The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved additional funding for Ukraine in the amount of $1.49 billion as part of the Public Expenditure Support for Sustainable Governance in Ukraine project, the bank said on its website on Wednesday night.
“The funds from this project will be used to pay the salaries of civil servants and teachers,” the release notes.
According to him, the project received financial guarantees from the UK, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Latvia; parallel funding from Italy and expected future guarantees including Denmark.
The project is also co-financed by contributions to a new multi-donor trust fund (MDTF) from several countries, including Switzerland.
“The World Bank Group continues to take swift action to support Ukraine and its people during the war that is destroying the country,” World Bank Group President David Malpass was quoted as saying.
According to him, the World Bank is working with donor partners to mobilize the necessary financial support and using the flexibility of various existing financial instruments to help provide Ukrainians with continuous access to medical services, education and social protection.
“Sustaining these essential services and the government’s ability to provide them is important to prevent further deterioration of living conditions and poverty in Ukraine, given the suffering already caused by the war,” said Arup Banerjee, WB Regional Director for Eastern Europe. He added that maintaining effective government capacity will be the foundation of any recovery and reconstruction in the future.
The bank recalled that this new financing is part of a support package of more than $4 billion that the WB is mobilizing, and about $2 billion of these funds have already been disbursed.
Since Ukraine joined the World Bank in 1992, the bank’s commitments to the country have reached almost $16 billion in about 90 projects and programs, including the project adopted today.
