Human Dynamics and our consortium partners were engaged to support Ukraine’s Ministry of Coal Industry in the creation and implementation of its coal sector policy. This included strengthening the Ministry of Coal Industry through building up adequate structures and qualified personnel to optimise the management of the coal mining sector, and in particular, fulfill the obligations arising out of a restructuring plan that was underway.
To ensure that the policies devised for the industry were sound, our team worked to develop an evaluation mechanism including geological, technical, economic and environmental criteria for mine assessment and categorization. One hundred and thirty four mines were evaluated based on this methodology. On the basis of the mine evaluation, a master plan for the development of the Ukrainian coal industry was prepared. This included a coal sector-restructuring programme for the period to 2012, a forecast to 2017, and a road map for attracting investments, all developed in accordance with Ukrainian standards. The recommendations for organisational changes needed for structures of the coal mining sector management system and for the Ministry of Coal Industry were prepared on the basis of experience of other countries.
Further to this, we provided assistance to the Ministry of Coal Industry of Ukraine in developing the necessary tools, measures and legal acts for improving the investment climate in the coal sector.
A key component of this project was establishing a Social Development Fund. Human Dynamics assisted the Ministry of Coal Industry to conceive adequate tools, measures and policies to fulfill the social obligations arising out of the coal restructuring process, including the setting up of a Social Development Fund and the training of qualified personnel in managing this fund. This was achieved through the designing a grant scheme that included outlines of grant scheme regulations and outlines for application procedures, followed by the implementation of pilot projects in the mining regions (Chervonograd in Lviv Oblast, Sznezhnoe in Donetsk Oblast and Krasny Luch in Lugansk Oblast) that built capacity among the regional stakeholders.