Hanna Mezhyrytska is a pensioner and an internally displaced person (IDP) from Lysychansk, Luhansk region. She now lives in Lviv in Mariapolis, a camp of prefabricated housing for displaced Ukrainians.
Despite all the chaos and hardship caused by the war, receiving her pension has been one constant for Hanna.
“I have been retired for 18 years. No lags, all payments are stable. I receive UAH 4300. That's enough for now. I want to go home to my own house. We hope that our Ukraine will be liberated, and we will go home,” says Hanna Mezhyrytska.
Hanna is among 13 million Ukrainians who are supported by the government programs and services, funded through the World Bank’s Public Expenditures for Administrative Capacity Endurance (PEACE) Project.
The PEACE project helps the Government of Ukraine sustain critical government services and core government functions across the country. Providing budget support to keep the government running and to provide minimal essential services is critical, because otherwise it will become much more expensive to rebuild and recover the economy and more people could fall into poverty. Almost $20 billion has been mobilized through the PEACE Project as of June 22, 2023.
Beneficiaries of the PEACE project include 10 million pensioners, 500,000 education employees, 145,000 government employees, 56,000 first responders, and more than 3 million recipients of social assistance and IDPs.
Iryna Merkulova is an internally displaced person from Kharkiv, who now lives in Poltava. This is the second war she and her daughter Nino have experienced.
“This is already the second war – we had a panic again. I went out [came back in] from the balcony, and she [Nino] was already dressed just took a jacket and documents. We ran. On the first day of the war, we were in the metro. We never returned to our home and arrived in Poltava with just one handbag. Our residential building in Kharkiv was hit five times. Our flat is on the first floor. It remains intact, but the house itself has no gas, electricity, and water,” says Iryna Merkulova.
“In 2008, we were in Gori, Georgia, when they bombed there. Nino was two years old, I told her that uncles let off fireworks. I thought that everything would just pass. We visited a psychologist. It turned out that the war was not in vain. When Nino started to grow up, she started to fear fireworks,” Iryna explains.
The IDP payment Iryna receives is a significant part of the family budget. She also receives a separate payment for her daughter.
“These sums are small, but to some extent, this is a supplement to the budgets that we have and earn. And, of course, thanks a lot for this. If they were to be taken away, well, it would be quite bad and difficult.”
In addition to providing payments to pensioners and IDPs, the PEACE project has helped keep schools open and sustain health services. Whether operating remotely, holding in person classes or relaying on a blended mode, some 12,817 schools remained open in 2022, according to data from Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science from December 2022. Also, 2,431 health service providers remained operational throughout 2022.
In general, the PEACE project has helped ensure that the salaries of school employees, public services officials and university staff have been paid almost in full.
The PEACE project design is simple. After the government agencies pay pensions, social assistance, and salaries, the World Bank reviews verification reports that the payments were paid. Once confirmed, the Bank reimburses the Ministry of Finance. This helps to ensure that the Bank and its partners know that the Government of Ukraine is funding the agreed expenditures and recipients. The PEACE project transactions regularly audited and verified. Individuals can also report if they are owed specific payments and if they have not been paid.
The PEACE project is an integral part of the international support to enable Ukraine to meet its financing needs. The World Bank continues to mobilize financing under the PEACE project to help the Government of Ukraine honor its essential social expenditures, limit damage to Ukrainians’ living standards, and restore and rehabilitate Ukrainians’ personal incomes and opportunities by sustaining the purchasing power of families for their basic needs.
In June 2023, the World Bank announced an additional $1.765 billion for the project.
However, even with significant Bank financing and the development partners’ pledge to continue supporting Ukraine, the country’s financial needs are enormous, and will remain so in the foreseeable future.
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The World Bank Group has now facilitated more than $37.5 billion in emergency financing in support of the people of Ukraine, including commitments and pledges from donors including: the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Iceland, and Belgium. As of June 22, 2023, almost $20 billion has been mobilized through the Public Expenditures for Administrative Capacity Endurance (PEACE) Project.
Related Projects
- Public Expenditures for Administrative Capacity Endurance (PEACE) in Ukraine
- Additional Financing for PEACE in Ukraine
- Second Additional Financing for PEACE in Ukraine
- Third Additional Financing for PEACE in Ukraine
- Fourth Additional Financing for PEACE in Ukraine
- Fifth Additional Financing for PEACE in Ukraine
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