EBRD, EIB, World Bank to help State Agency for Restoration to create project implementation department

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), along with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the World Bank, agreed at Ukraine Recovery Conference in London to support the government of Ukraine in developing the institutional capacity of ministries and departments to prepare and support recovery projects.

"The first step will be focused on providing technical assistance and sector expertise in the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, to establish an effective Project Delivery Unit," according to the press release on Thursday.

International financial institutions said the scale of reconstruction is vast and beyond the needs of any single institution. The latest needs assessment by the World Bank and Ukrainian government puts the cost of reconstruction over ten years at $411 billion.

"To meet these needs, Ukraine must improve its implementation capacity for public sector projects so it can absorb and effectively use the large inflows of money which reconstruction can be expected to bring," according to the release.

It is envisaged that the approach taken at the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development could then be extended to other critical line ministries, state-owned companies and agencies, with intensive training of civil servants and the involvement of important international and local experts in key areas through transparent selection processes.