There is fresh hope for the sustainability and governance of Ukraine’s forests, according to participants from Ukraine’s government and civil society in a Basel Institute webinar on 5 April 2023.
Russia’s war is placing unprecedented stress on the forest sector, they agreed. But the creation of the Forests of Ukraine state enterprise, together with Ukraine’s candidate status for EU membership, offers a promising opportunity to address pre-war corruption and governance issues.
We are delighted to have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, the Ministry responsible for Ukraine's restoration. Under the agreement, we will work to minimise corruption risks in the use of state and donor funds allocated for the reconstruction of critical infrastructure.
This will include strengthening anti-corruption compliance in the road sector and assessing integrity risks when determining the cost of road works and services.
**Українська версія нижче**
This report offers a detailed deep dive into how corruption fuelled illegal logging in Ukraine during the period before the full-scale war. It explains how the Russian invasion has raised the risks of illegal logging, by increasing demand for wood and its relative value as a resource, and by reducing inspections and civil society oversight.
The Basel Institute has published a comprehensive new analysis of corruption and illegal logging in Ukraine. Juhani Grossmann, who leads the Basel Institute’s Green Corruption programme, explains what it covers and why the report comes at a crucial time for Ukraine and its partners.
This case study describes how Switzerland is putting to test a rarely used but powerful law in order to confiscate assets connected to Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity, with the aim of returning these to Ukraine.
Key points:
As the war in Ukraine intensifies, calls are growing for states to confiscate Russian assets frozen under sanctions and redirect them to provide support to Ukraine. Our latest Working Paper argues that states can and should do this by enhancing the effectiveness and scope of established asset recovery measures – not by introducing new untested mechanisms that risk inviting future legal challenges, defeating the purpose of sanctions and violating the rule of law.
This handbook, written in Ukrainian, serves as an introduction to the online training course for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on anti-corruption, which is currently being developed by the UN Global Compact Network Ukraine.
The course aims to increase understanding of business transparency and how it can be improved through Collective Action. The ultimate goal is to enhance Ukraine's position in global indices.
Written in the light of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, the Working Paper explores whether it is justifiable to confiscate assets frozen under financial sanctions in order to redirect them to the victims of state aggression.
The paper first explores the concept of sanctions and financial sanctions (asset freezes) and what they mean in practice.
The war in Ukraine has caused hundreds of billions of dollars of damage so far, including to critical infrastructure. Funding the country's ongoing and post-war reconstruction efforts is a topic very much under debate. Some suggest that assets frozen under war-related sanctions could be used to partly fund the reconstruction. Could they? How?
This document takes stock of recent progress in strengthening Ukraine's anti-corruption infrastructure in the face of increased attacks on infrastructure and increased reconstruction efforts. It covers: