HIGHLIGHTS
- Strengthening planning, governance and economic empowerment in response to the war in Ukraine
- Collaboration with reformers on politically astute technical assistance/policy support
- Strengthened countries that have open, inclusive institutions, economies, and societies
The Challenge
Our joint challenge with domestic reform owners was to:
- Pivot to a response to the outbreak of war in Ukraine and support war recovery efforts
- Reform regulation of the business environment and economic governance to promote broad-based economic growth and job creation
- Build institutional capacity to improve governance, public administration, and management of public finances
- Implement anti-corruption measures and judicial reform to strengthen the rule of law
- Modernize key sectors and reform state-owned enterprises to support transition to market-driven, modern economies
- Help country partners address immediate and long-term effects of COVID and malign geo-political influences.
The Approach
In support of the Good Governance Fund, Abt’s approach is to deliver a flexible, scaled, and mixed project portfolio that adapts to contextual changes and responds to emerging trends, issues, and opportunities to catalyze reform processes. The program originally targeted governance across Eastern Europe including Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine and helped integrate international technical expertise with an intimate understanding of local need from our Kyiv Ukraine Hub. Our assistance has now pivoted to focus support in Ukraine and is responsive and appropriate, promoting sustainable local ownership. We work with the UK government through embassies and stakeholders to reflect the priorities of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The Results
It has long been said that, in war, no plan survives the first contact with the enemy. It is also true for plans to improve governance. When war broke out in Ukraine and the environment changed radically, Abt’s Good Governance Fund Technical Assistance Facility Eastern Partnership (GGF TAF EP) project applied our adaptive management approach to respond in a variety of critical areas, including economic recovery, energy policy, and war damage assessment.
Among the ongoing impactful work of the team in Ukraine, Abt has:
- Supported an analysis of the SME sector and policies, including an SME Support Strategy. Those policies suggested ways to address the institutional problems and practical challenges faced by SMEs led by women and underserved individuals and included gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) indicators in monitoring and evaluation.
- Helped update the outline of the SME Support Strategy to include post-war recovery needs and budget estimates. The strategy focused on the needs of unoccupied regions and underserved individuals such as disabled veterans and female veterans, family members of those Missing in Action, and internally displaced persons.
- Piloted export support initiatives. The project team selected twenty (20) SMEs and promoted their exports by developing an online Ukrainian Exporters Catalogue for each SME with dedicated pages about their business and the goods they produce. GGF TAF EP also supported promotional activities in the Polish market.
- Supported the Ministry of Energy with models, data, capacity development workshops, and energy-relevant updates to the National Recovery Plan. We also helped draft the implementation plan for the ESU2025. The ESU2050 has been adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on 21 April 2023.
- Conducted war damage assessment and joined the National Council for the Recovery of Ukraine from the Consequences of the War, a consultative and advisory body that reports to the president to support recovery planning and implementation.
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