADER – plays an important role in this exchange. But it is not a one-way transfer. It is a dialogue. This also challenges a deeply rooted assumption – that knowledge flows primarily from the European Union outward. In reality, Ukrainian communities are demonstrating what LEADER truly means when stripped to its core: trust, responsibility, shared ownership, and joint action.

From local partnerships to European integration

One of the most encouraging aspects of this development is its clear European dimension. Ukrainian communities are not waiting for formal accession to begin aligning with European approaches. They are already building partnerships, testing models, and creating networks.

The emerging cooperation between Ukrainian and EU Local Action Groups demonstrates how integration can happen from the bottom up. Exchanges, study visits, and joint planning processes are helping to translate principles into practice.

This experience suggests that early engagement of Ukrainian communities in LEADER networks could significantly strengthen future integration. It also highlights the importance of recognising local partnerships as a key component of Ukraine’s recovery and its future role within European rural development frameworks.

Looking ahead

Ukraine has already started. What is needed now is recognition.

Recognition that LEADER in Ukraine is not a future policy, but a present reality – and that local partnerships are key to resilience, democracy, and Europe’s future.

If the ‘centre of Europe’ is indeed shifting, then perhaps it is also time to rethink how we understand cooperation, leadership, and community power.

In Ukraine today, LEADER is not only about development. It is about preserving the very fabric of society – and reminding us why it matters.