INSTITUTIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL FOUNDATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES IN UKRAINE UNDER WARTIME CHALLENGES

Abstract

The article substantiates the institutional and organizational foundations for the development of territorial communities in Ukraine under prolonged wartime challenges, uneven territorial losses, and the need to ensure continuity of public services, recovery, and convergence with European governance standards simultaneously. Institutional foundations are interpreted as a system of formal and informal rules, competences, procedures, accountability standards, and interaction arrangements, whereas organizational foundations comprise structures, roles, resources, digital solutions, and coordination mechanisms through which these rules are implemented. Security, demographic, infrastructural, financial, staffing, service, information, and governance challenges are systematized. The study substantiates the need to differentiate managerial decisions according to the functional and security profile of a community and to combine crisis and strategic governance cycles. A resilience-oriented model is proposed, consisting of six interconnected contours: regulatory, competence-based and coordination arrangements; governance continuity and civil protection; resource and fiscal capacity; service, digital and human-resource resilience; participation, social cohesion and accountability; recovery, partnerships and European integration. The structure of an institutional and organizational community resilience passport is developed, integrating a map of competences and registers of critical functions, risks, resources, partnerships, projects, and indicators. An integral capacity index adjusted for the security environment and the reliability of evidence is suggested. The practical value of the results lies in their application to updating local strategies, recovery plans, socio-economic development programmes, public investment portfolios, and inter-municipal cooperation agreements. It is demonstrated that development effectiveness depends not on the number of organizational units but on the alignment of competences, resources, data, accountability, and the ability to move rapidly from emergency response to recovery and long-term transformation. The proposed approach supports transparent prioritisation, continuity of essential services, institutional learning, inclusive participation, and improved absorption of national and international recovery resources.