From Partnership to Systemic Change: Three Questions with Anastasiia Baklan on Public-Private Cooperation in Transport and Logistics Sector in Ukraine
The transport and logistics sector is playing a critical role in Ukraine's economic recovery while facing significant challenges, including labor shortages, disrupted infrastructure, and the need for rapid modernization. Through its dedicated transport and logistics project in Ukraine, RECONOMY—an inclusive and green economic development program funded by Sweden and implemented by Helvetas—works with businesses, public institutions, and vocational education providers to address these constraints and strengthen the sector's resilience. In this interview, RECONOMY Project Manager in Ukraine, Anastasiia Baklan, reflects on the lessons learned and the role of public-private cooperation in building a more competitive and future-ready transport and logistics sector.
What makes multi-stakeholder collaboration between private sector actors like Volvo Group, public institutions, and training providers so important for driving systemic and sustainable change in Ukraine's transport and logistics sector?
One of the recurring lessons from development work in Ukraine is that achieving project targets does not automatically lead to systemic change. Even successful initiatives could lose momentum once external funding ends if the actors involved do not have a clear incentive to continue investing their time, resources, and effort. Systemic change happens when stakeholders see real value in continuing the process long after a project is over.
This understanding shaped the design of RECONOMY’s project in Ukraine’s transport and logistics sector. Rather than starting with predefined solutions, we first conducted a market system analysis to understand the sector’s key constraints and identify where the interests of businesses, public institutions, and training providers intersect. We engaged transport and logistics companies, manufacturers, logistics platforms, business associations, and other market actors to better understand both the challenges they face and the opportunities they see for growth.
The analysis highlighted several systemic challenges, including shortages of qualified technical specialists, operational pressures caused by the war, rising costs, and the need for greater digitalization. These are not challenges that any single organization can solve alone. They require coordinated action from businesses that understand market demand, training providers that develop relevant skills, and public institutions that create the conditions for sector growth.
This is why multi-stakeholder collaboration is so important. Following the analysis, we brought together representatives of Volvo Group, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Economy, vocational education institutions, business associations, and other market actors to discuss and validate the findings. The objective was not simply to present research results, but to build a shared understanding of the sector’s challenges and jointly identify practical interventions that could create lasting impact. The priorities emerging from these discussions will inform the project’s implementation strategy over the coming years. When solutions are shaped by those who will ultimately implement, regulate, invest in, or benefit from them, they have a much greater chance of generating sustainable and systemic change.
From your experience, how does private sector engagement help ensure that interventions like workforce development, business competitiveness, and enabling environment are driven by real market needs and industry demand?
Private sector engagement is essential because it helps move from assumptions to evidence. Development programs often start with good intentions, but interventions are only effective if they address the challenges businesses actually face. This is why engaging companies from the very beginning is so important.
A good example is our work with Volvo Group under the workforce development component. Through our collaboration, we have already engaged three business areas of the Group - Volvo Trucks, Volvo Construction Equipment, and Volvo Penta. While each operates in a different segment, they all identified a common challenge: a growing shortage of qualified technical specialists, particularly mechanics working with heavy-duty vehicles.
Rather than designing training programs independently, we worked directly with Volvo and its dealer network across Ukraine to understand where skills gaps are most acute, what competencies employers are looking for, and where employment opportunities are concentrated. This has guided our engagement with vocational education institutions in regions such as Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, and Odesa, where graduates will have stronger prospects for employment. The private sector has also helped define practical selection criteria for training institutions, including technical requirements that are critical for delivering high-quality training but are often overlooked by development actors.
The same principle applies beyond workforce development. During our market systems analysis, more than 70% of interviewed companies identified the implementation of electronic consignment notes (e-TTN) as an important priority for improving efficiency and reducing administrative burdens. This provided strong evidence that digitalization is not simply a policy objective, but a real business need. As a result, support for e-TTN adoption became one of the areas reflected in the project’s intervention logic.
Experience shows that businesses are not only beneficiaries of development programs, they are a valuable source of market intelligence. Their insights help identify where constraints exist, which solutions are most relevant, and where resources can generate the greatest impact. This makes interventions more responsive to market demand and significantly increases their chances of delivering meaningful and lasting results.
Looking beyond individual interventions, how can private sector engagement contribute to more inclusive and resilient market systems, particularly in complex contexts like Ukraine?
Ukraine’s context is unique. The country continues to operate under the pressures of a full-scale war, with transport and logistics infrastructure regularly affected by attacks and businesses facing significant workforce shortages. In this environment, resilience is not only about maintaining operations - it is about adapting to a rapidly changing reality.
One of the clearest examples is the labor market. As more men are mobilized into the army, companies are increasingly experiencing shortages of qualified workers. This is particularly evident in transport and logistics, where many technical and operational roles have traditionally been male dominated. As a result, employers are opening more opportunities for women to enter professions such as drivers, mechanics, and machine operators.
Many initiatives have already focused on training women for these professions. However, experience shows that training alone is often not enough. Sustainable inclusion requires understanding what happens after training and addressing the barriers that prevent women from entering and remaining in the workforce.
This is where private sector engagement becomes essential. Businesses help identify not only which skills are needed, but also what conditions are required for successful employment and retention. During our discussions with companies such as Nova Poshta and Technobud Group, employers shared practical insights about integrating women into technical roles - from workplace culture and mentorship to basic infrastructure such as changing facilities and working conditions that support a more diverse workforce.
Looking beyond individual interventions, private sector engagement helps create market systems that are both resilient and inclusive. When businesses actively participate in shaping workforce solutions, they help create pathways to employment that respond to real labor market needs while opening opportunities for underrepresented groups. In Ukraine’s recovery context, where rebuilding the economy requires every available talent and skill, this is not only a social objective - it is an economic necessity and a shared responsibility.
