The OECD and the Government of Ukraine have launched a four-year Country Programme that will support Ukraine’s agenda for reform, recovery and reconstruction and will help it advance its ambitions to join the OECD and European Union. This will provide vital support for Ukraine during war, while ensuring the best use of reconstruction aid to promote economic development and the welfare of citizens.
Signed on 7 June 2023 at the annual OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris by OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann and in Kyiv by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the Programme consists of 31 policy reviews and capacity-building projects. It envisages Ukraine’s participation in 24 OECD bodies, as well as adherence to more than 70 OECD legal instruments over the four years.
The Country Programme is an established OECD tool that enables selected Partner economies to draw on OECD expertise and best practices, strengthen institutions, and build capacity for successful policy reforms.
The OECD Council has condemned Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms as a clear violation of international law and a serious threat to the rules-based international order, and expresses its solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
See official statements:
> OECD Council statement, 24 February 2022
> OECD Secretary-General: initial measures, 25 February 2022
> OECD Secretary-General: further measures, 8 March 2022
> Statement from OECD Secretary-General, one year on, 24 February 2023
Ukraine is a prospective Member of the OECD. Since February 2022, the OECD has broadened, deepened and strengthened its engagement and co-operation with Ukraine, building on several decades of work. An OECD-Ukraine Liaison Office was opened in Kyiv in February 2023.
Despite challenges due to Russia's full-scale invasion, the OECD has continued to support Ukraine on several targeted policy areas. These include subnational capacities, competition in the Ukrainian electricity sector and refugees.
The disruption of the education of millions of Ukrainian children demands policy action. In two new initiatives, the OECD looks at what Ukraine's policymakers can take from other countries' experiences, and draws on data on Ukrainian refugees to launch a new interactive dashboard.
> Learning During Crisis: Insights for Ukraine From Around the World: How can other countries' educational experiences support Ukraine's children – and bolster the re-modelling of an education system fit for the future?
> Ensuring Continued Learning for Ukrainian Refugee Students (interactive dashboard): explore the OECD's new dashboard based on data taken by OECD countries that have sought to integrate Ukrainian refugees in their education systems
How should policymakers assess global value chain risks? A new OECD paper looks at the economic dependencies and implications for policy.
Many of the 4.7m refugees registered in the EU by mid-November have high formal qualifications, but early employment has been in low-skilled jobs – putting the challenge of skill transferability under scrutiny.
Supply shocks have driven up energy prices and inflation – which in turn is leading to increasing borrowing costs. This is leading a weakening outlook for government revenues.
Ukraine's ambitious regional development reforms since 2014 were key to its resilience in 2022. Continued reform will bolster its post-war reconstruction efforts.
OECD countries can build on new and strengthened scientific relationships to relaunch science in Ukraine and support the country’s recovery after the war.
Systematic information manipulation and disinformation have been part of Russia's operational toolkit in its assault on Ukraine. How should democracies respond?
A simulated 40% reduction in bilateral trade with Russia in all goods and services would have a notable negative real income effect on households in some European G7 countries in the medium term. However, households in Russia would have to withstand a significantly larger negative impact – roughly double the effect of eliminating oil dependency on Russia.
At least 70% of Russia’s imports of, among other items, electronics, motor vehicles and parts, machinery and equipment, chemicals, and business services are from the G7, Europe and Australia. Together, restrictions on exports to Russia from these countries would have an almost 50% larger impact on Russian household income than if these countries restricted imports from Russia.
This also highlights an important point: the benefits of trade – and here the harm potentially inflicted with trade sanctions – is at least as much about Russia's imports as it is about its exports.