On December 1, 2025, partners from Ukraine, Poland, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs convened for the seminar “Ukrainian Village on the Way to the European Union: From Data to Policy Recommendations,” an intensive dialogue focused on the strategic challenges facing Ukraine’s rural communities amid full-scale war and the country’s path toward European Union accession. The seminar moved deliberately from evidence to action—grounding discussion in current conditions in rural Ukraine and translating analysis into policy-relevant recommendations for recovery and long-term resilience.
The agenda centered on several intersecting priorities: food security, the transformation of land relations, access to basic services, demographic sustainability in rural communities, and policy approaches rooted in human rights. Participants also explored the role of Ukrainian–Polish cooperation in shaping restoration pathways and strengthening the research-to-policy pipeline.
Building on that foundation, an international delegation then took part in a four-day adaptive management training, December 2–5, 2025, titled “Systems for Adaptive Management that Inform Land and Water Governance in Ukraine.” The workshop was convened and facilitated by LBJ School of Public Affairs Professor Sachin Shah who guided participants through an applied learning sequence designed to strengthen decision-making under uncertainty.
Across the four days, participants worked hands-on with practical tools and methods, including:
· Conceptual modeling of socio-ecological systems to clarify system dynamics and policy levers
· Nature-based solutions (NbS) as implementable options for land and water governance
· Vulnerability and risk identification, including how risks compound across sectors
· Scenario analysis to test strategies under different futures
· Decision-support approaches for prioritizing policy actions when tradeoffs are unavoidable
The workshop’s practical emphasis was interactive co-development: Ukrainian and international experts modeled real cases, stress-tested assumptions, and explored how adaptive approaches can be embedded within territorial restoration and governance reforms.
This convening extends the LBJ School’s continuing work at the intersection of evidence-based policy, international partnership, and Ukraine’s EU-aligned recovery, following prior LBJ School–supported initiatives focused on EU integration and food security.
Click here to learn more and join Professor Shah on Zoom on February 4 for Pathways Forward: Ukraine’s Agricultural Recovery and European Union Accession.