Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Social Investment Fund (USIF) adopted the new USIF Operational Manual and inspected the state of renovation of some objects located in the Kharkiv region

An extraordinary retreat meeting of USIF’ Supervisory Board was held on August 30, 2018 in the town of Dergachi, Kharkiv region. The main issue in the meeting’s agenda was the approval of the new USIF Operational Manual.

"By approving the new USIF Operational Manual, we complete the phase of the Ukrainian Social Investment Fund modernization, which lasted from last year. Since then Fund’s activities have become much more transparent, open and efficient. This opinion is shared by international donors, which provide additional grant funds for Ukraine to solve housing problems of internally displaced persons bearing in mind that USIF will act as an implementation agency and utilize these funds most purposefully and effectively ", - said Andriy Reva, Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine and USIF’s Supervisory Board Chairman.

Newly approved USIF Operational Manual contains sections, which have never been included in USIF OM earlier, namely:

• on integrity and anticorruption policy and principles;
• on internal assessment and monitoring of USIF activities;
• on rules and procedures for assessment of social and environmental impact of subprojectsimplementation.

"The new Operational has become a modern, clear and concise document that regulates all areas of the Fund's activities. The document approved today confirms USIF readiness to work transparently and in compliance with high standards o0and principles of integrity. It contains all necessary provisions and procedures that significantly modernize USIF’s activities in the procurement sphere. Relevant provisions have been developed by the Fund on the basis of the new procurement rules of the World Bank. We, with the support of the Supervisory Board, do our best to ensure that USIF's activities meet modern requirements for the implementation of international investment projects", - noted Andriy Laktionov, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Social Investment Fund.

USIF’ Supervisory Board members inspected renovation of social housing for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in urban village Zolochiv and in the town of Dergachi and noticed the high quality of corresponding renovationworks. In a few months after completion of the renovation works at the social dormitory in Zolochiv 56 IDPs will have got housing there. Another 72 IDPs would have got housing in the town of Dergachi.

Until mid 2019 in the framework of ‘Promotion of social infrastructure development. USIF V’ Project, which is implemented by USIF with the use of the grant funds of the German Government transferred through the German State Development Bank – KfW, 17 social housing facilities for 770 IDPs will have been created in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovs’k, Zaporizhzhya regions and in the city of Lviv. 5 social housing facilities have been already commissioned. 123 IDPs have been provided with social housing.

Soon the Ukrainian Social Investment Fund will launch a new project - ‘Promotion of social infrastructuredevelopment. USIF VI’, which is also aimed at provision of IPDs with social housing. Gratuitous financial assistance in the amount of 9 million euros is provided by the German Government (Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development - BMZ) through the German State Development Bank - KfW. Grant funds will be allocated to Dnipropetrovs’k, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv regions and districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are under control of Ukraine. The project will last for 4 years and help to get social housing for around 1,000 internally displaced persons.

Over the 18 years of its operation, Ukrainian Social Investment Fund and local communities have implemented more than 1200 micro-projects in all regions of Ukraine. More than 1.4 million Ukrainians have benefited from USIF’s projects implementation.