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School of Geography and Planning

Accelerating sustainable urban development in post-socialist Europe

Dr Oleg Golubchikov identified policy gaps faced by post-socialist cities, placing challenges on international and national policy agendas and empowering change.

Blocks of flats in Serbia

A challenging history

The urban challenges met by Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries are numerous and complex.

These countries often encounter fragile urban economies, social and spatial inequalities, institutional deficits in urban administration and governance, outdated housing management and maintenance systems, and poor affordability of, and energy inefficient, housing.

However, historically, urban and housing challenges for Eastern European cities were not visible enough in United Nations (UN) international agreements, while in national-level strategies urban issues are also often neglected in favour of policies focussing on economic reforms and other sectors.

Dr Oleg Golubchikov collaborated with the UN in order to produce evidence-based policy guidelines for sustainable urban development in the region. This research underpinned UN policy-shaping and policy-implementation mechanisms and placed challenges faced by post-socialist countries more firmly on international and national agendas.

UN-commissioned research

Two UN bodies commissioned Dr Golubchikov to produce policy-led research.

  • UN-HABITAT (United Nations Human Settlement Programme), the UN body that promotes policies for urban and housing sustainability
  • UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe), a UN regional commission responsible for coordinating cooperation and policy transfer across its 56 member States, focusing on providing policy and technical assistance to countries with economies in transition

Cardiff University research helped the UN to identify key pressure points, dilemmas and priorities for sustainable urbanisation in ex-socialist nations by:

  • providing a knowledge base for understanding key vectors of change and the challenges post-socialist cities commonly share
  • demonstrating a lack of consistent and integrated urban and housing policies
  • and advocating for more socially and spatially inclusive forms of urban development and governance

The research also stressed the importance of addressing geographical disparities and place-based vulnerabilities in devising policies for transitioning more justly.

Informing landmark policy frameworks

Once key challenges facing cities in ex-socialist countries were identified, Cardiff University worked collaboratively with the UN to ensure these were tackled in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This work resulted in acknowledgment of specific challenges faced by Eastern European countries in the UN’s New Urban Agenda (2016), a milestone global framework of policies and standards required to achieve sustainable urban development.

The research also informed national action plans for sustainable housing in Serbia, Moldova, Tajikistan and Armenia.

Dr Golubchikov also shaped other UN-mediated international policy frameworks on inclusive and liveable sustainable cities, including the first UN policy framework on people-smart sustainable cities.

Dr Golubchikov’s research has been used in multiple other UN reports as their key knowledge base. These reports underpin the development of new technical guidelines for countries with economies in transition.

Dr Golubchikov’s academic research ... has been highly valuable to our work, providing robust research-informed analysis contextualising our understanding of the specific issues, challenges, and actions needed to address the current urban transformations experienced in these countries.
Head of the UN-HABITAT Project Coordination Office for Countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States

Meet the team

Key contacts

Dr Oleg Golubchikov

Dr Oleg Golubchikov

golubchikovo@cardiff.ac.uk
+44 (0)29 2087 9310

Selected publications

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