Organisations | New ways of working | HIV/AIDS | Energy | Why DFID is leaving | The future
At the end of March 2008, DFID closed its office in Ukraine. This marked the end of 17 years of aid - a period that has seen the former Soviet republic make real progress in reducing poverty, strengthening democracy and increasing opportunities for trade.
During our time in Ukraine, we supported many national partners and organisations that will continue to work towards the country’s economic and social development. For example, our work with the Kiev Mohyla School of Journalism and the chambers of commerce in Donetsk and Luhansk has led to better management skills and improved performance. Both chambers of commerce went on to achieve the ISO 9000 international quality standard.
New organisations were created and supported where they were most needed – for instance, service cooperatives in rural areas after the demise of collective farms, as well as credit unions in mining towns suffering from major closures. Some organisations, like the Local Development Agencies in Lvivoblast, have successfully developed a new market for their services.
Through our work, we helped create and strengthen:
Facing the worst AIDS epidemic in Europe, Ukraine struggled to mobilise adequate resources to respond to the disease. Led by the Global Fund, donor funding continued to increase rapidly, but no one assessed how much was being spent, by whom and on what.
In 2005, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Ukraine identified financial resource tracking as a priority for strengthening the national system for monitoring and evaluation. In collaboration with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and DFID, it recruited a consultant to collect and summarise data on financial expenditure on HIV/AIDS at the national level.
After extensive consultation, national partners opted to implement the National AIDS Spending Assessment (NASA), which is designed to track HIV/AIDS spending from education to prevention, condoms to programme management. The preliminary results showed that, surprisingly, the Ukrainian government is the largest source of funding. The data also indicated that resources for HIV/AIDS were larger than expected, but they still fell far short of what was needed.
DFID’s work is now winding down, but the work on NASA will continue. Thanks to our support, the Ukrainians finally know how much various services for HIV/AIDS really cost and can transform this information into a realistic national plan that is fully costed and budgeted.
DFID will also continue to support a number of programmes through contributions to key organisations. For example, we’re providing €5.5 million over three years (2007–10) to the €1.5 billion Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), of which a large proportion will be spent on projects in Ukraine (€162 million was spent in 2006).
To make local firms more competitive and environmentally friendly, the SEI seeks to enable the private sector to invest in energy efficiency. So far, DFID has approved €655,000 to SEI assignments in Ukraine – a third of the total committed so far. Projects funded include a €130,000 feasibility study and investment plan for a US$20 million loan by EBRD to the district heating company in Odessa. This will pay for the refurbishment of boilers and replacement of pipes.
Ukraine has a large potential for renewable energy, but current legislation doesn’t set out clear procedures for issues such as licensing and connecting renewable power plants to the electricity grid. Another DFID-funded SEI assignment is looking at how to develop Ukraine’s regulatory framework to support the renewable energy sector.
The UK’s decision to close its aid programme to Ukraine is in recognition of the significant progress that the country has made. Since the UK started providing aid in 1991, Ukraine has moved forward in a number of areas:
Now that Ukraine has moved from being a low-income country to become a middle-income one and has made significant progress in reducing poverty, DFID sees an opportunity to change the way it gives aid to the country.
Our successful ‘bilateral’ programme, through which we gave money direct to Ukraine, is only one mechanism to support the country as it grows and changes. Others include:
Most significantly, the UK, as a member state of the European Union, will continue to support the effective implementation of European Commission aid to Ukraine worth more than €120 million a year, mainly channelled through the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument. Over 17% of this – around €21 million – is provided by the UK as part of our share of the European Union budget.
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