New facilities will support more than 100 remote settlements with 80 public services

Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, 1 October 2020 – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, with financial support from the government of Canada, has delivered the first four of ten mobile Administrative Service Centres (ASCs) to communities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The centres are designed to improve public service delivery in everything from marriage and passports to securing land titles or registering a business.

UNDP Resident Representative Dafina Gercheva said during the handover of the mobile ASCs that the mobile centres in eastern Ukraine will allow the most vulnerable – the elderly, people with disabilities and families with young children living in the most remote areas – to access important administrative and social services.

“We understand that even obtaining ordinary documents can cause a lot of difficulties for people who have been living amid armed conflict for more than six years, and even more so during the pandemic,” she said. “Public services should be available to all, with no one left behind. These centres are designed to make that a reality.”

Denys Denyshchenko, the head of the Department of Foreign Relations, Foreign Economic and Investment Activities of Luhansk Oblast State Administration, also thanked the international community for developing the system of administrative services in eastern Ukraine. “These mobile ASCs will drive to the most remote corners of our country and visit entry-exit checkpoints along the ‘contact line,’ facilitating access to quality administrative services for the communities affected by the armed conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

The first communities to receive the mobile ASCs were Siversk and Mariinka in Donetsk Oblast, and Popasna and Stanytsia Luhanska in Luhansk Oblast. The mobile centers will make weekly visits to the most remote corners of the community, as well as visiting five entry-exit checkpoints along the ‘contact line’ to render services to citizens coming from non-government-controlled areas.

Each vehicle has four workplaces for ASC specialists, social services specialists, specialists from the pension fund and specialists on free legal aid. The mobile ASCs are equipped with all of the necessary technical infrastructure and communications, and are specially equipped for people with disabilities.

Speaking at the handover, Director of the Canadian Development Programme in Ukraine Ashley Mulroney said that: “Canada believes that government services must be inclusive. They must provide effective service to all members of society. Government open to all will help deliver sustainable development and peace.”

“Canada is very pleased to be helping equip communities in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts with these mobile ASCs,” Mulroney added. “These vehicles will help deliver public services to the most vulnerable members of this region: those who lack access to transport as well as Ukrainian citizens residing in the NGCAs.”

The mobile ASCs will provide services almost identical to those that are currently available at stationary centres. For example, people will be able to:

• apply for subsidies and receive help from the government;
• register their own business or real estate;
• obtain a child’s birth certificate;
• obtain a certificate showing they are parents of a large family, or a child from a large family;
• apply for and obtain a pension certificate, and;
• receive passport services.

“The mobile ASCs will not only help make administrative services as accessible and convenient as possible,” said Mulroney, “they also promote the long-term recovery and development of communities affected by the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk Oblast State Administration and Head of the Oblast Military-Civil Administration, thanked the international partners for their assistance and support, and said work of the mobile ASCs will “greatly simplify the access of community residents to quality administrative services and help improve the living conditions of residents of Donetsk Oblast.”

By the end of the year, two more mobile ASCs will be operating in Sievierodonetsk and Vuhledar, which will also be able to serve people near the Novotroitsk entry-exit checkpoint. The total cost of the four mobile ASCs is over US$750,000. The procurement and other technical arrangements are being carried out under the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme with the financial support of the government of Canada.

Background

The United Nations Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme (UN RPP) is being implemented by four United Nations agencies: the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Thirteen international partners support the Programme: the European Union (EU), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, and the governments of Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Media enquiries

Maksym Kytsiuk, Communications Associate, the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, maksym.kytsiuk@undp.org, +380 63 576 1839