Performance Report Highlights: Ukraine

FY 2010 Foreign Assistance Goals

The goals for U.S. Government (USG) assistance remain to strengthen Ukraine’s institutions and support democratic, economic and social reforms which will enhance the country’s ability to be a key U.S. partner and a model for its neighbors. In FY 2010, USG assistance programs worked to advance democracy by increasing government transparency, accountability and responsiveness to citizen needs; strengthening the rule of law; fighting corruption; promoting democratic political processes; and strengthening civil society and independent media. USG assistance also sought to bolster economic growth and market reform. To promote peace and security, USG programs continued to support reform for Ukraine’s law enforcement and judicial systems while actively engaging with Ukraine’s military through NATO and other exercises, thereby addressing their training and capability needs. The USG also continued to help remediate the Chornobyl nuclear facility to a safe condition. USG-supported municipal heating reform projects promoted energy security, independence and efficiency at the national level. FY 2010 USG aid focused on social needs in Ukraine as well, with projects targeting health care reform, Ukraine’s HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics, and trafficking in persons. Targeted assistance was provided to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, with programs for strengthening non-governmental organizations (NGOs), engaging youth, promoting business development, and reforming local government; and the donation of medical equipment and supplies.

Total FY 2010 Foreign Operations Appropriated Assistance: $117.93 million*

(*Foreign Operations funding appropriated for FY 2010, not including Peace Corps funding and centrally managed, regional Foreign Operations funding that is not budgeted for specific countries. Humanitarian Assistance total does not include the value of donated humanitarian commodities transported by the Department of State, estimated at $33.07 million in FY 2010.)

Highlights of FY 2010 Performance by Area of Focus

Peace and Security

-- The U.S. is the lead nation for Phase I of the NATO Partnership for Peace Trust Fund Project to Destroy Munitions, Small Arms/Light Weapons (SA/LW) and Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) in Ukraine. Phase I (initiated in 2006) planned the destruction of 15,000 tons of conventional munitions, 400,000 SA/LW, and 1,000 MANPADS by December 31, 2008. SA/LW destruction was suspended in April 2008 as the GOU tried to re-categorize the SA/LW. The Government of Ukraine (GOU) finally released the remaining SA/LW for destruction in June 2010. Work is currently underway to complete Phase I by April 30, 2011.

-- In 2010, 529 newly-registered victims of trafficking (VoTs) received direct reintegration assistance from USG-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Additionally, 138 VoTs received specialized job-skills training, with 31 of them awarded grants to carry on income-generating activities. Over 140 VoTs attended in-depth business training, with 47 graduates receiving grants to start up micro-enterprises. In the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the USG provided job-skills training for VoTs and at-risk groups. The program assisted 21 Crimean victims, including 14 men and seven women, among them five Uzbek nationals who suffered from labor exploitation.

-- According to Ukraine’s Border Guards, USG-provided risk and criminal analysis training resulted in nine criminal group leaders and their accomplices being arrested. These individuals had smuggled groups of illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Palestine from Russia via Ukraine, and were reportedly headed for European Union (EU) countries.

-- The USG worked to enhance the GOU’s capability to interdict weapons of mass destruction (WMD) material and other terrorist contraband by providing equipment explosive and drug detection equipment, field detection systems, radiation detection systems and training to border and customs agencies. A total of 65 State Customs Service (SCSU) officers attended training in Commodity Identification, nine Ecological Officers from the Ministry of Environmental Protection attended radiation training in the United States, and nine SCSU managers visited Customs and Border Protection facilities in the United States. Leadership training was provided to 57 senior State Border Guard Service officers.

-- After having been placed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist in February 2010, Ukraine passed an anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing law in May that USG-funded experts helped to draft.

Governing Justly and Democratically

-- The USG helped train over 750 justice-sector personnel, including 578 judges, on ethics and judicial misconduct, including a training-of-trainers component which built the capacity of 80 in-country trainers to train additional judges on five legal training modules. USG programs also worked with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to increase their role in court monitoring. This year, NGOs expanded their watchdog efforts from 89 courts to 99 courts. According to USG experts, 37 of the 99 monitored courts improved their operations by implementing the NGOs’ recommendations.

-- The USG helped Ukraine’s Parliament (the Rada) to conduct four Parliamentary hearings, six committee hearings, two committee field hearings and 40 roundtables with the participation of NGOs. With USG assistance, 75 young people completed ten-month internships in 28 parliamentary committees and departments, as well as in five ministries and the Presidential Administration. Forty-six participants in USG-sponsored training on legislative drafting reported that they applied their new skills to 804 policy issues this year.

-- Since 2007, the USG and Ukrainian authorities have worked to reform Ukraine’s university admission system by introducing mandatory standardized external testing and making admissions more transparent, thereby helping to reduce corruption. Over one and a half million tests were administered in 2010 and recent surveys show that the testing has led to a major reduction in corruption in admissions. Less than one percent of high school graduates and parents whose children took the tests said that they encountered corruption in the process.

-- USG support for over 470 international and 1,000 domestic monitors contributed to the integrity of Ukraine’s presidential elections in 2010, which was recognized by observers as having met most international standards for democratic processes. A coalition of NGOs supported by the USG carried out a quick count, which provided a statistically valid early projection of voting results from a random sample of polling stations around the country, among other activities. USG assistance helped to improve the communications strategies of the NGO coalition, whose findings were cited in more than 1,000 media clips, including the BBC.

-- The USG supported the development and dissemination of independent analysis of the shortcomings of a new law on local elections passed in July 2010. This contributed to the President’s efforts to change problematic portions of the law, thereby allowing political party branches registered less than one year prior to the elections to run and expanding representation in election commissions to political parties not represented in parliament. Ukrainian political parties recognized that awareness raised as a result of USG-supported analysis had a concrete impact on these amendments and helped younger parties regain the right to participate in local elections.

-- A variety of USG programs strengthened independent media and increased access to information. For example, the USG supported the “Stop Censorship” movement, which engaged 600 media and civic representatives to draw attention to pressure on journalists. Another USG program sent 16 Ukrainians to the United States and eight Americans to Ukraine to share best practices, resulting in improved reporting content and increased revenue collection by the Ukrainian media outlets.

Investing in People

-- The USG supported the development of a public communications strategy for reaching vulnerable children at risk for contracting HIV and promoted prevention services, which reached more than 164,000 adults and children. In addition, USG assistance helped the GOU substantially improve tuberculosis (TB) testing and reach World Health Organization (WHO) standards in approximately 66% of TB laboratories in 10 pilot regions.

-- USG assistance helped strengthen maternal and child health standards, guidelines, and services. USG-promoted practices became available at 29 facilities that provided active management of the third stage of labor and essential newborn care in more than 197,000 cases (representing a 30% increase) across Ukraine during 2010. The improved services helped increase successful deliveries made without medicines from 82 to 85% in FY 2010.

-- USG assistance helped expand the availability and voluntary use of modern family planning (FP) methods to reduce abortions and promote reproductive health in 13 provinces, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (ARC) and Sevastopol City. Official data released in 2010 showed a one-percent decline in induced abortions per 1,000 live births from 357 to 350 in FY 2010. USG assistance was used to increase demand for modern FP methods and demonstrate advantages of FP over abortion. Activities, which included mass media, special events, individual counseling sessions, and targeted public awareness campaigns, brought modern FP/RH information to almost 9.9 million people, including almost 1.4 million people in the ARC.

-- USG funding provided 43,321 individuals with quality HIV counseling and testing services in 2010, reaching high risk groups and TB smear-positive individuals, including prisoners. USG programs reached over 130,000 injecting drug users, 17,225 people involved in commercial sex work, 15,894 men who have sex with men, and 1,218 street children.

Economic Growth

-- The USG worked with the EU and the World Bank to guide the development of a new procurement law through extensive commentary and coordination within the GOU. The new procurement law, signed in June 2010, conforms to the upcoming EU-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement. Moreover, the law enabled Ukraine to meet a key benchmark for international financial institutions; thereby unlocking millions in budget support (43 million euros in EU grants and $500 million in World Bank financing). Implementation of the law in the coming year will require continued work.

-- The USG helped cities and villages across Ukraine, and particularly in the ARC, to attract foreign direct investment through the creation and implementation of strategic economic development plans. USG programs worked with 86 local authority partners to develop 25 separate strategies, 12 of which were adopted by municipal councils and signed into local law. USG programs trained 212 local officials to manage investment attraction activities, strengthened the cadre of municipal economic development officials through networking events, and provided assistance for industrial park development and land allocation. By the close of FY 2010, municipal partners trained by the USG attracted $38 million in green field foreign direct investment, despite the economic crisis.

-- USG assistance to establish a government debt market helped raise the equivalent of over $7 billion domestically, including about $2 billion for reimbursement of value-added tax (VAT) arrears. USG assistance also helped build a yield curve that serves as the benchmark for the pricing of other fixed-income securities in Ukraine, with interest rates declining from an average 23% to 9% in one year. The USG facilitated the issue of $2 billion worth of Ukrainian Eurobonds, and expanded the distribution of a USG-produced, weekly publication on activities affecting the government debt market.

-- In 2010, the USG facilitated the sale of 8,800 tons of fruits and vegetables valued at nearly $5.2 million. In the ARC, USG assistance also targeted agriculture and tourism. USG assistance facilitated the sales of almost 9,500 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables in the ARC valued at over $5 million.

Humanitarian Assistance

-- The USG provided funding for structural repairs of a school for orphans in Donetsk, a hospital in Lugansk, and a health clinician Portovskoye. A major hospital project facilitated the delivery of over $22 million in donated medical equipment and supplies to hospitals in the ARC.