“Restoring Donbas” and its partners signed a Memorandum on restoring and development of Donbas and Ukraine

22:12 / 10 Dec. 2015 / 1031

Today, on December 10, 2015, “Restoring Donbas and Ukraine” Forum was held in Kiev in the international day of human rights protection. Community initiative “Restoring Donbas” (founded by Oleksandr Klymenko),Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Management of Policy, Institute for Strategic Studies “New Ukraine” became initiators and co-organizers of the Forum.

Organizers of the Forum set the object to create a public platform on searching the ways of Donbas restoring and social, economic development of Ukraine in modern conditions.

More than 150 speakers and participants took part in the Forum — representatives of authorities, public, the expert and scientific area, business, in particular, UNICEF, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young. During the Forum, Elena Petryayeva – the head of community initiative «Restoring Donbas» – presented program document “12 steps to peace, restoring and development of Donbas and Ukraine”.

“Nowadays, we start to work on incorporation of our efforts in order to develop a Strategic plan for the reintegration and rehabilitation of Donbas, which can become the foundation for a unified national program in future. I believe that it is very important not to lose time and to use our efforts and capabilities for the sake of creating a unified plan of action “, – she said.

The participants of the Forum have fixed their intentions in Memorandum of Cooperation and collaboration. By today, Memorandum has been signed by the community initiative “Restoring Donbas”,Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Management of Policy, Institute for Strategic Studies “New Ukraine” and the Institute of social protection of citizens.

In its turn, Elena Petryayeva – the head of community initiative «Restoring Donbas» – emphasized that all, who want to take part in practical work on restoration of Donbas, can join the Memorandum.

Except for the plenary session, the Forum included the work of two Panel discussion on two extremely actual topics: «International and national experience in restoring of post-conflict regions and countries in social, humanitarian and economic fields» and “Economic rehabilitation of Donbas and investment in Ukraine.” Andrey Kulikov – a journalist, broadcaster and media expert – was a moderator of the first panel.  Bogdan Yarmolenko – a partner at Ernst & Young – was a moderator of the second panel. Both panels lasted for one and a half hour and included presentations of speakers and questions and replicas of members.

Topics for discussion during the Forum both during the Plenary session and Panel discussions:

–  International experience in restoring of post-conflict regions and countries in social, humanitarian and economic fields;

– Ways and stages of resolving the thorniest humanitarian issues;

– Adaptation programs for the population, returning to the conflict zone;

– Protection of the rights of citizens affected by the conflict.

– New formats of economic activity in light of specific features of post-conflict regions.

– Participation of international organizations, donors and financial institutions in the implementation of projects on Donbas restoring.

– «Municipal entrepreneurship» (development of entrepreneurship, new lines of business due to the decentralization of power in Ukraine).

– Tax policy.

– Features of local government during the post-conflict period.

Such Forum was virtually impossible a year ago. I think that next year we will discuss more practical steps, practical tools on the reintegration of Donbas. There was a piece of sarcasm, that the Forum – is lyrical. We have specific mechanisms, we have concrete plans. However, we did not want to involve guests of the Forum into our thoughts. We would like to hear from you. Today there were a lot of interesting ideas”- Ruslan Bortnik – co-organizer of the Forum, the head of the Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Management of Policy – said at the end of the event.

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