INNOVATION IN UKRAINE’S POST-WAR RECOVERY GOVERNANCE: DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPARENCY AND ENTREPRENEURIAL RENEWAL

Abstract

This paper considers Ukraine’s post-war recovery through the lens of innovation governance. Its central claim is that reconstruction will be determined not only by the volume of pledged capital, but also by the quality of the institutional and digital systems that identify needs, verify beneficiaries, coordinate projects, disburse funds, monitor implementation and protect public trust. Ukraine experienced the second stage of war since February 2022 with a strong digital state infrastructure, and the war has turned this capacity into a practical instrument of resilience. The study uses a qualitative descriptive approach, triangulating open data and policy materials from the World Bank, the National Bank of Ukraine, the European Commission, the OECD, Ukrainian government platforms, and specialised analytical sources. The paper analyses five mutually reinforcing innovation layers: digital payments and instant settlement; GovTech services and beneficiary-centred disbursement through Diia and eRecovery; open contracting and reconstruction coordination through DREAM; emerging financial innovations such as open banking, programmable transfers, tokenisation and blockchain-based audit trails; and digital entrepreneurship-support instruments that connect recovery finance with jobs, local production and SME resilience. The findings show that innovation in recovery governance works primarily as a trust-production mechanism. It lowers information asymmetry for donors and investors, reduces administrative friction for citizens and firms, and makes reconstruction projects more visible to communities and external finance institutions. At the same time, the paper stresses that innovation is not a substitute for institutional capacity. Incomplete registries, cybersecurity risks, digital exclusion, weak local capacity may limit the effectiveness of otherwise advanced platforms.