At the ICMA Annual Conference in Tampa, Florida, I attended a session on disaster resilience with presenters from Ukraine. Following the presentation, during a brief chat they Invited me to attend Lviv. We exchanged contact details and worked on the possibility of visiting. While in Ireland for the ICMA Global Exchange in March 2026, I took the opportunity to accept the invitation from the delegates from Ukraine to visit Lviv. 

What I Learned from the Visit 

This is an experience that I will remember for many years. My safety was at the forefront of my hosts as they ensured I had downloaded the air alert app onto my phone; I knew where the shelter was located at the hotel and promised to go to the shelter when the alerts were activated. In total, during the five nights I was in Ukraine, the alert was activated six time (three of those were in one day, when I was visiting the facilities). 

Even though I was not escorted on Sunday, I did not feel unsafe during my walk and adventures around the historical city centre and then further afield when I walked to the park and the university. There is much to see and experience as a tourist, and Ukraine should be on your bucket list of places to visit when the full-scale war is over, and its sovereignty is fully restored within its internationally recognized borders. 

I was humbled every time that someone mentioned that I was very brave to attend Lviv and visit the city at this time. My response each time was that the residents of Lviv and Ukraine are living with this threat every day, I was only visiting for five days. Thinking they were much braver than II witnessed courage and resilience from everyone I met and from what I witnessed from the many residents moving around the city during my time in Lviv. 

During the visit, I had the opportunity to engage with two separate classes of students in the later years of their education, with one being the English class. This gave the students an opportunity to engage in English, hear my career story, and ask some questions. There was a request for me to connect the school in Lviv with one or two of the schools back here in Queensland to allow the classes to engage and interact with students in English.  

We are working with a couple of schools here in Townsville to engage with the schools in Lviv. 

Connection has been established with the principal at the school where some of our grandchildren attend here at home and I am reaching out to the schools in Lviv to ascertain what subjects and engagement would be of benefit to the children. 

Through regular quarterly check-ins with the people I met in Ukraine, I will be able to maintain connection between the school here at home and the team in Lviv. 

Since returning home I have documented the trip into an e-book that I will share via LinkedIn.  

The Local Government Structure of Lviv  

There are some similarities to Queensland, with the most notable that the councillors were volunteers and not paid as elected officials. Some also had positions within the council; one of the councillors was also a senior executive within Finance. There are similarities within the policy formation and setting the strategic direction for the council and the community. 

Lviv city councillors are elected by the community for a term of 5 years. They shape local policy, represent the interests of community residents, work in council sessions and with the constituents, and they also carry out these activities on a voluntary (unpaid) basis. 

The city mayor presides over the representative body and the executive bodies of the council. Roles are like those in local government in Queensland, the elected representative body represents the interests of residents, votes on council decisions, and defines the community’s policy while the executive body, implements the policy of the council, ensures day-to-day administration, prepares council decisions, and executes council decisions. 

Currently there are 64 councillors from five party factions. From 1990 to 1994 there were 154 councillors, from 2002-2006 there were 90 councillors, and since 2020 there have been 64 councillors. Councillors also work within the permanent committees of the council. These are bodies of the council elected from among its city councillors to study, preliminarily review, and prepare issues within its competence, and to oversee the implementation of decisions of the council and its executive committee. There are 13 such committees at Lviv City Council. 

Council has taken on additional responsibility as a direct consequence of the war. Funeral costs and the development of the memorial planned for the cemetery are costs that will be met by the council. 

Some capital works are delayed ensuring that day-to-day services continue to be provided. Careful planning is considered to ensure that road and street upgrades are not carried out that will require reworks to undertake upgrades below the road surface (i.e., water and sewer pipe upgrades). 

All new construction in Lviv requires the development and inclusion of a shelter, and adds additional costs onto the development, which is an additional direct cost of the unprovoked war. 

Plans in Place to Continue the Relationships Built During the Visit 

Over the five days, I connected with many people within council and across the community and have new connections via LinkedIn and Facebook. We maintain contact through social media and email. We are working on engagement between students here in Townsville in North Queensland and students from the schools in Lviv. Since returning home, I have also sought out some of the social media channels that are in Australia and Queensland that support Ukraine. 

Interested in discovering how community partnerships in Ukraine are driving resilience and how international collaboration can create meaningful local impact worldwide? Join us at the upcoming ICMA Annual Conference and be part of these thought-provoking sessions. You can learn more about these sessions here and here.