European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
CGPA’s partnership with the EBRD
In the spring of 2021, CGPA, in partnership with IFC, commissioned by the EBRD, held a series of online seminars on Corporate Governance for SMEs for consultants and all stakeholders. The event was supported by the EBRD U.S. Small Business Fund (Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Joint Technical Cooperation Fund) and IFC, together with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO.
In 2022, CGPA, with the support of the EBRD, implemented the Project: Ukraine: Corporate Governance for SMEs and SMEs+ – WIB “Corporate Director” Training Programme for Ukraine. The project is aimed at professional and advanced corporate governance training for women leaders of Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses. SME+: small and medium-sized enterprises with expanded criteria – from 10 to 500 employees and an annual turnover of up to EUR 50 million. CGPA implements the programme with the support of the EBRD and funding from the Government of Sweden under the EBRD Small Business Support Facility (other donors: Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, TaiwanBusiness – EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund, and the United States).
In 2023, the EBRD provided scholarship support to participants of the professional development program for entrepreneurs, “Managing Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: From StarStartupSustainability”. Among the participants were 20 women leaders of Ukrainian business, who joined the program with the support of the EBRD and funding from the Swedish government under the EBRD Small Business Support Fund (other donors: Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United States, and TaiwanBusiness – EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund).
In 2023-2024, the EBRD funded four anti-corruption compliance programs for representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure and its subordinate enterprises (100 participants completed the course, passed the assessment and received certificates).
In June 2024, with funding from the EBRD, a pilot program “Corporate Governance and Anti-Corruption Compliance at Municipal Enterprises” was developed and implemented, on the basis of which the online program “Corporate Governance and Anti-Corruption Compliance at Municipal Enterprises” was developed and is being prepared for release. Starting from November 2024, the training program in Ukrainian will be freely available on the EBRD platform https://policyacademy.ebrd.com/
MEREZHA
Oleksandr Okuniev, Chairman of the Board of the Corporate Governance Professional Association (CGPA), Chief Expert of the Ukrainian Corporate Governance Institute, became a qualified expert of the MEREZHA platform. The MEREZHA project was implemented as part of the European Union’s Moving Forward with Europe (EU4Business) initiative for the Eastern Partnership countries. The initiative provides financing opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses, opens up foreign markets and offers consulting and technical support. The initiative is being implemented in Ukraine by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The platform aims to bring Ukrainian businesses to a new level by engaging business experts. Merezha is a space for interaction between significant market players and an effective tool for building a business culture.
MEREZHA focuses its efforts on small and medium-sized enterprises, starstartups future businesses as they create jobs and market competition and lay the foundation for a healthy economic system.
The Ukrainian Corporate Governance Institute is a pre-qualified consultant to the EBRD. Mr Okuniev advises on the comprehensive organisation of the management system of companies and helps to introduce and improve the design of good corporate governance; assists in the establishment of advisory and supervisory boards of companies; supports the introduction of the position of corporate secretary in small, medium and large businesses and family companies.