The article examines the conceptual and methodological approaches to identifying the functional types of territories as a key analytical and governance tool for shaping modern regional policy in Ukraine in the context of post-war recovery and European integration. It substantiates the need to shift from a uniform, compensatory model of regional policy to a differentiated, place-based development policy that accounts for territorial functions, economic specialization, spatial interdependencies, and the evolving roles of territories within the national economy. The study analyzes the evolution of the regulatory and legal framework for the implementation of functional typology, including recent amendments to national legislation, updates to the State Regional Development Strategy, and the methodological approach established by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the classification of territorial communities. Particular attention is paid to the institutionalization of functional types of territories and their role in aligning Ukraine’s regional policy with the principles of EU cohesion policy. Based on empirical research, the paper identifies functional types of territories in Lvivska Oblast, a region characterized by significant socio-economic and spatial diversity. The study specifies the features of key functional types, including territories with special development conditions (low socio-economic development, natural constraints like mountainous areas, just transition territories, protected areas, and rural territories), as well as regional growth poles, urban agglomerations, and sustainable development territories. The findings reveal that, although the current methodological framework allows for the identification of major functional types and reflects territorial diversity, it also exhibits several limitations. These include the presence of communities not classified under any functional type, data constraints, and the incomplete integration of the typology into strategic planning, budgeting, and sectoral policies. As a result, functional typology currently plays primarily an analytical rather than an operational role. The article further assesses the consistency of existing policy instruments with the logic of functional typologization and finds that support mechanisms remain fragmented and insufficient for most types of territories. At the same time, selected practices, particularly in just transition and agglomeration development, demonstrate the potential for more effective, territorially targeted policy interventions. The article concludes that the institutionalization of functional typology is essential for enhancing the effectiveness of regional policy, improving the targeting of public investments, and achieving balanced territorial development.
regional policy, functional types of territories, place-based approach, post-war recovery, European integration, Lvivska Oblast, just transition, agglomeration
The article examines the specific features of ensuring the environmentally balanced development of agglomerations in the context of the twin transition. It analyzes Ukraine’s position in the 2024 Global Innovation Index, particularly in terms of sustainable environmental development and the advancement of information and communication technologies (ICT). The article emphasizes that the integration of ICT into environmental initiatives and the development of green entrepreneurship can facilitate a transition to a higher level of sustainable environmental development. This, in turn, will enhance the implementation of ICT, including digital technologies, within enterprises and promote their innovative development in line with current trends in the global innovation landscape. The study highlights the necessity for businesses to simultaneously implement both digital technologies and environmentally sustainable solutions based on ESG principles. The authors argue that Ukraine is currently forming the institutional foundations for the implementation of ESG principles in the practical activities of enterprises, particularly in large companies and those export-oriented toward the EU market. The article emphasizes that digital transformation and the active use of artificial intelligence, especially in the environmental sphere, create both opportunities and risks for the environment. The water, carbon, and energy footprints of artificial intelligence are analyzed. The growing volume of electronic waste is found to intensify the negative impact of the economy and society digitalization on natural ecosystems. The main strategic priorities and implementation pathways for digital and environmental transformation within agglomerations are outlined. The article emphasizes that agglomerations represent the areas where the conflict between economic growth and environmental security is manifested most acutely, as the high concentration of industry, transport flows, and population creates excessive anthropogenic pressure on the environment. In such conditions, the transition to a model of environmentally balanced development is no longer just a theoretical idea but becomes a strategic need for the preservation of urban ecosystems. The legislative framework for ensuring environmentally balanced development is analyzed. Greenhouse gas emissions trading is revealed to be a crucial instrument in both combating climate change and reducing industrial pollution. The study emphasizes that legislative support plays a key role in implementing sustainable development principles. It should not only regulate environmental management through the establishment of restrictions and standards but also facilitate effective legal mechanisms aimed at encouraging green investments, energy-efficient technologies, and rational land use. The authors argue that the regulatory and legal framework for environmentally balanced development in agglomerations extends beyond the administrative boundaries of individual cities and depends on the state environmental policy as a whole. A number of institutional measures are proposed to reduce industrial pollution, ensure stable financing of environmental protection activities, and stimulate the development of green entrepreneurship, including within agglomerations.
The article explores the practice of incorporating the territorial approach into the updating of regional development strategies in Ukraine in 2024–2025 in the context of European integration, recovery from the consequences of armed aggression, and the harmonization of state regional policy with the EU Cohesion Policy principles. Particular attention is paid to the growing role of the territorial dimension in regional development planning and to the institutional changes that introduced the mandatory consideration of functional territory types in strategic planning documents at the national, regional, and local levels. The study analyzes the regulatory and legal prerequisites for integrating the territorial dimension into the system of regional development strategic planning, as well as the specific features of its application in the updated regional strategies. The study is based on a comparative analysis of twenty updated regional development strategies adopted in 2024–2025 and focuses on the identification of functional territories, the integration of territorial analysis into strategic planning, and the consistency between identified territorial challenges and policy responses. The findings demonstrate that elements of territorially oriented governance have been incorporated into all analyzed strategies; however, their application remains uneven and largely fragmented. In most regions, the territorial dimension is reflected through the identification of only one or two categories of functional territories, predominantly rural, mountainous, border, recovery, or just transition areas, without the development of a comprehensive territorial development model. Significant differences are observed among regions regarding the interpretation and operationalization of territorial policy instruments. The analysis also reveals a weak connection between territorial diagnostics and strategic programming. Although regional strategies frequently identify spatial disparities, demographic decline, infrastructure deficiencies, peripheralization processes, and specific challenges affecting particular territories, these findings are often not translated into differentiated strategic objectives, policy measures, or development instruments. Special attention is devoted to the consideration of rural areas, mountain territories, border regions, functional urban areas, just transition territories, and recovery areas, as well as to the comparison of Ukrainian practices with European approaches to place-based development. The article concludes that the effectiveness of territorially oriented governance in Ukraine requires further improvement of the regulatory and methodological framework, the establishment of common functional territorial typologies, and stronger integration of territorial analysis into strategic decision-making processes. These measures are essential for enhancing the effectiveness of regional development planning in the 2028–2034 programming period and for strengthening Ukraine’s alignment with European regional policy principles.
territorially oriented governance, regional policy, functional territories, development instruments, State Strategy for Regional Development, regional development strategies, European Union
The article examines the institutional and spatial determinants of housing affordability in regional capital cities of Ukraine. It argues that housing affordability cannot be adequately explained by traditional market factors alone and requires consideration of the spatial and institutional nature of land markets. The study is grounded in the theory of land rent and introduces the concept of “accessibility rent” as a mechanism through which spatial advantages and regulatory constraints are capitalized into housing prices. Methodologically, the research employs the Median Multiple indicator, which measures the ratio of median housing prices to median household income, allowing for a more accurate assessment of affordability. The empirical analysis is based on panel data for Ukrainian regional centers over the period 2015–2025. Correlation analysis to applied to identify the influence of price, income, spatial, and institutional factors. The findings indicate that housing affordability in the analyzed cities ranges between 5 and 11, corresponding to “severely” and “critically unaffordable” categories. The strongest relationship is observed between affordability and housing prices, while the impact of income remains weak and insufficient to offset price growth. The study also reveals that increased housing construction does not necessarily improve affordability, as development activity tends to concentrate in high-demand, high-price cities. Spatial constraints, including land scarcity and high density, are shown to transform agglomeration benefits into rent-driven price pressures. Special attention is given to the effects of war-related factors after 2022, which intensified structural imbalances and led to the concentration of demand in relatively safe regions. The research confirms the transformation of accessibility rent into fiscal rent, creating an institutional contradiction between local governments’ incentives to maximize budget revenues and the objective of improving housing affordability. The case of Lviv illustrates key institutional dysfunctions, including excessive densification, uncontrolled suburbanization, non-compliance with spatial planning documents, lack of land preparation mechanisms, and weak metropolitan coordination. The study concludes that the housing affordability crisis in Ukraine is fundamentally land-based and rent-driven. Improving affordability requires a systemic transformation of institutional frameworks and spatial development policies, including increasing land supply elasticity, implementing land value capture mechanisms, and strengthening metropolitan governance.
housing affordability, land rent, median multiple, spatial planning, housing policy, urbanization, institutional constraints, land market
Cross-border population mobility is at the heart of cross-border cooperation, serving as a vital factor in the resilience of border regions by ensuring the development of cross-border socio-economic ties and guaranteeing access to labor markets, education, healthcare, and social services. At the same time, it is one of the critical drivers of economic integration. As a complex socio-economic phenomenon, this mobility encompasses various forms of movement, from traditional labor, educational, or business trips in the Ukrainian-Polish borderland to forced humanitarian migrations. However, contemporary crisis challenges, primarily the war, have fundamentally altered the scale, functions, and nature of these processes. The article examines the structural and spatial changes and the transformations of cross-border mobility dominants in the Ukrainian-Polish borderland under the impact of long-term crisis challenges. The research is based on statistical data regarding border crossings between Ukraine and Poland and cross-border expenditure for the 2014-2024 period. Structural, comparative, spatial, and dynamic analysis methods were applied to evaluate shifts in the intensity, frequency, geography, purposes, and economic effects of these flows, as well as the emerging asymmetry of financial flows and the spending structures among citizens of both countries. The article shows that under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and military challenges, cross-border mobility has lost its predominantly local, commercial, and consumer-oriented nature. It also substantiates the transition from local and short-term forms of cross-border mobility to spatially wider and longer-lasting movements manifested in the contraction of commuting mobility among borderland residents, the expansion of movement geography, and the growing role of Ukraine’s remote regions in shaping cross-border flows. The authors prove that due to previously established cross-border networks, the nature of border movement has transformed into a core adaptive mechanism for ensuring the resilience of the quality of life amid intensifying security, socio-economic, and humanitarian risks. Finally, the research reveals the exaptive nature of community resilience and emphasizes the critical role of cross-border mobility in the socio-economic adaptation of the population to global and regional crisis transformations.
cross-border mobility, dominants of cross-border cooperation, resilience, quality of life of the population, Ukrainian-Polish borderland, local border traffic
The article examines sectoral transformations in the Ukrainian economy during 1995–2022 through the dynamics of domestic output and gross value added (GVA) multipliers in the context of import substitution. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to strengthen national economic resilience, reduce dependence on imported intermediate inputs, and restore the capacity of domestic production linkages to generate value added within the country during wartime and reconstruction. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the input–output approach, the concept of structural transformation, and the analysis of intersectoral linkages. The empirical calculations are based on harmonized national input–output tables from the OECD, which make it possible to compare changes in domestic production effects and GVA effects across economic activities over a long period. The study shows that the average domestic output multiplier increased from 1.824 in 1995 to 1.918 in 2022, while the GVA multiplier decreased from 0.740 to 0.601. This divergence indicates that the growth of domestic output was accompanied by a weakening of the economy’s capacity to retain value added within national production chains. The sectoral analysis reveals that services and basic life-support activities, including education, public administration, water supply, and energy supply, demonstrated a relatively high ability to generate domestic GVA because of their lower dependence on imported material inputs. Meanwhile, manufacturing industries remained important for the formation of output effects and for the potential implementation of selective import substitution policies. Particular attention is paid to sectors in which the GVA multiplier remained low or decreased significantly, including chemicals, petroleum refining, rubber and plastic products, and metallurgy. The results show that import substitution should not be interpreted as the preservation of existing production structures or a simple restriction of imports. Rather, it should be understood as a policy of technological upgrading, localization of intermediate production, deeper processing of raw materials, and stronger interaction between industry, engineering, science, and professional services. The findings may be used to substantiate sectoral priorities during Ukraine’s post-war recovery, reconstruction policy, structural resilience, economic security, long-term economic growth and the expansion of domestic value added in Ukraine.
The size of the ecological risk is calculated as a derivative of the integral index used to estimate the condition of the natural environment, the resilience of the quality of life, and the vulnerability of regions of Ukraine in the conditions of external threats, and also in front-line and temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The evaluation is based on four groups of indices: а) condition of air environment; b) condition of water environment; c) condition of natural terrestrial environment; and d) condition of natural environment as a result of waste accumulation. Maps-charts of integral indexes of the ecological environment of the resilience of the quality of life are developed for 2014 and 2021. On the basis of integral indexes of the condition of the natural environment, the following gradations of the degree of ecological risk are distinguished: low, weak, medium, above average, increased, high, very high, and extremely high. Comparing 2014 and 2021, the condition of the natural environment worsened in some regions. In particular, the degree of ecological risk is above average in the Sumy and Lviv regions and is increased in the Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya regions and Kyiv. It is especially high in the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The condition of the natural environment, quality of life, and vulnerability of regions of Ukraine are analyzed in the context of military operations in 2022-2025, in particular: а) increasing risk (tense environment) in the western regions – Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, Rivne and Volyn; b) high risk - in the central and northern regions; c) very high level of ecological risk (crisis environment) in the City of Kyiv and Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, and also in the partly occupied territories of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and the temporally occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea; and d) extremely high level of ecological risk (catastrophic environment) in communities close to the zone of hostilities (the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions).
air environment, water environment, terrestrial environment, waste, ecological risk, resilience
The paper proposes a methodological approach to constructing an integrated index for assessing the socio-economic effectiveness of gender policy in Ukraine. The study is based on the premise that existing international gender indicators predominantly focus on measuring disparities between women and men, while insufficient attention is paid to evaluating the effectiveness of gender policy as a public governance process. In this context, the need arises for a composite analytical tool capable of capturing both structural inequalities and the results of policy interventions in socio-economic terms. The proposed approach is grounded in a multidimensional system of indicators grouped into five functional domains: labor market performance, income and welfare, human capital development, economic participation, and political and managerial representation. This structure allows for a comprehensive reflection of gender-related outcomes across the key areas of socio-economic development. To ensure the comparability of heterogeneous statistical indicators, a min–max normalization procedure is applied, taking into account the direction of each indicator’s impact (positive or negative) on gender equality outcomes. Based on the normalized indicators, an integrated Gender Policy Effectiveness Index (GPEI) is constructed. The index aggregates standardized variables into a single composite measure that enables the assessment of the overall effectiveness of gender policy implementation. The methodological framework combines both “gap-oriented” indicators (reflecting gender disparities) and “participation-oriented” indicators (reflecting the inclusion of women in economic and political life), thereby integrating deficit-based and resource-based perspectives on gender equality. Empirical testing of the proposed index was conducted using Ukrainian data for the period 2021–2024. The results reveal a non-uniform dynamic of gender policy effectiveness, characterized by moderate improvements in selected dimensions, particularly women’s participation in entrepreneurship, alongside persistent structural inequalities, especially in wage gaps and political representation. These findings indicate that, despite some positive trends, gender disparities remain embedded in key socio-economic domains and require more targeted and systemic policy interventions. The study demonstrates that the proposed integrated index can serve as a practical tool for monitoring, evaluating, and comparing the effectiveness of gender policy over time. It also provides a basis for evidence-based public policy-making by enabling policymakers to identify priority areas for intervention and assess the outcomes of implemented measures in a structured and quantifiable manner.
The increasing volatility of world food prices and the growing synchronization across individual segments of the agro-food market have become defining trends in the development of the global economy in the 21st century. These processes heighten the vulnerability of national economies to external shocks and necessitate in-depth research into the mechanisms of formation and transmission of price fluctuations within the global agro-food system. This article examines the dynamics of volatility and the processes of synchronization in global agro-food markets amid heightened global economic, energy, and geopolitical instability. The purpose of the research is to identify long-term trends in the evolution of world food price volatility, assess the level of interdependence among the main segments of the agro-food market, and determine the associated risks for Ukraine. The research results confirm a persistent tendency toward increased volatility in global agro-food markets during periods of global crises. Three main clusters of heightened price instability are identified: the food and financial crises of 2007-2011, the post-commodity correction of 2014-2015, and the crisis period of 2020-2022, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, energy shocks, and Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. The article shows that vegetable oils are the most volatile segment of the global food market, having recorded historically high levels of price variability in the 2020s. It proves that the oil market has become one of the key drivers of fluctuations in the global food price index due to the high concentration of world production and exports, as well as its close linkage with energy markets. Analysis of anomalous price episodes confirms the decisive influence of geopolitical events on the formation of global food shocks, particularly in 2022. Correlation analysis reveals a significant strengthening of synchronization between individual commodity groups. The interdependence between food commodity sub-indices increased substantially over the study period, indicating the formation of a more integrated and externally sensitive global agro-food system. The growing role of common drivers of price dynamics – energy sources, logistics, financial flows, and market expectations – confirms the deepening processes of financialization in agro-food markets. The article concludes that volatility and synchronization are key characteristics of contemporary global agro-food markets and significantly affect the economic security of food-exporting countries. For Ukraine, this creates both risks to food security, foreign trade, and macroeconomic stability, and opportunities for export development and deeper participation in global agro-food value chains. The rise in global instability requires the diversification of export destinations, the development of domestic processing, and the implementation of effective price risk management mechanisms to strengthen the competitiveness and resilience of the Ukrainian economy amid long-term global transformations.
agro-food markets; price volatility; value chains; international trade; exports; integration; globalization
The article notes that the new paradigm for ensuring the financial stability of Ukrainian banks is based on the implementation of the principles of sustainable development and inclusion. The main strategic priorities in this area are: 1) allocation of capital for implementing economic management policies and increasing sustainability levels; 2) acceleration of the green transition by increasing investment and transforming the financial system; 3) ensuring sustainability and equal access to human capital through inclusive financing. The article offers a three-stage approach to implementing ESG in banking institutions: 1) diagnostics and development of a sustainable development strategy, which includes the processes of planning, integration of information systems and ESG data, and their consolidation; 2) formation of sustainable development reporting, its public transparency; and 3) drafting sustainability strategies taking into account ESG principles. Sustainable development is strategically oriented towards a people-centric approach, the financing of green initiatives, renewable energy, climate risk management, and the resilience of financial systems in developing countries. The article identifies the principles of orientation towards the European Green Deal and the transition to climate neutrality and the implementation of ESG principles in terms of three main components: 1) requirements for products and types of activities in the context of compliance with the principles of sustainable development and the level of ESG risks; 2) requirements for building corporate and risk management systems taking into account climate as a component of ESG and other risks, in the context of their impact on capital adequacy in the short, medium, and long term; 3) criteria for disclosing information with a dual approach to the impact of ESG factors on business, and the impact of business on the environment and society. The author argues that the integration of the principles of sustainable development and inclusion into the mechanism for ensuring the financial stability of Ukrainian banks requires a systemic approach. Based on the research conducted, the article identifies the following key areas: 1) improvement of prudential regulation taking into account ESG risks; 2) development of the green financing market; 3) activation of the financial inclusion policy; 4) strengthening the role of state-owned banks in implementing the principles of sustainable financing; 5) ensuring transparency and reporting.
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