The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food and the World Bank plan to expand cooperation in the development of Ukraine’s agribusiness sector.
The agreement was reached following talks between Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitaliy Koval and World Bank Managing Director for Operations Anna Bjerde, the ministry’s press service reported.
According to the report, the parties agreed to expand cooperation in three areas: preparing analytical data for decision-making in the agribusiness sector; institutional support for the Ministry of Agrarian Policy with a focus on integration into EU policies and standards; implementation of programs for more than 200,000 small and medium-sized farmers as the basis for Ukraine’s agricultural sustainability.
“Our goal is not only to preserve but also to transform Ukrainian agriculture in line with EU standards and opportunities. And the advocacy platform provided today by the World Bank team in Vienna is actually the key to faster and more successful European integration,” Koval emphasized.
In addition, during the meeting with World Bank representatives led by Regional Director for Sustainable Development in Europe and Central Asia Sameh Wahba, the possibility of deepening cooperation in the field of irrigation was discussed. In particular, they talked about restarting the irrigation system development plan to get help in more regions of Ukraine.
The World Bank (WB) Board of Directors has approved additional financing for Ukraine in the amount of $84 million for the HOPE project to rebuild housing damaged by Russian aggression, according to the website of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine.
“Ukraine will receive $84 million in additional funding from the World Bank for the project “Housing Repair for the Restoration of People’s Rights and Opportunities (HOPE). The funds will be used to restore housing damaged by Russian aggression under the ‘eRecovery’ program,” the statement said.
It is noted that on May 15, an agreement on additional funding between Ukraine and the International Development Association was signed by Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine – Minister of Community and Territorial Development Oleksiy Kuleba and World Bank Regional Director for Eastern Europe Bob Som.
The Ministry of Finance noted that the World Bank’s Board of Directors approved the decision on May 9.
It is expected that this funding will enable more than 25,000 households to repair their homes.
The NORE project aims to address urgent and critical needs for the repair of partially damaged individual and multi-family residential buildings in communities controlled by the Ukrainian government that have been affected by the Russian Federation’s aggression.
As reported on April 18, Ukraine will get $84 million from the World Bank as part of the HOPE project. The Cabinet of Ministers made this decision on April 18.
The World Bank will provide Ukraine with $70 million in grant funding to support the stability of the national energy system, according to a statement posted on Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal’s Telegram channel on Friday.
“The agreement was signed on Thursday in Washington with World Bank Managing Director Anna Bjerde,” the statement said.
The funds will be used to purchase energy storage systems for the company Ukrhydroenergo. This will allow the creation of electricity reserves and strengthen the country’s energy security.
“We thank the World Bank and all partners for their support to Ukraine’s energy sector, which has suffered significant damage as a result of Russian attacks,” Shmyhal wrote.
Ukraine has received $50m from the World Bank under the health care project “Transforming Health Care through Reform and Investing in Efficiency” (THRIVE), the Finance Ministry has said. It noted that the condition for receiving these funds was to raise the level of the capital rate of primary health care (payment for care of one patient who filed a declaration on the choice of a doctor who provides primary health care) to a minimum of 825 UAH, and according to the government decision of December 2024, such rate for 2025 is 844.4 UAH instead of 786.65 UAH in 2024.
THRIVE is one of the projects implemented using the financial instrument “Program for Results” (PforR), which provides for the achievement of indicators, upon verification of which Ukraine will attract funds determined by the relevant agreements, said the Ministry of Finance.
The purpose of the project is to assist the government in improving the Medical Guarantee Program (MGP) to create a reliable health care system. The Loan Agreement and Financing Agreement totaling $449 million were signed on December 10, 2024, of which $249 million was provided by Japan. Last year, Ukraine has already received $220 million, which is stipulated in the Loan Agreement (100% of the disbursed funds).
The World Bank’s Board of Directors on Saturday night in Kiev approved a new $432 million support package “Building Resilient Infrastructure in a Vulnerable Environment in Ukraine (DRIVE)” aimed at helping the government improve the resilience of the national road network and operational efficiency in the transport sector.
The Bank told Interfax-Ukraine that DRIVE complements the existing project “Rehabilitation of Essential Logistics Infrastructure and Network Connectivity (RELINC)”, under which modular road bridges were delivered and 200 flatcars were manufactured to increase Ukrzaliznytsia’s freight capacity and export capability.
The World Bank noted that Ukraine’s transportation infrastructure has suffered significant damage since the war began in February 2022, disrupting key import and export routes. According to the recently published Rapid Damage and Recovery Needs Assessment (RDNA4), road infrastructure in the transport sector has suffered the most damage: 58% of the transport sector; 30% of state roads and bridges, 11% of local roads and bridges, and 17% of municipal roads suffered significant damage.
DRIVE financing includes a $212 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) under the ADVANCE Ukraine (ADVANCE Ukraine) Trust Fund, which was supported by the Government of Japan. The financing also includes a $210 million loan from the Special Program for the Recovery of Ukraine and Moldova (SPUR) and a $10 million grant from the Ukraine Support, Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reform Trust Fund (URTF).
The project will be implemented by the State Agency for Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Development of Ukraine.
The project page on the Bank’s website notes that it has three components, the first of which is the preservation of the national road network. This component includes two components. The first, a $270.48 million investment for national roads, finances the design, execution, and supervision of construction works aimed at maintaining certain sections of national roads in proper operational condition, including through operational maintenance, major road repairs, and major bridge repairs.
The second component, National Roads and Road Transport Reform, allocates $90 million for transportation sector performance with a results-based approach.
The second component for $39 million is periodic maintenance of the national road network, it also has two components: installation of emergency modular road bridges and climate-smart preservation of key links in the road network.
The third component is technical assistance and project management, which also has two components: technical assistance and project development ($9 million URTF grant), which complements the investment-oriented components, and project management ($1 million URTF grant), which finances eligible costs for implementation and project management support, training, and knowledge sharing.
Ukraine’s state budget has received $235 million in concessional financing from the Government of Japan under the World Bank’s new systemic projects, the Resilient, Inclusive and Environmentally Balanced Enterprise (RISE) and the Increasing Access to and Resilience of Education in Crisis-affected Ukraine (LEARN).
As the Ministry of Finance reported in a press release on Wednesday, the RISE program received a $130 million loan that will be used to address critical issues that hinder the growth and sustainable development of the private sector.
The Ministry clarified that the $105 million in Japanese funds received under the LEARN project is the result of the Ukrainian government’s implementation of measures to ensure safe face-to-face learning in schools by providing subventions for shelters and school buses in 2024.
The projects are implemented using the Program-for-results (PforR) financial instrument, when funds are allocated after Ukraine has achieved some of the results.
The Ministry of Finance noted that by the end of 2024, Ukraine expects to raise another $120 million and $95 million under RISE and LEARN, respectively.
