A ‘Marshall Plan’ for #Ukraine
In 2008, I shared a development proposal with the EU Citizens Consultation. It had the overall aim of tackling systemic problems with a primary focus of childcare reform and was described as a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Ukraine.
In 2011, the body of the author, purpose-driven business pioneer Terry Hallman was discovered by local civic activists, who wrote of his commitment to Ukraine’s institutionalised orphans. In 2008, he described his efforts to leverage investment for a response to systemic problems, at scale. He wrote:
I compiled and wrote a microeconomic development blueprint for Ukraine nationally. The English version was completed in October 2006, at which time I discussed the project with Ukrainian officials in Kharkiv. Central to the project was a center for social enterprise, the purpose of which was to provide education on principles of developing enterprises whose aims were to be self-sustaining and to address specific social problems systemically. That was and is the only way to even begin to address and resolve the widespread problems left in the wake of Ukraine’s prior government. The entire nation, the whole system, was badly damaged. Repair and relief in any one area, such as childcare reform — a horrific mess — could only happen by dealing with the entire social, economic and political system as a whole. Dealing only with the various discrete elements would not work. There had to be a wide-scale reformation of the whole system in order to fix any one part of it.
The blueprint underwent a series of six translations into Ukrainian, first to translate concepts, then to refine the language to acceptable academic standards. University professors and certified translators disagreed with some language of any given translation, thus the refinement process. After six translations and seeming endless discussion over a three month period, the final paper was delivered to Kharkiv National University on February 20, 2007, for immediate release to government officials as they saw fit. Two weeks later, Kyiv announced agreement on the central point and metric of the paper: modern rehabilitation treatment facilities for Ukraine’s most vulnerable people. Those were, and are, children diagnosed as psychoneurologically disabled and hidden away in isolated, remote rural locations to live or die. Death was common and an accepted norm due to neglect arising from almost incomprehensible medical ignorance, corruption and misappropriation of millions of dollars in funding channels that were supposed to assist the children, and entrenched protection of that money stream for benefit of what some judges characterized to me as Ukrainian mafia. The point was not the welfare of the kids as much as siphoning off millions of dollars budgeted to protect and assist them.
Opening up the reality of that situation resulted in threats against me and anyone else interfering with that system. I came under direct assault by tax police, government’s primary enforcement arm if anyone steps out of line. This is not a research activity where many, if any, other people dared to participate. UNICEF was willfully blind to the matter because it was just too dangerous to bother to intercede Powerful interests remained entrenched with enforcers to make it dangerous. Jurists were correct, in my view. It was more a mafia operation than anything else, aimed at misappropriation and laundering of large money. That was perfectly congruent with how Ukraine operated before the revolution. USAID wanted nothing to do with it, nor would they fund any organizations or activists who might try. Some things could be done and some things could not be done. Helping these children was something that could not be done. So, I exposed it and made it the central focus and metric of Ukraine’s microeconomic development blueprint. In that context, it was far more difficult to ignore, dismiss, or argue about. For about six months, I really did not expect to survive. Nevertheless, Ukraine’s government finally conceded the point and announced the opening of more than four hundred new treatment centers for children who were theretofore invisible under tight and deadly enforcement.
As the 60th anniversary of the Marshall Plan came around in June 2007, noise was emerging within Ukraine of a certain political boss preparing a Marshall Plan for Ukraine. This person was a reputed mob boss — exactly the sort of entity that the original Marshall Plan meant to oppose. It seemed most likely that whatever he came up with would be self-serving, hijacking the label ‘Marshall Plan’ and turning the whole notion on its head. I reviewed the original Marshall Plan and realized that what I had written was, in fact, the definition and spirit of the original Marshall Plan. Thus, in June 2007, I appended the original title with “A Marshall Plan for Ukraine.” After some discussion among trusted colleagues over timing, I published an abbreviated version of the paper in two parts in August 2007 in the ‘analytics’ section of the Ukrainian news journal for-ua.com. The abbreviated version removed the rollout sequence over five years, which was more a technical matter and probably of little interest to general readership. It also removed the names of the organizations I had strongly recommended to manage various components, insofar as there was any organization to recommend. There were two, one for childcare reform for children in orphanages, one for childcare reform of children in Ukraine’s theretofore invisible gulag archipelago for disabled children. Both of those organizations had already been approved by ‘others’ by August 2007. Bringing them to light at that juncture might have been counterproductive to their efforts, particularly because of the extreme sensitivity surrounding the matter of disabled children. I opted to just let things proceed quietly, and was convinced beyond doubt for once that sincere and committed efforts to help these children were finally underway. There remain approximately 90,000 children in orphanages, 10,000 in the ‘gulags’. Another 200,000 children live on the streets because state-care options have been less tolerable than street life. Because street children are most visible and therefore obvious, other organizations notice them and are making at least token efforts to help them. Nevertheless, the overall problems are systemic. It is not enough to help these kids without dealing with the causes — primarily corruption and displacement of Ukraine’s cash and resources — that put children in such conditions to begin with. This systemic recognition is at least beginning to be understood. The ‘Marshall Plan’ details it, and provides comprehensive solutions with a financial net-cost to government over seven years of: zero.
That’s about as well as it can be done. It will work, and it must be done if Ukraine wants to become a member of civilized nations. US and Europe can and should help, but only after first conditions are met unilaterally by Ukraine — the sole condition on which I released the ‘Marshall Plan for Ukraine.’ Those conditions are simple: take care of your children, all of them, close the orphanages and gulags, open the truth of the matter, and never try to hide any of it again. That is underway. Ukraine’s government took the initiative. It is now appropriate and necessary for the US and Europe to provide interim assistance, guidance, and models to bring the core metric — child care — to modern, civilized standards from the barbarism that has heretofore prevailed. Even despite Kyiv’s ongoing political convulsions stemming from democratic development — the worst possible form of government except all the others that have been tried, as Churchill put it — Ukraine is now on track to become a member of the club of civilized nations of the world, realize its potential, grow up, and be adult rather than petulant hooligans fighting in a playground sandbox.
T. Hallman
Kharkiv, Ukraine
July 3, 2008
