3 days ago
World Bank mobilises $80 billion to reconstruct Ukraine
Anna Bjerde, Managing Director of Operations at the World Bank, speaks to Vatican News about the organisation's support for war-torn Ukraine – from financing repairs to energy infrastructure to helping farmers increase their yields. Jul 13, 2025
Anna Bjerde, World Bank Managing Director of Operations, at Vatican News' offices in Rome
By Joseph TullochThe Ukraine Recovery Conference, held in Rome on July 10-11, brought together government officials, international organizations, and financial institutions to strategize about ways to support the war-torn country.
One of the attendees was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, fresh from a visit to Pope Leo XIV at Castel Gandolfo on Wednesday.
Another was Anna Bjerde, Managing Director of Operations at the World Bank, who spoke to Vatican News.
Q: More than three years have passed since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. What have been the World Bank's main contributions so far to the reconstruction of the country?
Anna Bjerde: The World Bank Group, like so many others, has really stepped up to make sure that we could support Ukraine during this very difficult time, providing significant amounts of financing, both our own and also mobilizing resources from Ukraine's main development partners by setting up various platforms and trust funds and ways of channeling funds to Ukraine.
Our focus has been threefold. One focus is to help the government provide essential services like paying for teachers, paying for medical support, paying for a social safety net.
The second has been to support the quick recovery and repair of infrastructure that's being damaged on an ongoing basis, particularly in areas like energy and housing. And the third area has been to start planning for tomorrow.
So that's involved quite a bit of diagnostics and economic modeling to see what might be areas of major growth. In total, we've mobilized about $81 billion for Ukraine, both public and private.
Q: Zooming in on four key sectors—energy, trade, industry, and agriculture— what progress have you made so far, and what still needs to be done?
Energy is key. In February, we released our fourth damage and needs assessment for Ukraine. That shows that for the coming ten years, based on where we are as of February, Ukraine will need $524 billion for a recovery and reconstruction.
Between the fourth damage and needs assessment and the one we did about a year earlier, the damage to the energy sector has gone up by 70%.
So what have we focused on? We have focussed on helping Ukraine receive essential equipment for ongoing repair, which they need to do.
But we have also, through our private sector arm, the IFC, focussed on helping to put in place renewable energy. So there's been a series of rounds of private projects, particularly on wind, which Ukraine can benefit from.
A second area you asked about was trade. Trade has been highly disrupted in Ukraine for a variety of different reasons. Of course, the war in and of itself, but also the various on-and-off blockades of the Black Sea, which have required reinforcement of railways and roads.
We have helped both in terms of infrastructure in the railways, and we have also helped simplify the processes for trade, which has increased the outflow of exports from Ukraine and the inflow of direct investment, which has been helpful.
And then on the agriculture side, so important for Ukraine. We have directly supported farmers in Ukraine, which has actually helped them increase their production and yield of agricultural product, which is important for exports, for livelihoods, for food security in Ukraine.
And the fourth area, industrial activity, has of course been highly affected by the war. We have been mostly focused on supporting energy transport connectivity along with other partners and direct investments in infrastructure.
But we have also tried to help on what we call access to finance, business, environment, and de-risking investments so that industry can keep going. We have found the domestic private sector in Ukraine, as well as the state-owned enterprises, to be very resilient during the war.
We also have been working a lot to sensitize international companies about the needs in Ukraine and the opportunities, as well as providing support for those companies that are interested in supporting Ukraine through either trade finance, through IFC or the private sector, or looking at various ways of providing blended finance so that we can attract finance and investments.
Q: Over the past three years of war in Ukraine, we've seen some stories of incredible resilience. I'm wondering if, through your contacts there, you have any stories like that which you'd like to share?
Absolutely. I've travelled to Ukraine quite a few times since the war started, and the resilience you see and the bravery of the people of Ukraine is amazing. Some of my favourite people are the people who work on the railway system, because we all travel by rail, and these people work through the night to make sure we get safely from the border up to Kyiv. They're just amazing people, and they take pride in being able to bring people into Ukraine even at the risk of their own lives.
Also, meeting with beneficiaries of our projects, whether it's teachers or healthcare workers or utility workers, or governmental officials working through the night in bomb shelters.
I think the sense of identity and the cause of fighting for Ukraine and being able to call Ukraine home has been so important for the Ukrainians. That's what's also inspired our team to keep going there. We have a big team working out of Kyiv, and we will continue to be there for Ukraine.--Vatican News
