Ukraine Mediators Trained With IFC Support Receive International Accreditation
In Kyiv:
Larissa Shidlovskaya
Phone: +38044 490-64 00
E-mail: lshidlovskaya@ifc.org
In Moscow:
Ilya Sverdlov
Phone: +7 495 411-75 55
E-mail: isverdlov@ifc.org
Kyiv, Ukraine, February 5, 2009—IFC,
a member of the World Bank Group, has helped set up a network of internationally
accredited mediators in Ukraine to help companies and banks reduce the
time and cost of resolving business disputes, a service that could be especially
important amid the economic downturn.
The mediators, trained at the Ukrainian
Mediation Center, have received accreditation from the Centre for Effective
Dispute Resolution (CEDR), an internationally recognized provider of alternative
dispute resolution services worldwide. In the last three months of 2008,
the mediators completed a series of CEDR training courses that were conducted
as a part of IFC’s Ukraine Corporate Governance Mediation Pilot Project.
Program graduates have already started
applying their newly acquired mediator’s skills to resolving corporate
and family disputes.
Olga Shepel, General Director of Kaanto
LLC, described her first experience as a mediator. “With parties to the
dispute moving from defense to attack, I was impressed with the changes
I could observe while posing questions in the right way,” she said. “The
parties calmed down and started talking about their actual interests.”
Halyna Yeremenko, the Head of Ukrainian
Mediation Center, said: “We hope that the accreditation of Ukrainian mediators
based on high international standards opens broad opportunities for our
graduates in Ukraine, and also across other post-Soviet countries. As a
next step, with IFC’s help, we are planning to develop our own mediator-skills
training program”.
Amid economic difficulties in Ukraine,
the Ukrainian Mediation Center will seek to provide customized extra-judicial
dispute-resolution services to clients who need help in developing negotiating
positions and saving costs wherever possible.
The Ukraine Corporate Governance Mediation
Pilot Project was launched in October 2008 and is a part of IFC's ADR Global
Product Development Initiative. Supported by the governments of Canada
and the Netherlands, IFC helped introduce mediation in Bosnia in 2004 by
launching the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program. The program has settled
350 cases in three years, freeing more than $13.5 million in blocked assets
that local businesses are now reinvesting.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group,
creates opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives.
We foster sustainable economic growth in developing countries by supporting
private sector development, mobilizing private capital, and providing advisory
and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments. Our new investments
totaled $16.2 billion in fiscal 2008, a 34 percent increase over the previous
year. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
About the Ukrainian Mediation Center
The Ukrainian Mediation Center was established
in 2008 under the auspices of the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School (KMBS), at
one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe. The center combines training
in mediation and negotiation skills with academic research on effective
dispute resolution, and provides services on mediation of corporate disputes.
For more information, visit http://www.ukrmediation.com.ua.
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