“The socially vulnerable have suffered the most”, a comment from Iryna Novikova, Deputy Minister for Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, in reference to the SDGs in the opening segment of this interactive online event.

Tony Bonnici, Deputy Chief, PPP section, UNECE made reference to the need to be “Building Back Better” after the global pandemic of the last year.

“The People first approach to PPPs can identify innovative ways to find solutions for SDGs by engaging with the local community”, Amanda Loeffen, Human Right 2 Water

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) can be an important SDG financing mechanism for bridging investment gaps by mobilising private funds into infrastructure development.  The Ukrainian government is leading the way for monitoring the implementation of SDGs through its Governmental Programme adopted in July 2020 to outline human-centric policy priorities to provide a decent living for every Ukrainian, accelerate growth and attract foreign investment.

At the request of the government, a group of United Nations agencies are working together on an integrated response to optimise resource allocation towards national development ambitions in line with the SDG agenda.

The People-first PPP approach, developed by UNECE, is designed to put people’s interests at the core of the infrastructure development projects to generate ‘value for people. Applied in Ukraine it will align current and future PPP projects with the SDGs in line with the Presidential Decree.

As a first step, UNECE invited expert Tetiana Bessarab to present a gap analysis of the PPP legislation in Ukraine to assess its alignment with the People first approach to PPPs, at last week’s training webinar for the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine.

Following this step, UNECE is developing practical guidelines for People first PPP project identification and preparation for Ukraine. Introductions to the guidelines for stakeholder engagement and environmental resilience were presented by experts Amanda Loeffen (CEO, Human Right 2 Water) and Ananda Chiplunkar (former Director at Asian Development Bank).

The People first PPP discussion was moderated by Rumen Dobrinsky, Senior UNECE consultant.  Antonin Menegaux, UNECE PPP Section, introduced the People first PPP Evaluation Methodology for the SDGs. Draft People-first PPP Evaluation Methodology for the SDGs | UNECE