Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity, and Council of Europe Development Bank scale up joint projects to support IDPs

Today, 26 November, Deputy Minister of Social Policy, Family and Unity Tetiana Kiriienko held a working meeting with Christian Tabacaru, Director of Lending and Social Development at the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB).

The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss scaling up joint projects with the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity in the field of social protection.

Tetiana Kiriienko thanked the partners for the payment of the second tranche of EUR 100 million under the project Support for internally displaced persons in Ukraine. The project, with a total cost of EUR 200 million, is aimed to strengthen state support for internally displaced persons, and to help them gradually integrate into their new communities.

"The Ministry and the state are now faced with an important task – to support communities that host internally displaced persons. In many regions, local services are under increased pressure, so it is crucial to develop long-term and flexible support mechanisms. It is precisely such support mechanisms provided by the EBRD that enable us to manage this task," she said.

Tetiana Kiriienko told partners about the national system of assistance for internally displaced persons, from living allowances and housing programmes to social services and the creation of temporary housing funds, including new support tools such as mortgage assistance and services for internally displaced persons with reduced mobility.

The parties agreed to develop new joint projects based on the priority needs of communities.