World Bank in Ukraine Announces the Small Grants Program-2005

February 11, 2005.

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    February, 10, 2005, Kyiv. Today the World Bank Country Office in Ukraine launched the Small Grants Program-2005.
    
    
    
    This year round of the Program will be carried out in partnership with the USAID project –Ukraine Citizen Action Network (UCAN). Mr. Dusan Vujovic, World Bank Country Manager for Ukraine, and Leslie McCuaig, UCAN Project Director, have signed the Memorandum of Partnership between the two organizations. As it is stated at this document, the World Bank and UCAN provide $35,000 each to a joint grant pool. Therefore, the Program will support civic initiatives of the NGO community in Ukraine with $70,000 in total.
    
    This year the Program will fund activities targeted towards youth and community development issues. Proposed projects should focus on engagement of youth in development processes on the local level, and enhance capacity of local communities. Preferences will be given to projects implemented in rural areas and small towns.
    
    “Civil society organizations perform a valuable role in engaging their fellow citizens, especially youth, to active participation in the community development process,”- Dusan Vujovic mentioned, - “And the international donor community joins its efforts in supporting the Ukraine’ new community development agenda. The World Bank highly appreciates partnership with the UCAN Project in a frame of the Small Grants Program. Joining together our financial resources with the highest professionalism of the UCAN team will expand the Program’s effectiveness in supporting of civic initiatives in the country.”
    
    “The UCAN project is interested in co-funding of the Small Grants Program since we share the same goal of promoting civic activism in Ukraine by supporting indigenous civil society organizations that use the power of civic activism to organize citizens and improve their communities. I believe that this program will effectively complement UCAN’s current work by reaching out to the citizens that most need our assistance.” - said Leslie McCuaig.
    
    An average size of the grant is between $1,500 and $5,000. Deadline for submission of applications is March 27, 2005.
    
    The application forms are available on the Country Office Web-page: www.worldbank.org.ua. There is also a possibility to order an electronic version of the application by sending a request to: mturyanytsya@worldbank.org.
    
    For more details on the Small Grants Program please, contact Yuriy Savko, Civil Society Activities Coordinator, or Maryana Turyanytsya, Consultant to the Third Sector Activities Team, by phone (044) 490-66-71/72/73.