Session Summary
When Ukraine became independent in 1991, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union the Council of Ukrainian Credit Unions of Canada (CUCUC) and the Canadian Cooperative Association (CCA) developed a program to address poverty by rebuilding the credit union movement that had been destroyed during the Soviet era. In three project phases between 1993 and ending March 2011, with an investment of only $9.675 mil from the Canadian International Development Agency, dedicated staff and volunteers drawn from Canada's Credit Unions worked to create primary credit unions, credit union apex organizations, the provision of supervision and stabilization programs, a legal and regulatory framework for credit unions and to increase the capacity of the government to effectively regulate and monitor credit unions.
Called "the most successful cooperation program in the country" by the former head of Credit Union regulation in Ukraine, the project worked during the hyper inflation and high inflation of the 1990s, the Orange Revolution of 2004, and finally the international financial crisis of 2008. Starting from nothing, after 16 years over 2.7 million Ukrainians had joined more than 800 credit unions, mobilized their savings and made over $2 billion in loans, many for income generation, small business and agriculture. 8,000 to 10,000 direct jobs and 25,000 indirect jobs were created. With the help of Canadians, legislation covering credit unions had passed, a regulatory agency was supervising and licensing credit unions, and credit union training programs were available in the country.
Yet, at the end of the project crisis loomed: the global financial crisis caused a liquidity crisis throughout the Ukrainian fianancial sector, resulting in insolvency in several banks and credit unions and the number of credit unions dropped from 829 to 751. Estimates of the number that would survive varied depending on the length and depth of the crisis as well as the actions of government.
Join us on May 13 at 9 am to find out what went right, what went wrong and what lessons can be learned from a panel consisting of former field manager Bohdan Kozy, Olha Zawerucha-Swyntuch of the CUCUC, winner of the 2009 Global Co-operator of the Year award for her key role in the project, Jo-Anne Ferguson, Senior Director of the International Development Program at CCA and special guest, Ivan Vyshnevskiy, the Chief Executive Officer of the Deposit Protection Program in Ukraine, who will present the recipient country perspective.
Speakers:
Bohdan Kozy (Consultant/former Program Manager Canadian Co-operative Association)
Bohdan Kozy has over 14 years of microfinance experience with most of these years involved in the development and strengthening of Ukraine’s credit unions. Since 1996, with his work starting and finishing as a field manager for the project, he was involved with a comprehensive number of capacity building initiatives from the assistance in starting up credit unions to the support and development of all aspects of a mature credit union system. The recent financial crisis has proven his technical expertise and work in Ukraine to be very successful since the credit unions that adhered to best practices promoted by the project were more resilient to the overall negative economic downturn.
Olha Zawerucha-Swyntuch - Key project support person from the Council of Ukrainian Credit Unions of Canada, 2009 Global Co-operator of the Year)
Olha Zawerucha-Swyntuch is a seasoned credit union manager, having been Chief Executive Officer of two Ukrainian Community based credit unions in Toronto before becoming the first Field Manager of the credit union project in Ukraine for 1993-6. She was a significant driver in the creation of the first credit unions in Ukraine and played a senior role as a volunteer advisor to the project in its latter years from 2004-10.
Ivan Vyshnevskiy - Key project support person from the credit unions in Ukraine, Chief Executive Officer of project supported Deposit Protection Program.
Mr Ivan Vyshenvskiy started his career in 2002 while employed by a credit union in his home town of Khmelnytskiy. Identified by the project as an up and coming leader in Ukraine’s credit union movement he was hired in 2005-7 as a legal adviser and manager of credit union systems development. Through the training he received under the project he was instrumental in creating and developing the Deposit Protection Program for credit unions in Ukraine. The credit unions that were supported by
DPP and the project were proven more resilient to the recent financial crisis.
Jo-Anne Ferguson - Senior Director Development, Canadian Co-operative Association
Jo-Anne Ferguson is the Senior Director of the International Development Program of the Canadian Co-operative Association. Jo-Anne has over twenty-five years of significant experience in credit union management, policy operations and institution development with Credit Union Centrals. She has conducted comprehensive program development missions to provide technical assistance and monitoring services in the transitional economies of China, Mongolia, India, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Ukraine.