Virtual
ROKSOLANA LISOVSKA: I hear you're celebrating two years of the AGRI-Ukraine initiative. Can you tell me what about AGRI-Ukraine works? How much money has the initiative allocated to help farmers? And what did these funds go for?
ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Thank you, yes. You know, in a war, you don't celebrate milestones, but you take stock of them and try to learn from them and I think what makes AGRI-Ukraine really important, is that we recognized the centrality of agriculture to Ukraine's economy, we recognize the bravery and the resilience of Ukraine's farmers, their determination to get the grain out, to have grain from Ukraine reach all corners of the globe. But we also recognize that this is a good business opportunity for investors from outside and for multinational companies, and for Ukrainian agrobusinesses, and the like.
And so what we did a couple of years ago, is we made a very substantial investment in the agricultural sector. Over the course of the last two years, that's somewhere above $300 million. And that is everything from expanding storage capacity so that, you know, when, for example, the Black Sea was off limits, the grains had someplace to be safe and to be protected, while Ukrainians figured out how to build new export routes, initially through the Danube, and now of course, managing to ship grain and other commodities through the Black Sea again.
So storage was important inputs for farmers, you know, something like fertilizer when the prices went up, for even seeds. You know, for some farmers, given everything that they had lost with the Russian full-scale invasion, that might have just been too much in the cost benefit. So providing that support, grants, loans, low interest loans, all of that was really important from USAID. But what we sought to do through AGRI-Ukraine is to leverage that $300 million plus.
And today, we can actually announce that we have generated $510 million in private sector investment in the agricultural sector. And you know, that is a much more enduring contribution, because these kinds of investments are made by private sector players who are looking out for their own profit and their own interests. Yes, they feel solidarity with Ukrainian farmers, but they see the business opportunity. And for us, that is something really to build upon. Because of course, agriculture constitutes such a large share of Ukraine's GDP. The fact that agriculture is yet again producing such significant export flows, you know, very very close to the pre war export flows, if you take all routes together, means that contributes substantially to Ukraine's GDP, it contributes to employment. And those private sector investments, you know, can mean jobs.
When Bayer, the company, announces that it's building a new seed factory or expanding a seed factory, that's 25,000 farmers who will be touched by that, but it's also a whole series of jobs for people who work in the factory. So, you know, people view USAID as aid, but we don't view it that way. We view it ourselves as a kind of investment agency. Yes, we give grant money to the farmers and we're really proud of that, we feel really privileged to be in solidarity with Ukraine's farmers. But the most enduring contributions we can make is to take a U.S. dollar and turn it into $2, or $3, or $5 from the private sector.
MS. LISOVSKA: Who are some of USAID's partners supporting AGRI-Ukraine and what are they getting out of it?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, partners, we have partners on the ground for starters, you know, again, would be the farmers themselves, SMEs, you know, small-, medium-sized enterprises, agri-businesses. But then what we've done is we have gone around, and we've alerted companies to the opportunities, we have de-risked, you know, sometimes we need to put in little money. And we'll say, hey, you give the loan and we will guarantee that loan, we and the Development Finance Corporation, and that's just enough then for a bank to provide that loan. And the Development Finance Corporation, in fact, just in June, announced a new program for nearly $30 million of loan guarantees for Ukrainian businesses and small-, medium-sized enterprises.
So those are, that's one universe of partners, but then the other partners are the global partners and one of the things that I'm super excited about is that we have actually now brought the Japanese Development Agency and the Korean Development Agency into this sector, which is really really exciting. They are supporting access to finance for farmers, they are supporting ways of securing more reliable irrigation, for example, and they are doing some work in the fertilizer space as of course are we providing access to fertilizer. And they to recognize that just small investments have outsized benefits, because for every job you protect for a Ukrainian farmer, for every export shipment that goes out and be in the Black Sea, or via the Danube or via road transport, that means not only the income for those farmers and for the growers, and the people are putting their lives on the line, in some cases to be out there planting and reaping, but it's also tax revenue for the government.
And if you look, for example, at USAID, its investment in direct budget support for the Ukrainian government. It's very important, we're very glad that the supplemental request went through and we got a new infusion. I think we've contributed close to $23 billion in just cash to the government that goes to teacher salaries and health care workers salaries and first responders. But the other thing about that that doesn't get as much attention is that that amount that we're providing every month, has gone down a little bit each month, or at least over the course of the two plus years of the war. And one of the that's really important for us to be able to say to our Congress, you know, is that the Ukrainian government is mobilizing its own resources, that it's gathering its own customs revenue, its own taxes. And that is happening more and more. And as we seek to sustain support for grant financing, it's really important to be able to point to that increase in tax revenue and customs revenue that the agricultural sector is a huge part of.
MS. LISOVSKA: USAID purchases equipment for farmers. Who can receive this equipment? And how can a farmer apply for assistance?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you so much. Well, one of the things that's amazing about this partnership that USAID has mobilized with Ukraine's farmers is that as of this date, I think we have collaborated with about a third of Ukraine's farmers directly in some fashion, whether that's provision of seed, fertilizer, access to finance, helping provide storage, working with truckers and with people who work at the border customs posts, to put in place a much smoother ability to exit the country with the trucks so that goods can move more quickly into Europe and beyond. So that's nearly a third of Ukraine's registered farmers working in some fashion with AGRI-Ukraine, which is really important.
I have learned that there is something called the State Agriculture Register and if a farmer is watching, which I hope your farmers are so I can say thank you for helping feed the world and thank you for everything you're doing for the Ukrainian people and for being such great partners to us. So that's one reason I'm glad they're watching. But the second is this State Agriculture Register. If they sign up through that, for example, maybe the two thirds of farmers who we are not yet working with, they will get notice of solicitations and notice of opportunities, for example, to get access to some of that equipment or they can provide inputs to us as to how we should be spending our resources or what kind of private sector investments we should be seeking, as we unfortunately are in this third year of such a vicious conflict.
MS. LISOVSKA: What are some other ways you supported Ukraine?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, funny you should ask. You know, I think that it's hard to think of a sector in Ukraine, where we have not had at least some involvement, you know, whether that's, you know, facility again, payment for teacher salaries, or, you know, mobilizing donations of laptops from companies who've been quite generous, but there's always more that can be done there. To you know, working to ensure that treatment, for example, for HIV or tuberculosis, that gets sustained. COVID vaccines at the beginning of the conflict are still something that we were active in. And that's in the health sector. I think the energy sector is probably the most substantial area of investment this last year, and probably will be going forward because of Putin's efforts to weaponize the cold, and to make people suffering winter and to shut down Ukrainian production facilities as well, including for weaponry, by taking out the electricity taking up the power. So whether that's for 1000 generators, or, you know, hundreds of miles of pipes, or boilers, or just instant repairs, or whether it's protection for, you know, power sites for Ukraine, just bricks and mortar protection, USAID is active in working on all of that, with the Ministry of Energy and with the power players and the utility players on the ground in Ukraine. So that's, I think, a really important area. Obviously, for anybody who's experienced power blackouts or if you're a doctor, and you're operating on somebody, and the power goes out, you have to have that backup generation, if you're a teacher, and you're trying to make sure that kids don't lose years of schooling, having access to that power is really important. We know there have been blackouts, but we are trying to minimize the damage that Putin's attacks, as this is clearly his strategy, that those attacks, minimize the damage that those attacks do.
The last thing I'd say because I can't talk about support for any other sector, without talking about our work in fighting corruption, or I should say our work supporting Ukrainians who are incredibly brave as well to be holding very powerful people accountable even in wartime. Even when, of course, people are rallying around the flag, there's a recognition of how important it is that particularly Ukrainian government officials be faithful stewards of the resources that are flowing to Ukraine. And that the war which Putin waged, in many ways, because Ukraine was on a journey to root out corruption and was on a democratic journey. You know, the whole reason that invasion occurred, or at least what clearly got under his skin and made him feel like he had to control Ukraine. That cause is every bit as important today, as it was before February of 2022.
So we invest in media training in anti corruption institutions, including those governmental bodies that need to be independent and need to be cracking down. Whether it is on, you know, corrupt business practices, or any corrupt officials. This is also really important because we know the heartbreak and the challenges that families are experiencing, who have loved ones on the frontlines. It is an incredibly brutal war and the bravery that those individuals who are showing continues to, you know, inspire the world. No one will ever get used to that. No one will ever, I think, be jaded or somehow grow desensitized to the risks that the Ukrainian people are taking on behalf of freedom for the rest of us. But we also know that they are fighting for a cause that goes even beyond the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. And that cause is the rule of law. It is democracy. It is the ability to join Europe and ensure that future generations have more opportunities to speak their minds, to reliably be able to go about their business, to be able to vote in the ballot box, to get rid of officials that they don't think are doing their jobs properly. All of that also is part of what this war is about. And so the work that USAID does in supporting those who are continuing to fight corruption even during wartime, that work is incredibly important we think as well to sustain support for the Defense of Ukraine. Since what, again, the defense is more than just the territorial defense. It's also the defense of Ukrainian democracy and integrity.
MS. LISOVSKA: How can you assess the fight against corruption in Ukraine? And what should be changed? And what should we pay attention to?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: I think, our direct budget support which I mentioned earlier, which is now totaling about $23 billion in direct grant support, much of that is conditional on a set of reforms, much of the European Union's support, I should say, is conditional. So too is the work that the IMF is doing to help Ukraine balance the books and manage debt, in this difficult conflict. So, you know, I think that it must be very frustrating in some ways, for those of us who live far from conflict, to be saying, you know, thou must do this, and you must do this, and you must do that, I mean, easy for us to say right from the comfort of Washington, D.C., where I now sit. But I think it is important to remember that, again, this is part of what this conflict is about, is to continue the other war, the war against corruption, alongside of course, the life and death struggle to keep Russian forces out of Ukrainian homes and communities and to push them back, as Ukraine already has done in taking back half of the territory that Putin seized in those early days.
So I think when you ask what more can be done, you know, it is to sustain support for that anti corruption fight at all levels of the government. And for every citizen to recognize that, yes, USAID can fund an anti corruption civil society organization, but every citizen is a player in that struggle, every citizen is somebody who might be being asked to pay a bribe, who can report that or not report that. And fundamentally, you know, that is the way that corruption has become more episodic, then systemic, still have a long way to go, but is because citizens are so determined to have their kids again, live differently than they lived growing up. But, you know, we know that there are sectors where this is still an issue. If the corruption, the anti corruption efforts were to stall, that would make it very much more challenging for the reconstruction efforts to happen at scale.
So, you know, people are tired now, the amount of pain that Putin and his forces have inflicted on Ukrainian families, it is actually impossible to find words, to capture that pain, every single family has been touched in some fashion in some horrible way, by this conflict. But nonetheless, somehow finding a way to continue to bring energy to this fight and to understand that it's a society wide effort, that is going to be really important, not only to winning this war, and to taking back more of Ukraine's territory, but to at the other end of this war, to have an economy that is ready to integrate more fully with Europe's.
So just keeping that spirit alive, which can be hard to do, you know, given the terrible toll the war is taking. But I guess that would be my main message and there's always more to do. You know, Ukraine started, you know, in a large hole, because of years of endemic systemic corruption across virtually all ministries touching so many sectors, touching so many lives. So, you know, it's not going to be instant, but the way that corruption will be routed out is if it becomes everyone's problem, everyone's cause and not just out of a civil society organization or some journalists, you know, who are who are focused on this or some official anti corruption body.
MS. LISOVSKA: Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, USAID has provided Ukraine with nearly $30 billion in humanitarian, development, and direct budget support. Could the U.S. election results change the number of support programs for Ukraine?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well obviously In presidential election campaigns, there's going to be a lot of there are going to be a lot of statements made and it's an uncertain time. But it's a democracy and this, what Ukrainians know well, is extremely important to have free elections and for voters to come out and express their view. What I find really heartening is that the supplemental package that passed in April, we know how hard it was for those many months for Ukrainians to be opening up their phones every day, and looking at the news, including watching your network and hoping, praying that the money would go through that the weapons would go through that you that USAID direct budget support would go through and waiting month after month.
So I know that that left, probably not a great taste in the mouths of Ukrainians who rightly are saying, Well, hey, look at all the sacrifices we're making and you know, you're taking this long, that's something so vital. But please don't let that lag in getting that across the finish line divert you from a core fact, which is that 73 percent of members of the House of Representatives voted for that supplemental package and 81 percent of members of the U.S. Senate. There will be turnover in the election in both the House and the Senate, but I think that speaks still to the large bipartisan majority that recognizes just all that Ukraine is doing for freedom globally, and recognizes just how dangerous it would be to let a bully, a brutal bully willing to stoop to anything. To let that bully prevail, to let aggression of this magnitude be rewarded.
So you know, that was just in April, we're now in late July, the election will be in November. But that is, I think a coalition that would have surprised Putin, would have disappointed him significantly. And I think it's something that can offer solace to Ukrainians who are worried about politics and changing winds. The American people know what Ukraine is doing for democracy, globally, and what an incredible partner Ukraine has been. And I think that should give people hope, as we head into what we call the silly season here, which is the political season where all kinds of things are said. But again, 73 percent of the house 81 percent of the U.S. Senate, we don't get majorities like that for just about anything in the US anymore, unfortunately.