Starting from May this year, the scope of areas in which Germany cooperates with and provides assistance to Ukraine will be expanded to include support in advancement of decentralization reform by investing in rural healthcare facilities renovation.

Corresponding Finance and Project Agreement will be signed on 20 May in Kyiv by Mr. Kurt STRASSER, Country Manager Ukraine of Development Bank and the Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Mr. Andriy REVA and Executive Director of Ukrainian Social Investment Fund (USIF) Mr. Andriy LAKTIONOV.

Signing of the Agreement will give a ‘green light’ to implementation of earlier discussed and agreed ‘Promotion of Social Infrastructure Development. USIF VII’ Project. The aim of the Project is support to complex and ambitious medical reform launched in Ukraine in 2017 and envisaging, among other things, transformation and enhancement of public primary healthcare institutions functioning.  

To that end, German Government allocates through German State Development Bank KfW grant funds in the total sum of EUR 14.45 million to renovate and equip with modern medical devices approximately 60 - 70 primary healthcare centers, located in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia regions and government-controlled districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The Project is to be implemented by Ukrainian Social Investment Fund (USIF) by the end of the year 2022.

Since 2008 and until now German Government has provided though KfW more, than EUR 45 million of irrecoverable financial assistance for social infrastructure development in Ukraine. That has made it possible to renovate almost 450 social infrastructure objects, including schools, kindergartens, cultural and medical institutions, water pipes and buildings for housing of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

It worth mentioning, that previous, - USIF VI Project, aimed at provision of housing for IDPs and reconstruction of social infrastructure facilities in the Eastern regions of Ukraine was launched at the end of the year 2018 and is at the implementation stage.

The preceding USIF V Project, being at the stage of completion, has already allowed to provide housing for more, than 700 IDPs in Eastern regions of Ukraine and city of Lviv and create more, than 2600 new places for children in kindergartens, located there and Kyiv.

Considering positive previous experience of cooperation among all engaged parties, there is every reason to believe that the Project, aimed to support public primary healthcare institutions development will be a successful one as well.