​Investing in Tomorrow: Strengthening Human Development and Resilience in Ukraine​

Development Challenge

The invasion severely disrupted basic services and devastated Ukraine's human capital, putting the country's prospects for economic prosperity and jobs-driven growth at risk. Between February 2022 and December 2025, 55,600 civilian casualties were recorded. By January 2026, approximately 5.9 million Ukrainian refugees-14 percent of the pre-war population-were registered worldwide, while another 3.3 million people remained displaced within the country. The ongoing conflict, mass displacement, deteriorating economic conditions, and increasing poverty have placed immense pressure on Ukraine's social protection system, resulting in an unprecedented demand for support.

This upheaval has triggered a major health crisis. Vaccine-preventable childhood diseases have resurfaced and chronic illnesses have skyrocketed, with 36 percent of cases affecting working-age people. Hypertension cases rose by 58 percent, heart attacks by 28 percent, and strokes by 78 percent. The Ministry of Health reported over 100,000 amputations by mid-2024. A 2025 survey found that over 80 percent of adults have experienced mental health issues.

Education has also suffered, as war-induced trauma led to significant learning losses. Average Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores dropped by 38 points between 2018 and 2022, the equivalent of losing two years of schooling. Ultimately, Russia's invasion has reversed years of progress in fighting poverty. The World Bank estimated the 2025 poverty rate at nearly 37 percent, up from 20 percent in 2021. As the invasion continues, poverty rates rise further, leaving approximately 9 million people in urgent need of support.

World Bank Group's approach

Recognizing that human capital is essential for resilience, post-war recovery, and private-sector driven growth, the Government of Ukraine (GoU) has continued -despite the war- not only to provide essential services but also to reform the education, health, and social protection systems. The World Bank has supported the GoU in these efforts through a comprehensive, multi-sectoral response across the three sectors, with a total lending of $3.2 billion equivalent. This financing has helped sustain the delivery of health, education, and social protection services for people affected by the war, and supported investments in infrastructure including school shelters, health facility renovations, equipment, and solar power stations to improve energy security of social infrastructure and to strengthen systems' resilience and accelerate modernization.

By combining Investment Project Financing with Program for Results operations, the World Bank has also invested in key reforms to improve the efficiency of public expenditure and modernized service delivery in education, health, and social protection. This includes financing to strengthen the Program of Medical Guarantees - the GoU's main vehicle for financing healthcare services for the population; support structural reforms of the social assistance system to improve its coverage, efficiency, and consolidation; and support the pilots and roll out of the New Ukrainian School (NUS) reform - Ukraine's national effort to modernize teaching and learning in line with European standards and with a focus on ensuring safe access to learning, mitigating learning losses, and strengthening the resilience and quality of Ukraine's education system.

Results and Outcomes

Between 2022 and 2025,

• More than 18,000 students benefitted from free transportation in school buses that comply with safety, fuel efficiency, and accessibility standards
• More than 135,000 teachers benefitted from the NUS-aligned training in the seventh-grade curriculum and 105,000 teachers in the eighth-grade curriculum
• Close to 398,000 seventh-grade students and 381,000 eighth-grade students benefitted from new NUS-aligned textbooks with no gender bias.
• Over 772,000 people benefitted from rehabilitation services, including over 655,000 people from mental health care
• Nearly 6 million people have received subsidized medicines
• Nearly 7 million doses of childhood vaccines have been provided
• More than 11 million people have received expanded primary healthcare services
• Annually, 8.5 million beneficiaries received social assistance payments through 37 different benefit programs. These programs support low-income and energy-vulnerable households, adults and children with disabilities, families with children, and students.

Contribution to the World Bank Group Targets and Jobs

The World Bank's engagement in Ukraine has helped preserve human capital, made it more resilient, and prepared it for rapid recovery. These actions directly contribute to the World Bank's target of strengthening social protection systems to reach at least 500 million people by 2030, supporting countries in delivering quality, affordable health services to 1.5 billion people, and equipping people with education, skills, and opportunities to access jobs and fulfill their potential.

Beneficiary Quotes

"NUS isn't just about transferring knowledge. It focuses on practical application of knowledge," says Iryna Tkachenko, Deputy Director for Educational Work at the Hostomel Lyceum #1. "The child is at the center, with emphasis on ensuring mental, physical, and psychological well-being."

"First and foremost, it's critical thinking," she adds. "Children with critical thinking can analyze information, which helps them understand what's happening around them. The integration of European standards helps to create an educational environment where children not only gain knowledge but also learn to be active citizens of their country and Europe."

Viktor Brunarskyi, Medical Director, Myrotske Family Medicine and Primary Health Care Clinic: "Since installing the 15 kW solar power system through the [World-Bank financed] HEAL project, we have been able to ensure uninterrupted vaccine storage and continue providing essential services even during power outages. Over the past year alone, 350 children received vaccinations at our clinic, and we could safely maintain the required cold chain thanks to solar energy. For the 370 children we serve, this means reliable protection and continuity of care regardless of disruptions in electricity supply."

Lessons Learned

Experience across conflict-affected settings shows that it is more cost-effective to keep essential government services operating - including with the help of external financing - than to rebuild disrupted functions later and recover lost human capital. In Ukraine, the World Bank has been engaged since the first month of the invasion, helping sustain uninterrupted delivery of services while advancing policy and institutional reforms that protect development gains and lay the groundwork for a resilient recovery.

This comprehensive approach has allowed the Bank to leverage successfully external funding. The Bank's investments in Ukraine's human capital have been supported by bilateral contribution through multi donor trust funds (Ukraine Relief, Recovery, Reconstruction and Reform Trust Fund (URTF) and Global Financing Facility. It has also engaged successfully with other IFIs, including Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and Korean Export/Import Bank co-financing the HEAL Ukraine health operation (the first ever co-financing between the World Bank and CEB and CEB's and KEXIM's first ever loans in Ukraine).

In addition to crowding-in financing, the World Bank's unique value proposition of combining funding with knowledge and advisory assistance for the GoU, has enabled it to play a critical convening role. In collaboration with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and UNICEF, the World Bank created SPIRIT - a platform to coordinate multisectoral donor assistance aimed at improving social cohesion and inclusion spanning education, social assistance, disability, pensions, support for veterans, and other issues. In collaboration with the European Union, Swiss Development Cooperation, and the World Health Organization, the World Bank is also providing comprehensive technical assistance (TA) to the GoU in the design and the implementation of the new phase of health sector reforms. The TA and analytical work are helping the Bank leverage additional resources in support of Ukraine and are informing future lending.

Next Steps

The World Bank's investments in human capital are strengthening Ukraine's systems' resilience during the active conflict while, at the same time, laying the groundwork for rapid recovery the day after the conflict ends. At the Prime Minister's request, the Bank is assisting the government in crafting a comprehensive recovery and development plan centered on private-sector led recovery and job creation - Ukraine's Economy of the Future (UEF). Improving human capital and labor supply and productivity through access to high quality health, education, and social safety nets -essential foundations of a job-driven recovery, is at the core of the future of Ukrainian economy.