The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine is not a recipient of international technical assistance projects in which the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was a partner.
This was reported by the Ministry of Education and Science in response to a request from Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, the Ministry said that on 31 January 2024, the Ministry of Education and the USAID Justice for All Programme signed a protocol on cooperation in implementing an international technical assistance programme that provides expert and other technical assistance in the development and implementation of public policies and a national action programme for comprehensive legal education reform.
"Thus, the suspension of USAID-funded technical assistance programmes may complicate further implementation of the reform in the field of higher legal education. In addition, the implementation of the Rehabilitation in Ukraine (Rehab4U) project, which is a multi-year USAID initiative, will be complicated," the ministry added.
The agency also reported that the Science City project is being implemented with USAID funding, which provides for the development of a law "On Amendments to Certain Laws to Stimulate the Development of Science Parks".
"The Science City concept is being developed by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine with the support of the Digital Transformation Support project funded by USAID and UK Dev. The BRDO is the implementing partner. The implementation of this project will not be suspended due to the order of the US Department of State to suspend assistance programmes," the Ministry of Education and Science stressed.
In addition, the ministry said that it is communicating with other international partners to find additional funding to expand operational capabilities for the project and create additional incentives for the development of the science parks institute in Ukraine.
Among other things, it is reported that the hardware of the Unified State Electronic Database on Education was planned to be upgraded with USAID support, but due to the suspension of the project, the relevant procurement did not take place.
In addition, the Council for International Research and Exchanges (IREX), with USAID funding, supported the opening of digital educational centres (modular schools) aimed at restoring access to education and socialising children, and with IREX support, a financial literacy course was developed for the All-Ukrainian School Online website in cooperation with the National Bank of Ukraine, but was not completed due to the termination of USAID funding.
