Formulation expert for Technical Assistance project SPFU (M/W)

Описание

The overall objective of this mission is to gather the necessary information and insights on needs to accompany the implementation of SOE governance and privatization reforms, and to develop an offer for technical assistance project. The project will build on existing activities implemented by Expertise France in the sector, and will ensure to strengthen the capacities of MoE and SPFU, including their interactions. Hence, the project will include support at both policy and technical levels, aimed at improving the management and use of state-owned assets.

The Expert will report to the Expertise France and work in the synergy with EUD . Regular updates and coordination meetings will be held as required.

Specific objectives for the scoping and formulation mission include:

       I.           Scoping and identification of updated needs:

·         Assess the existing governance framework of SOEs: assess the state of the progress of the SOE governance reforms as well as their implementation and perform need assessment.

·         Assess the existing framework for privatization of SOEs: assess the state of the progress of the reforms regarding SOE privatization as well as their implementation and perform need assessment.

·         Identify key priorities for EU support: Determine the areas where EU funding should have the greatest impact and align with Ukraine's main reform agenda, including towards its international commitments.

·         Map existing actors supporting reforms in SOEs and working on governance/privatization: Identify and analyze key actors and projects supporting reforms and their implementation regarding the governance and/or privatization of SOEs ;

·         Consult with key stakeholders: Engage with relevant Ukrainian ministries and agencies, civil society organizations, state-owned companies, international organizations, EU Delegation and other relevant actors to understand their perspectives, priorities, and ongoing activities.

     II.           Formulation based on lesson learned from “Assistance to SPFU” and other supports to MoE

·         Identify and propose possible intervention areas and design components for the new programme: Based on the need assessment and stakeholder consultations, identify potential areas for EU support and propose how to structure the new program accordingly, including but not limited to:

·         Improvement in governance & management of State-Owned Enterprises, both for those that are to remain in State Ownership and those that need to be privatized , on different levels:

o    At policy level, support for reforms on corporate management and privatization, including the regulatory proposals, design of soft tools, strategies, plans, asset pipelines, recommendations that refer to the best practices and international standards, in particular OECD SOE Guidelines.

o    At implementation level : Institutional support for reform, capacity building, development of IT tools, control and monitoring mechanisms that contribute to an improved management of State Owned Assets. 

o    At technical level : support directly to SOEs for either the preparation to privatization, transformation to a new corporate structure, which might include: identification and retrieval of assets, inventory, corporate documents, internal control procedures and tools, separation of assets, identification and removal of encumbrances.

·         Identify potential synergies and complementarities: Explore opportunities for synergy and complementarity with the activities of other donors.

·         Identify potential risks and challenges: Analyze the potential risks and challenges associated with project implementation in the current context and propose mitigation strategies.

·         Gather information for the development of a logical framework and indicative budget: Collect data and information that will contribute to the development of a results-oriented logical framework and a preliminary budget for the future project.

1.      Scope of Work:

The scoping mission will cover the following key areas:

·         Cross-cutting Issues: The mission should pay attention to cross-cutting issues such as particularly gender equality, digitalization of the governance sector.

2.      Methodology:

The scoping mission will employ a mixed-methods approach, including:

·         Desk Review : Review of relevant documents, including Ukraine Facility, OECD SOE Guidelines, IMF review and program, main reports from CSOs on SOEs, existing project documentation, relevant reports from international organizations including WB and EBRD. It will also review all relevant national legislation, including State Ownership Policy, law on SOEs, law on SPFU, law on privatization, and relevant bylaws and secondary legislation.

·         Stakeholder Consultations : Conducting semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders, including:

o        Representatives of relevant Ukrainian government ministries and agencies (eg, Ministry of Economy, State Property Fund of Ukraine, economic development committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Ministry of Finance, NACP, State Audit Service, Land Bank, ARMA,

o        Representatives of civil society organizations (business associations (CGPA), CSOs (Transparency International, Institute of Legislative Ideas, KSE, etc.).

o        Representatives of the EU Delegation to Ukraine.

o        Representatives of other multilateral and bilateral donors (eg EBRD, WB, IMF, UK/FCDO, etc) and assistance projects (eg EUACI).

·         Analysis and Reporting : Analyzing the collected data and information to identify key findings, conclusions, and elements for the design of program.

3.      Deliverables:

Mission Report : A synthetic report (in English) exposing the mission's findings, analysis, conclusions, and clear recommendations for the design of the future EU-funded SOEs project.

• Mapping of existing initiatives and potential for synergies.
• Assessment of potential implementation modalities.
• Identification of key risks and challenges and proposed mitigation strategies.
• Preliminary ideas for a logical framework and indicative budget.
• Consideration of cross-cutting issues.
• A list of stakeholders consulted.

Writing of a first draft of Description of Action (DoA) and Logframe. The contribution of the experts will focus on the technical aspect of the Description of Action. For other parts of the DOA such as information on Expertise France, monitoring and evaluation processes and communication plan, Expertise France will be in charge of the redaction. The experts will also elaborate a first draft of a logframe which will be finalized by EF. After the inception period, the experts will communicate with EF elements they identified to help the consolidation of the budget. EF will take the lead in the establishment of the budget.

4.      Timeline:

The scoping mission is expected to take place in March 2026. A proposed indicative timeline is as follows:

I) Inception period:

·         Second week of March : Operational meeting with Expertise France to discuss expectations, deliverables, methodology and introduce the group of experts to each other and the contact points at Expertise France.

·         Second week of March : Desk review of the context and previous phase, initial stakeholder mapping and outreach, scoping mission planning and interview preparation.

·         3rd ^week of March : Stakeholder consultations in Kyiv/online.

·         1st week of April : Data analysis, report drafting and meeting with EUD to present the findings and get their feedback before starting on the DOA.

Ø   1 ^st Deliverable, March 31st = concept note with thematic orientations and human resources plan.

II) Formulation of project documents:

·         Until April 3rd: Elaboration of EF related documents: Logical Framework, Organization chart, Budget

Ø   2 ^nd Deliverables, 17 ^th April: First draft of DoA, Logframe and Budget.

·         4th week of April : Consolidation of the draft of contribution agreement according to feedback.

Ø   3 ^rd Deliverables, 07 ^th May: Final versions of DoA, Logframe and Budget.

1.     Evaluation Criteria for Supplier Selection

The selection of the expert will be based on the best value for money principle, combining both the financial proposal and the technical offer

Weighting of Criteria:

Technical Offer – Evaluation Breakdown (70%)

With over 3,000 state-owned enterprises (SOEs), Ukraine is the second country in the world with the largest number of state-owned enterprises. Their burden on the state budget is substantial, which requires a rationalization of the state-owned enterprise portfolio. Large state-owned enterprises contribute tens of trillions of hryvnias in dividends to the state budget, but the majority of SOEs are loss-making and require subsidies.

The reform of state-owned enterprises in Ukraine has two main objectives: i) to reduce the number of state-owned enterprises by privatizing non-strategic assets and liquidating the non-solvent companies ; ii) to corporatize and improve the management of companies that remain under state ownership by implementing international best practices, particularly the OECD Corporate Governance principles.

Since 2022 , the policy framework governing state-owned enterprises has undergone a gradual transformation aimed at aligning public-sector corporate governance with OECD standards and EU economic integration requirements. The reform has shifted the state 's role from direct administrative control over enterprises toward a model based on professional ownership functions, transparency, supervisory oversight, and portfolio optimization. This transition has been driven by wartime economic constraints, fiscal pressures, anti-corruption commitments, and international financial assistance conditionalities, all of which have impacted the political priority of restructuring the state sector.

A central pillar of this reform has been the modernization of the legislative framework governing corporate entities. This includes the adoption of the Law “ On Joint Stock Companies ” in 2022 , Law on corporatization of SOEs in 2024, amendments to legislation on the management of state property clarifying the powers of ownership entities, strengthened reporting obligations of enterprises, and formalized performance monitoring mechanisms, revisions to secondary legislation adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers regulating dividend policies, appointment procedures for supervisory board members, and evaluation criteria for enterprise managers.

A major strategic step was the approval by the government in 2023 of the State Ownership Policy, introducing a unified ownership rationale and portfolio classification approach, distinguishing between strategic enterprises, commercially oriented assets, and entities subject to privatization or liquidation. 

At the institutional level, reforms have focused on upholding supervisory boards as the core governance mechanism. Updated government regulations strengthened the role of independent board members, introduced competitive selection procedures, established qualification requirements designed to reduce political influence and improve managerial accountability.

To accelerate privatization, the government has adopted reforms aimed at simplifying the process, including revising the procedure for transferring state-owned enterprises from line ministries to the State Property Fund (SPFU). A total of 1,200 state-owned enterprises have been transferred to the SPFU over the past two years. Thus, approximately 130 SOEs are sold by the SPFU each year. Other non-working, empty SOEs are liquidated.

Besides the Fund, there are 80 other managing entities, scattered across various ministries, agencies that prevent a harmonized, coherent state ownership policy and efficient monitoring of state asset utilization.

The State Property Fund of Ukraine plays a central role in the reform of state-owned enterprises. Its two key strategic functions include the operation of privatization of SOEs and management of state assets.

Expertise France has been actively supporting SOE reforms since 2024, working with the Ministry of Economy, Agriculture & Environment and the State Property Fund covering both the policy level (eg development of centralized management model, simplification and updates of privatization legislation, elaboration of insolvency and market-exit procedures) and implementation level. In particular, Expertise France assisted the SPFU in the strengthening of one key feature of the good governance set – risk management - both for the SPFU to improve the management of its portfolio and reduce fraud risks; but also within SOEs. Expertise France provides technical support regarding specific assets, to enhance their management until they are put back to the market, including the sanctioned assets, or the state owned land plots.

The privatization and SOE governance reform sector had been particularly weakened by the withdrawal of the USAID-funded SOERA & Pro-Integrity Technical Assistance projects in February 2025. While Expertise France attempted to extend its support to include few urgent needs, most the privatization-related needs remained unaddressed.

Given the ongoing reform, the SPFU requires support in terms of improving the regulatory framework and institutional development in order to be capable of fulfilling its assigned tasks, including the improvement of tools and mechanisms for privatization and interaction with state-owned enterprises.

While the European Union is contemplating financing a new technical assistance project to expand Expertise France's project, and scale up the support new areas and needs, Expertise France organizes a scoping mission to assess the main needs that could be addressed through this EU-funded project.

This call aims at identifying Formulation expert with background in the corporate management/SOEs sector, Ukrainian national.

The expert shall present the following experiences & qualifications:

·         Education:

o    Higher education in the field of business administration, corporate law, finance or related disciplines;

·         Experience:

o    At least 7 years of experience in corporate governance;

o    At least 5 years in State institutions, including State Owned Company, Ministry, or State Agency;

o    Experience with donor funded international projects is mandatory;

o    Experience in project development is a strong asset;

o    Experience in the management of state-owned assets and properties is a considerable advantage.

·         Skills:

o    Strong writing & analytical skills;

o    Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities;

o    Ability to work in team and perform cross-cutting evaluations.

o    Knowledge of project management, resource planning, and budgeting;

o    Knowledge of the legislative and regulatory framework regarding the management of state owned assets & properties.

·         Languages : English - Fluent; Ukrainian.

1.      Place, duration and terms of performance

o    Implementation period: 3 months

o    Start date: March 2026

End    date: 01/06/2026

o    Effective duration per assignment: 20 working days

1.      Document to be submitted by the candidates:

o    Financial proposal (daily rate);

o    CV;

o    Short cover letter presenting the alignment of past experiences and skillset with the expected qualifications.

o    Up to three references.