In February 2022 Russia launched a renewed invasion of Ukraine—this time as a full scale war. After the successful defense of Kyiv and an impressive counter-offensive in late 2022, the front now runs through the southern and eastern oblasts of Ukraine. Despite those successes, war is still a reality throughout Ukraine. Frequent Russian air raids aim to damage and destroy both civilian targets and critical infrastructure even in places far away from the frontlines. Despite all of Russia’s efforts, Ukraine has proven to be an extremely resilient and tenacious nation. Ukraine’s digital and innovation ecosystems hold large potential to both address urgent humanitarian needs and to drive the country’s sustainable recovery in the medium to long term. The Tolocar project was initiated to support the full realization of this potential.
Why Tolocar[edit | edit source]
- Getting Started in Making: Key Terms
- Mobile Makerspaces
- Tolocars: Versatile Mobile Makerspaces
- Virtual Toloka: Distributed Manufacturing
- Crafting Resilience: The Ukrainian Maker Movement in 2022
Theory of Change[edit | edit source]
Partners[edit | edit source]
The Tolocar project aims to support both emergency relief activities and the development of a participatory innovation ecosystem for the socio-economic recovery of Ukraine. To achieve this, the project connects communities within Ukraine and globally, so that they can engage in distributed design and manufacturing activities. These connections are only made possible through collaboration among various partners who support the project. The Tolorcar project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federal enterprise with worldwide operations. It supports the German Government in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. GIZ is also engaged in international education activities around the globe. It assists people and societies in shaping their own future and improving living conditions.
HIWW is a leading consulting firm for value creation increasingly focused on openness, decentralization and sustainability. HIWW supports and accompanies organizations in breaking new ground in the areas of innovation, production and knowledge management. HIWW is the managing partner for the second phase of the Tolocar project.
MitOst has been connecting active citizens in an open and diverse network in Europe and its neighboring regions for years, and was managing administration, communication and networking during the first phase of the Tolocar project.
CADUS is a non-profit and independent aid organization with headquarters in Berlin which provides medical and technical emergency response in crisis-affected areas. In every aspect of their work, CADUS prioritizes local collaboration and capacity-building to provide effective aid, and openly shares solutions and innovations with the public. CADUS managed the first Tolocar during the initial project phase.
Global Innovation Gathering (GIG) is a vibrant, diverse community of innovation hubs, makerspaces, hackerspaces and other grassroots innovation communities. In the Tolocar project, GIG facilitates collaboration between Ukrainian and international makers. Together, they're co-designing essential open-hardware products, workshops, and service kits aimed at addressing local needs. Diverse teams from various countries collaborate on ideation, design, and testing. The outcomes will be shared on Appropedia, a widely recognized platform for accessible solutions, which allows individuals to access, replicate, and utilize projects and training kits worldwide.
Insha Osvita is a non-governmental organization that works with culture and art as forms of collective learning and exchange, and creates and uses spaces for this. This aspect is also very important in the Tolocar project: through diverse, holistic and living learning from each other, people develop more trust in themselves and others, and join together to strengthen themselves and their communities.
MakerHub has been convening the Ukrainian maker movement through offline meetings and events, as well as online community calls for a decade. They are the Ukrainian organizers of internationally acclaimed maker conferences and festivals such as Maker Faires and RepRap Festival. MakerHub to date has supported the Tolocar project with extensive research into the Ukrainian maker movement, including stakeholder mapping as well as capacity and needs assessments.
MetaLab is a laboratory for urban development in Ivano-Frankivsk. Since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion, they not only provide a safe space for their colleagues from Kyiv and the east of the country to work, but also develop new projects. One of them is CO-HATY, in the course of which a total of six abandoned apartment buildings and hotels are being renovated and transformed into shelters for internally displaced persons. What's special: The renovations are carried out by local organizations and many volunteers together with the IDPs themselves, which also creates new friendships.
Ostriv Platform, a community makerspace in Kyiv, has been helping diverse communities in Ukraine build spaces for exchange - and grow together as communities – for years. They are now developing new construction projects like shelters in Kyiv, as well as scalable project ideas such as the development of ecological sanitation solutions for host communities in rural regions in western Ukraine.
