Outpatient department at Odesa area hospital to improve services for 46,500 local residents

September 8, 2021

The European Investment Bank and the UN Development Programme join forces with local authorities to renovate and upgrade medical facility under the Ukraine Early Recovery Programme

Photo credit: Anastasia Voinikova / UNDP Ukraine

ODESA, Ukraine, 8 September 2021 – In seeking to ensure local residents have access to top quality healthcare in a modern facility, UNDP and the EIB today unveiled the interim results of the reconstruction of the outpatient department of a city hospital in Odesa Oblast. Due to the overhaul of the building, medical services will soon be provided more conveniently and efficiently for 46,500 residents of Odessa.

The modernization was conducted as part of the Ukraine Early Recovery Programme (UERP), with a soft loan of €4 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The programme is implemented by the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine together with local governments and UNDP technical support. Due in part to this support, five facilities are being modernized: the outpatient department of the City Hospital №8 and four schools (№31, №41, №39 and №49).

Nadiya Bondarchuk, Director of the Department for Priority Regional Development Projects Implementation of the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, noted that the modernization of the outpatient department of the City Hospital #8 in Odesa is in its final stage and “the result of this work is the evidence that the process of upgrading the country's medical infrastructure has not stopped and will continue, despite the COVID-19 crisis and the difficulties it creates”.

During the inspection of the facilities Serhiy Hrynevetsky, Governor of Odesa Oblast, said the partnership of local authorities with the European Investment Bank and UNDP to reconstruct health care facilities is “important for the region, and brings great benefit to the people of Odesa.”

The overhaul of the hospital building included the replacement of the roof and window blocks, repair of the façade, upgrading of all internal engineering measurements, and repair of internal premises.

UNDP Deputy Resident Representative to Ukraine Manal Fouani stressed that in all projects UNDP implements with international and national partners, it seeks to ensure the high possible standards of infrastructure modernization. “Improving social infrastructure to the highest possible level is important for the long-term development of cities and regions – and most importantly, to improve the quality of services received by citizens,” she said.

Roy Draycott, Senior Sector Specialist of the Regional Development Division at the Resident Representation of the European Investment Bank in Ukraine stressed that this year 46,500 residents of Odessa will receive quality medical care in the modernized outpatient department of the City Hospital №8. “The European Investment Bank invests in projects that are important to the European Union and that will provide Ukrainians with access to basic social services at the highest level.”

The Ukraine Early Recovery Programme has been operating in Odesa Oblast since the end of 2019. Thanks to its successful results in 2021, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ratified a new Financing Agreement worth €340 million to continue the activities for the next five years. These funds will be used to rebuild infrastructure and improve living and doing business in conflict-affected regions in eastern Ukraine, as well as to support the country's sustainable development as a whole.

Press contacts:

UNDP: Yuliia Samus, Communications Team Leader, UNDP Ukraine; email: yuliia.samus@undp.org, tel.: +380971391475

EIB: Olga Sushytska, email: o.sushytska@ext.eib.org and press@eib.org; tel.: +380672436355 and +352 4379 21000; Website: www.eib.org/press

Background:

About the EIB:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its member states. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals.

About the EIB in Ukraine:

The EIB has worked with Ukraine since 2007, where it is the main recipient country of EIB support in the Eastern Neighbourhood, accounting for more than 60% of EIB lending activity in this region. The bank focuses on social and economic infrastructure, transport and connectivity, local private sector development, energy efficiency, climate action, and innovation. Today, the EIB is one of the largest investors in Ukraine with signed projects of €7 bn.

About the Ukraine Early Recovery Programme (UERP):

The Ukraine Early Recovery Programme is implemented in accordance with the Financing Agreement between Ukraine and the European Investment Bank. Through the programme, the EIB provided €200 million in multi-sectoral framework loans to local authorities to rehabilitate important utilities and transport infrastructure and improve living conditions for internally displaced persons and their host communities in nine oblasts of Ukraine: the Ukrainian government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Odesa, Kherson, and Kyiv oblasts.

About UNDP in Ukraine:

UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and planet. In Ukraine, UNDP's work focuses on three programme areas: inclusive development, reconstruction and peacebuilding; democratic governance; energy and environmental protection. Today, Ukraine has one of the largest UNDP programmes in Europe.