No U.S. funding for media helper IREX Promedia, Alliance volunteer program
The U.S. government has decided to halt funding to two well-known and long-running programs in Ukraine, The Alliance and IREX Promedia.
Officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development said the decision was not related to the ongoing change in U.S. aid policy for Ukraine associated with accusations that President Leonid Kuchma sold a Kolchuga radar system to Iraq.
The Alliance, a consortium of U.S.-based private volunteer organizations, closed its doors on Sept. 30 after failing to extend the program for another five years.
The program, an unsolicited undertaking that started in 1996, connected hundreds of short-term American advisors with thousands of small- and medium-sized Ukrainian companies throughout the country.
The Alliance’s chief of party, Vlad Trygub, said the program wasn’t aimed at delivering monetary aid but professional expertise to the local businesses.
“We never gave a penny to anybody,” he said. “We offered human resources and helped forge cross-cultural relationships, which continue to this day.”
The partnership initially received $10 million from the USAID for work in Ukraine and Moldova. In 1999, The Alliance won an additional $7.5 million grant to operations in Ukraine only. The program had a staff of 18 people.
Founded by four private U.S.-based volunteer organizations, the program shipped more than 350 American executives to Ukraine on assignments lasting from one to six months to share their expertise in a number of fields, ranging from fundraising to selling parquet floors.
“Our niche was to provide local entrepreneurs with quality consultants at a grass roots level,” Trygub said.
The organizations involved in The Alliance were the International Executive Service Corps, the MBA Enterpise Corps, Citizens Democracy Corps and the Agricultural Cooperative Development & Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance.
In addition to the 350 short-term volunteers, The Alliance brought 70 long-term volunteers over for assignments of one year or more. Many alumni of the program remain in Kyiv to this day.
Trygub said most of The Alliance’s expenses went to cover training and travel expenses, adding that the program’s administrative costs equaled 13 percent.
Chris Crowley, the USAID mission director in Kyiv, praised The Alliance for its work but said it was time for testing new approaches.
“They did an excellent job,” Crowley said. “It’s time for a different approach [to private sector development].”
“The decision not to support The Alliance has nothing to do with the so-called pause in some U.S.-taxpayer assistance to Ukraine,” Crowley said.
Meanwhile, another perennial U.S.-based grantee, IREX Promedia, announced Sept. 30 that USAID turned down its proposal to manage a $10 million five-year program to support independent Ukrainian media.
IREX, or the International Re-search & Exchanges Board, said its Promedia program offered legal advice to media and trained local journalists.
Nobody would answer phone calls at IREX on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.
Officials at IREX Promedia were reportedly planning to re-register the program as a local non-profit organization and seek support elsewhere.
Some employees were reportedly planning to join Internews, another USAID grantee, and programs funded by the International Renaissance Foundation.
Crowley told the Post on Oct. 2 that the decision to reject IREX’s proposal for media assistance was also not related to a broader U.S. policy review plan for Ukraine.
“It’s another issue that relates to the procurement process and to our inability to complete it by the end of the fiscal year,” Crowley said.
