From sustained coordination to tangible projects: the UWP3 Platform in 2025

The UWP3 Platform is an initiative of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) managed and facilitated the platform from 2023 to 2025. Over the last three years, the platform has acted as a central coordination point where Dutch and Ukrainian companies, public institutions, and knowledge organisations have connected, exchanged expertise, and jointly developed collaboration strategies that support Ukraine’s water sector recovery.

The platform reached several milestones and showed continued growth despite a challenging operating environment, shaped by ongoing attacks in Ukraine and the early stages of recovery efforts. The scale and complexity of international recovery initiatives, combined with the need to align them with the specific requirements of the water sector, made mobilising and coordinating funding frameworks a major challenge. Achieving this required significant support, strategic alignment, and long-term network building. As recovery financing for water initiatives gradually aligned, concrete funding opportunities started to emerge. 

These years of effort shaped both the pace and form of engagement and enabled the establishment of strong foundational partnerships. They underscored the value of strengthening Dutch Ukrainian connections across the entire water management chain, facilitating the sharing of water expertise, the identification of key stakeholders, and the conditions necessary to sustain a long-term commitment to building a resilient water future for Ukraine.

Readiness as a starting point

The platform’s approach was shaped by developments in 2023, when NWP became coordinator of the UWP3 Platform. During this initial phase, the platform focused on establishing its structure, forming the water clusters and connecting with water sector stakeholders in Ukraine across different governmental levels and scales, as well as with international partners.

A baseline assessment conducted that year provided important insight into the state of engagement. At the time of its inception,  a large portion of platform participants wished to support the recovery in Ukraine, but had not had direct experiences in the country. In response, the platform engaged in extensive foundational mapping of interest and expertise, facilitated Dutch and Ukrainian matchmaking and supported the formation of consortia.  

This emphasis on readiness and partnership-building laid the groundwork for more structured collaboration in 2024 and enabled the shift towards concrete project development that became central in 2025.

Collaboration through Dutch-Ukrainian clusters

To organise the diversity of water-related challenges and expertise, the platform operated through five thematic Dutch-Ukrainian water clusters. 

These clusters provided a structured framework that linked demand in Ukraine with Dutch water expertise and water technology. They guided the process from initial requests through to solution development and project formulation, helping to address structural needs arising from war recovery. The clusters include:

• Water for Food: bridging the needs of water for agriculture and horticulture.
• Master Planning: supporting water infrastructure projects and municipalities in outlining water recovery projects.
• Lower Dnipro Basin Region Master Plan: a comprehensive water-oriented economic recovery plan of the Kakhovka area region.
• Water Quality and Supply Restoration: restoring quantity and quality of surface water and groundwater and providing drinking water and wastewater solutions, centralised and decentralised.
• Water Policy and Governance: supporting Ukrainian stakeholders in aligning water sector recovery and water policies with EU water mandates.

From consolidation to project development

During 2024, water cluster structures stabilised, the number of organisations participating in the platform grew beyond forty organisations and project ideas and project collaboration propositions began to emerge. That year also saw the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between European and Ukrainian benchmarking and water sector organisations, aimed at strengthening the performance and strategic capacity of Ukrainian water utilities. 

Building on this consolidation, 2025 marked a shift towards project development. Several consortia formed around the water clusters began engaging with Dutch and international Ukraine-focused funders and donors to identify funding partnerships for their initiatives.
Through a series of in-person and online meetings, including strategic discussions with the Netherlands Envoy for Ukraine Reconstruction, Joost Klarenbeek, the water clusters further strengthened their propositions. This progress was supported by pre-feasibility work and foundational initiatives funded by the Netherlands, including the RVO Cluster-based Approach instrument.
 

Outputs building cluster momentum

Master Planning 

In 2025, the UWP3 Master Planning water cluster advanced with the second phase of two of its master planning activities. The Carpathia region programme in Vynohradiv was continued by NGO Primavera, GOPA MetaMeta and a group of national, regional, and territorial community-level stakeholders in Ukraine. In parallel PosadMaxwan, Felixx Architects, Opora and the Klesiv Hromada continued with their development of a climate-resilient master plan for Klesiv municipality and the wider region. 

This work built on projects initiated in 2024, when Phase I of the Carpathia Master Plan delivered a pre-feasibility study and roadmap for a Tysa sub-basin in the Transcarpathian region, supporting integrated territorial planning in the Vynohradiv urban territorial community. In the same year, a master plan pre-feasibility study and pilot development were initiated for Klesiv Hromada, focusing on identifying planning needs.

Alongside these engagements, Panorama Ukraine – an UNUN initiative within the Master Planning water cluster – hosted a series of workshops on water in the Netherlands, in collaboration with UNUN, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, the College of State Advisors and the Delta Metropolis Association. In addition, one workshop was organised in Lviv.

Water for Food

In addition, the UWP3 Water for Food water cluster progressed with the development of an Investment Decision Support Tool for the Gradyzivska Water User Organisation (WUO) in the Poltava region. Implemented by GOPA MetaMeta and NGO Primavera together with a local Ukrainian team, including the Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation and Vodovid, the initiative brought local farmers and the WUO together to support decision-making aimed at offsetting war-related electricity damage through investments in solar energy and local water storage for irrigation.

Water Quality 

Within the UWP3 Water Quality cluster, further progress in 2025 resulted in the delivery of a surface water quality report, producing a shortlist of emergency intervention locations in cooperation with drinking water companies in Mykolaiv, Dnipro and Kyiv. This analysis built on a 2024 study on surface water quality deterioration in Ukraine. The study is based on remote sensing and conducted by LG Sonic and their Ukrainian partner VN Strategies.

Water Policy and Governance 

The UWP3 Water Policy and Governance cluster was established in response to a request from the Ukrainian government for support on EU policy harmonisation in the water sector. Its formation also built on contributions from a platform member involved in Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations, as well as on the National Policy Dialogue on water established in Ukraine by another platform member.

Despite being in an early phase, the cluster has already engaged key strategic partners across legal, public–private partnerships, financial and technical water consultancy. Together, these partners are identifying concrete entry points to respond to this request and support Ukrainian stakeholders in transitioning water policy and governance frameworks in line with EU standards.

International alignment and outreach

International engagement remained an integral part of the platform’s activities. Between 2023–2025 the platform and its participants engaged with organisations including the OECD in Brussels, UNICEF in Ukraine, GIZ in Bonn, the EIB in Luxembourg and the World Bank in Washington DC. Exchanges with European counterparts and similar initiatives in Germany, Finland and Denmark further supported alignment and knowledge exchange. These engagements enabled the expansion of partnerships with key European and international actors, establishing a solid basis for long-term cooperation and the many phases of recovery to follow.

The UWP3 contributed to and supported a working visit to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. The mission, led by Joost Klarenbeek, focused on Ukraine’s recovery and opportunities to deploy Dutch water expertise. During the exchange, the EBRD reaffirmed its strong commitment to financing resilient infrastructure in Ukraine through the Single Project Pipeline (DREAM) and public procurement channels, including its own portals and Ukraine’s Prozorro Platform. The EBRD also encouraged early engagement by Dutch companies in project preparation, consultancy and public–private partnership development. The UWP3 Dutch–Ukrainian water clusters presented their milestones and ongoing work. The visit marked a meaningful step in strengthening engagement with this key partner in Ukraine’s long-term reconstruction.

Several platform organisations participated in the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Warsaw, where water has gained increasing prominence on the agenda, including LG Sonic, Haskoning, Van Remmen UV Technology.
 

Broadening scope and expertise

This year, the platform also expanded its capabilities and participation, reflecting the breadth of water-related needs in Ukraine’s recovery. Engagement spanned emergency response through to long-term recovery. It brought together expertise in engineering and environmental consultancy, architecture and master planning for municipal needs and water infrastructure projects, water management for agricultural use, integrated water resources management, water technologies for purification and wastewater treatment, geospatial technologies, smart agriculture and irrigation, remote monitoring, desalination, water governance, financing for water, and river and sea dredging.

Navigating funding pathways

Although the UWP3 Platform does not provide funding directly, it supports participants in navigating recovery financing and procurement pathways. This includes aligning project development with available instruments, such as Ukraine Partnership Facility (UPF) managed by RVO.
 

Building momentum through partnership

Looking across the years, the UWP3 Platform demonstrates the value of sustained partnership-building at three key levels. First, with Ukrainian stakeholders who have a broad understanding of local needs. Second, with Dutch water sector partners who can, in complementary ways, support reconstruction efforts. Third, with European and international partners who, whether as funders or project partners, can enhance and scale impactful initiatives.

Where engagement in 2023 was largely exploratory, a stronger emphasis on readiness, matchmaking and structured collaboration enabled the development of tangible project pipelines in 2024. This foundation supported further consortium building and feasibility studies, leading to more targeted interventions and expanded international partnerships by 2025. By organising cooperation through thematic clusters, a spokesperson system and regular coordination at both strategic and technical levels, the platform supported sustainable progress.

Most of these key milestones have been the result of strong cross-agency and cross-sector cooperation, coordinated with the Dutch government’s Ukraine Recovery Envoys, Rodderick van Schreven, Erica Schouten and Joost Klarenbeek, and their teams. This collaboration also involved the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and its various teams working on Ukraine.

Sustaining impact over time

Continuing to position water as a core pillar of Ukraine’s recovery reflects a long-term perspective. Resilient water systems generate a strong multiplier effect, supporting public health, food security, strategic resilience, efficient energy use and overall economic stability. Sustained engagement by the Dutch water sector therefore represents a meaningful and practical contribution, combining technical expertise, partnership and shared responsibility to help rebuild systems that are robust, future-proof and capable of serving communities well beyond the immediate context of the war.

Throughout the facilitation of the UWP3 Platform, the role of NWP as Platform Manager has been to create the conditions for effective collaboration, strategic alignment and trust across a diverse and expanding network of partners. By providing structure, continuity and a neutral space for engagement, the facilitation team has supported the platform’s evolution from early exploration towards more coordinated project development and international cooperation. This work has laid a solid foundation that enables the platform to continue strengthening partnerships, advancing concrete initiatives and scaling impact under its next phase of management.

The UWP3 Platform was managed and facilitated by NWP during the period 2023 to 2025. As of 2026, the platform’s management and facilitation are being transitioned to its originator, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). This transition builds on the foundation established over the past years and ensures continuity in supporting collaboration and project development within the platform. The facilitation team can be reached at uwp@rvo.nl.