Dear friends,
The whole world is in a stage of severe crisis and rapid transformation. Russia’s aggression, which led to severe irreparable consequences, forced the whole world to remove the glasses of skepticism and formal “concern” and admit that de facto russia is provoking the third world war.
However, difficult times unite like-minded people with common values. It is the bravery of Ukrainian soldiers, the unbrokenness of the Ukrainian people and the steadfastness of Ukraine’s friends in providing support that stop the aggressor.
Each of us contributes to the victory of hope, human dignity, freedom, democracy over arbitrariness, corruption, and death.
Each of us should be as effective as possible in our field, given our experience, skills, and capabilities.
My task as a representative of the Ukrainian nation, given my experience and skills, is to build the confidence of Ukraine’s international friends in effective use of the assistance that partners send to support Ukraine every minute. I mean real confidence, not its seeming.
The great support provided today cannot even be compared with the aid that will be directed to reconstruction of Ukraine in the post-war period.
As we all know, there are no “state” funds, there are only taxpayer funds. Therefore, the support of partners is the money paid by taxpayers of different countries. We should respect their hard work and every cent that they have provided through the decisions of their governments to support Ukraine.
Transparency, accountability, efficiency, reasonableness, expediency – this is an understandable and right requirement from international partners regarding the assistance provided to our state.
Trust is the basis of high-quality and strategic interaction between real partners.
Therefore, the main challenge for the Ukrainian state is to create such mechanism for controlling the use of international assistance based on transparency, accountability, efficiency, reasonableness, expediency, which will become a guarantee of trust!
War is a crucial, very difficult test for any state. However, the Ukrainian nation has demonstrated its unbrokenness, resilience, great faith, and unitedness. Difficult times provide an opportunity for strong states to rapidly evolve in all spheres of social life. Therefore, every hryvnia that is now coming to support the warring Ukraine and will later be directed to reconstruction… every hryvnia should be used properly.
In such times, we should not allow embezzlement and making of bloody money, irresponsible and unprofessional management of reconstruction projects, lack of punishment for corrupt people – this is the real image of the country!
Right now, I cannot speak about global solutions, existing risks, and problems, however, I am sure that my efforts and the efforts of a small but powerful team of like-minded people are enough that the changes have already started.
I don’t accept the existing practice that destroys the bureaucratic model… I don’t want to work for the sake of the process. The main thing is the result! The result of every decision, the result of every meeting, the result of every idea!
Identifying threats and risks in implementation of projects and in use of international assistance, forecasting the impact of certain projects on effectiveness and quality of changes, influence of administrative-bureaucratic apparatus on implementation of projects, impact of the regulatory and legal framework on implementation of projects, monitoring the political and corruption influence on efficiency, completeness and legality of the use of international assistance – these are the tasks that I set before myself, as a Ukraine citizen, as the head of a public organization.
Friends, I am addressing each of you. I am requesting for your support based on your capabilities and field of activity. I kindly ask you to help me with your experience, practices, contacts. May your trust in me grow into trust in the business that I am now starting.
Your support is crucially important not so much for me as for Ukraine.
Let’s move forward together, exchange ideas! Thanks to each of you! We have to make this world better every moment!
Michael Hopf: ‘Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.’