When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Salzburg Global Seminar opened its facilities as a place of refuge for Ukrainian Fellows, their families, and friends who were fleeing the war, providing them accommodations, meals, and office support. Several of those who found refuge at Salzburg Global Seminar are active across the Ukrainian civil sector and Ukrainian-European civil society networks and encouraged Salzburg Global to create programming to support Ukrainian civil society, especially women’s organizations.
To address this need, in July 2022, Salzburg Global Seminar convened Ukrainian civil society leaders alongside other regional civil society groups, policymakers, development agencies, and funders. The program provided a safe retreat to strategize and consider options for how to support Ukrainian civil society in the face of an uncertain and complicated future. The program provided a vital opportunity to elevate the voices of Ukrainian women’s and civil society organizations and support their connections to one another and to international political and development leaders. The program resulted in the Salzburg Statement of Ukrainian Civil Society, which outlines the crucial role of civil society in winning the war and rethinking Ukrainian reconstruction.
Building on the priorities set out in that Statement, Salzburg Global Seminar continues to provide support through our Ukraine Civil Society Forum, which is designed to help carry forward these objectives and to support the role of civil society as a key sector not only during wartime but also in the physical and political reconstruction and any peace and reconciliation efforts in Ukraine.