Making Democracy Work: Ukrainian Reforms Architecture

After the Revolution of Dignity Ukraine has faced a challenging combination: Hybrid war from Russia side and economic and institutional collapse. Years under Yanukovych rule in conjunction with a lingering post-Soviet legacy created a perfect storm and required rapid, powerful and tailored response both from Ukrainian government and donor community. Inspired by the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association agreement, as well as understanding the weakness of Ukrainian institutions, the Ukrainian Reforms Architecture project was created. Co-invented by EU and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the project focuses on different reform areas such as Public Administration Reform, Business Climate, Public Finance management, Privatization and SOE corporate governance, and many others. This panel of experts will discuss the results of the project on the Ukrainian reform process: What is the future of the project? Can these reforms sustain major political changes with this year's elections? And, if successful, can it be replicated in other countries? 

This event will be moderated by Francis Fukuyama, Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, and Steven Pifer, William J. Perry fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI).

 

Speaker Bios

Francis Malige is the Managing Director for Financial Institutions for the EBRD. He leads the Bank’s investments in the financial sector, including banks as well as insurance companies, non-bank financial institutions and capital market infrastructure companies, across three continents. He took up his role in August 2018. From 2014 to 2018, he served as Managing Director, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, leading the Bank’s operations and policy initiatives in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. In Ukraine, he led the EBRD through the difficult post-revolution period, to develop a number of initiatives blending investment and policy impact, including the Ukraine Reforms Architecture 

 

Bojana J. Reiner is Senior Governance Counsellor at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), based in London. She has more than 20 years experience in public policy, private sector development, intelligence and investigations across EMEA, gained in prominent organizations worldwide. In her current role, Bojana leads the Ukraine Reforms Architecture (URA) programme, which is the EBRD’s flagship state capacity building initiative. In her previous roles at EBRD, she oversaw the delivery of key reform policy engagements across EMEA, deployed with around €100 million of donor funds annually.  

 

Dmytro Romanovych is an alumnus of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program and current Senior Consultant for the Ukrainian Reforms Architecture project at the EBRD. Prior to this role, Romanovych worked at the Reform Delivery Office for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Romanovych was an advisor to the Minister of Economy, and is responsible for deregulation and improving the business climate in Ukraine. In addition, he was an economic expert in the largest NGO coalition in Ukraine, the Reanimation Package of Reforms, which is the most influential non-governmental reform advocate in the country.

 

Nataliya Mykolska is the Trade Representative of Ukraine - Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade. In the government, Mykolska is responsible for developing and implementing consistent, predictable and efficient trade policy. She focuses on export strategy and promotion, building an effective system of state support for Ukrainian exports, free trade agreements, protecting Ukrainian trade interests in the World Trade Organization (WTO), dialogue with Ukrainian exporters, and removing trade barriers. Mykolska is the Vice-Chair of the International Trade Council and the Intergovernmental Committee on International Trade.