World Bank Ready To Expand HOPE Initiative In Ukraine

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) Oleksiy Kuleba, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration and Minister for Communities and Territories Development, met with Min Zhang, Global Director for the Urban, Resilience and Land Global Department at the World Bank, to discuss the expansion of housing policy projects in Ukraine.

That is according to the Ministry's press service , as reported by Ukrinform.

“HOPE has become a tool that enables us to provide assistance quickly, transparently, and on a national scale,” Kuleba stated.“We are now working on expanding the program to include new solutions-specifically, a new support mechanism for internally displaced persons (IDPs) from temporarily occupied territories. It aims to offer them a pathway to purchase housing to replace what they lost.”

The proposed program includes the issuance of housing vouchers that may be used to buy property, make down payments on mortgages, or repay mortgage loans. Assistance will be provided in stages: beginning with combat veterans and families of fallen defenders, followed by people with disabilities, large families, and orphans, and eventually extending to other categories of displaced persons.

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Thanks to the HOPE project, more than 94,000 Ukrainian families have already received compensation for damaged housing through the eVidnovlennia mechanism. Preparations are now underway for the next phase-major reconstruction. In April, a list of 194 apartment buildings across five territorial communities was approved for restoration under the program. To begin construction in the first quarter of 2026, Ukraine is seeking to raise an additional $185 million, with proposals already submitted to the World Bank.

Participants also discussed efforts to secure EU funding to expand the eVidnovlennia program. A guarantee agreement is expected to be signed between the European Commission and the World Bank, enabling the mobilization of EUR 215 million under the EU–Ukraine Investment Framework (UIF).

The meeting also addressed the development of digital infrastructure. Ukraine has launched an initiative to attract $10 million for the creation of an urban planning cadastre-a digital foundation for implementing key recovery programs, advancing spatial planning, and integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies.

As reported, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration and Minister for Communities and Territories Development Oleksiy Kuleba and World Bank Regional Country Director for Eastern Europe Bob Saum signed an agreement to allocate an additional $84 million to continue the Housing Repair for People's Empowerment (HOPE) project.

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