This analysis focused on partnerships and cooperation between German and Ukrainian municipalities: where is it working well, who wants to intensify cooperative activities, and are there any areas where concrete action and support are needed? A public, non-profit organisation wanted answers to these questions in order to inform its future planning.

Traditional desk research cannot help here: there are hardly any informative articles on the subject in the local press, and municipal council information systems usually only contain basic information and budget decisions. An interactive approach was therefore required. We interviewed around 100 responsible municipal representatives – from the political leadership level to the administrative staff – about their experiences and assessments. Based on a questionnaire, we asked them about the current state of cooperation and future projects, but also about their satisfaction with existing support services and any potential gaps in these services. 

We then compiled and presented the responses from the interviews in a structured format. For specific individual aspects, we provided quantitative and/or qualitative analyses as well as individual deep dives. In a final presentation, we also showed our client in which areas the municipalities need more support for their town-twinning projects and which services they consider to be dispensable.