At this year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) in Rome, the school nutrition reform was presented — a systemic initiative under the auspices of the First Lady Olena Zelenska that is transforming school canteens across Ukraine.
While the EUACI has been engaged in reducing corruption risks during the construction and modernisation of school canteens, the EUACI supported the presentation of the nutrition reform and participated actively in creating awareness about the work done to limit corruption.
The results of the reform speak for themselves: more than 1.5 million pupils receive free meals, over 1000 school canteens have been reconstructed, and more than 6500 cooks have upgraded professional skills.
Not only were the results presented, but also a real kitchen was serving food from the school canteens’ menu for Conference participants. The First Lady, the President of the European Commission and the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Transatlantic Integration all visited the school canteen presentation.
A key component of the reform is an innovative monitoring system of the state subvention funds usage, developed in partnership between the EUACI, the School Nutrition Reform Team, and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. This system ensures supervision at every stage of the school canteens’ reconstruction — from documentation review to completion of works — enabling transparent and efficient use of public funds.
The EUACI’s experts identified over UAH 130 mln of unjustified funds allowing additional 20 schools to receive funds for canteens’ reconstruction. Find out more about the subvention monitoring: https://cutt.ly/0rOgay2K
The experience of implementing this monitoring system formed the basis of a practical guide presented at the URC. It compiles tools, best practices, and recommendations that can support the reduction of corruption risks in the implementation of investment projects in the field of public investments.
EUACI’s work regarding school canteens was met with big interest from many participants of the conference and was also highlighted in a panel moderated by the head of the EUACI.
