Municipal Enterprises as Drivers of Financing Sustainable Development in Ukrainian Communities

The aim of the article is to examine the role of municipal (communal) enterprises as key institutions for financing sustainable development in Ukrainian communities, analyze their functional capabilities, identify the main financial barriers, and propose approaches for assessing the investment attractiveness of communal enterprises in the context of implementing municipal sustainable development strategies. The focus is on the characteristics of communal enterprises as institutions capable not only of providing public services but also of serving as active executors of sustainable development strategies. It has been determined that communal enterprises possess the necessary legal, organizational, and technical prerequisites for implementing infrastructure initiatives in areas such as energy conservation, transportation, water supply, and waste disposal, which correspond to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The relevance of the research is determined by the increasing role of local self-government in the context of decentralization, the need to restore infrastructure due to military actions, the limitations of budget resources, and the growing interest in searching for innovative financing tools at the local level. At the same time, the results of the review of contemporary scientific literature indicate insufficient attention to communal enterprises as full-fledged participants in sustainable development processes – both in terms of attracting financial resources and in aspects of institutional capacity. The aim of the article is to substantiate the capability of communal enterprises to act as drivers of sustainable community development, to identify key barriers that limit their financial sustainability and investment attractiveness, and to formulate methodological approaches for a comprehensive assessment of the potential of communal enterprises in the context of attracting off-budget financing. In the process of the research, methods of content analysis of scientific publications, systematic-structural and comparative approaches to analyzing the financial-institutional role of communal enterprises (CE), as well as elements of ESG assessment were applied. Legislative, financial, and managerial factors that determine the operational efficiency of CEs were analyzed, as well as factors that reduce their investment attractiveness: unprofitable tariffs, low levels of transparency, lack of strategic financial planning, limited managerial capacity, weak tools for internal control and risk management. The outcome of the research was the formation of a conceptual approach to assessing the investment capacity of communal enterprises, which includes three main blocks: financial viability, operational efficiency, and compliance with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria. The emphasis is placed on the need to implement transparent financial practices, improve tariff policy, create internal credit ratings for public utilities, and attract international technical assistance.