Environmental protection, support for mine action, development of the business environment, and human capital — these and other issues were discussed by Ukraine’s Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture, Oleksii Sobolev, with Ivana Živković, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS at the United Nations Development Programme. The meeting took place on March 30.
“Cooperation with UNDP covers the sectors most critical for our recovery. In particular, these include environmental protection, humanitarian demining, the labor market, and support for Ukrainian producers. Together, we are working to address the urgent challenges facing businesses, to create modern infrastructure for waste management and emissions trading. We are also strengthening our cooperation in the direction of European integration, where our partners provide the necessary technical and expert assistance,” noted Oleksii Sobolev.
The parties discussed environmental issues, in particular waste management, the green transition, and environmental recovery. UNDP has been actively supporting waste management in Ukraine since 2022. The Ministry of Economy hopes for expert support in developing the waste management sector, implementing an e-waste system within the national “Ecosystem” platform, and integrating climate goals into sectoral policies (industry, energy, agriculture).
In the area of mine action industry development, the Government is focused on cooperation with UNDP to support Ukrainian manufacturers, facilitate testing and deployment of technologies, and scale up production. The possibility of expanding the “Made in Ukraine” policy to humanitarian demining is also being considered.
UNDP representatives, for their part, noted that mine action in Ukraine is the organization’s largest programme in this field. Given Ukraine’s valuable experience, the organization also expressed its intention to support the dissemination of this experience for the overall development of the industry.
Among the areas of further cooperation are environmental protection, demining projects, investment mobilization, and scaling effective solutions nationwide.
In addition, the meeting participants discussed improving the business environment and developing human capital. To better understand and respond to business needs, the Ministry of Economy uses the digital platform “Pulse.” The “Obrii” programme addresses labor market fragmentation by integrating vacancies, training, and support programmes with automatic matching and analytics.
