Promotion of social infrastructure (USIF V, Phase 1)

completed

This program is an urgent project in accordance with point 47 of the FZ/TZ guidelines. It consists of a flexible package of measures to support internally displaced people (IDPs) and the communities that host them in the three oblasts of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhiya. It includes buildings that can be used as accommodation for IDPs and must be prepared accordingly, as well as social infrastructure facilities (kindergartens or schools). In order to reduce potential conflicts between IDPs and the local population, two regulations were made to increase the attractiveness of the program for the communities. Firstly, the usual local financial contribution to finance the individual measures amounting to 20% of the total costs was eliminated. Secondly, the traditionally very popular measures in local kindergartens or schools can only be applied for as a package with a measure for IDP accommodation, i.e. anyone who applies for a property for IDP accommodation will be rewarded with a school or kindergarten renovation. In addition, the expansion of kindergartens and schools helps to alleviate the capacity bottlenecks caused by the influx of IDPs with large numbers of children. Implementation was entrusted to the Ukrainian Social Investment Fund (USIF), which has proven itself as the project sponsor of several comparable FC programs. The target group is the residents of the three oblasts mentioned above. The total cost of the program corresponds to the available FC grant funds of EUR 9 million. However, the need for funds to repair or energy-efficiently modernize social infrastructure in the program areas mentioned is many times higher than the EUR 9 million already pledged by the Federal Government from the 2014 budget.