81303226-Better market connectivity of Ukraine to the EU

The full-scale, unprovoked and unjustified military attack on Ukraine by the Russian Federation (RF) is causing major suffering and damage to the country and its citizens. The military assault on Ukraine has inflicted widespread suffering and casualties on the Ukrainian population, disrupted the provision of essential services, damaged civilian infrastructure, and caused massive, forced displacement. The war in Ukraine continues to have deep human, economic and business impacts. Forced to cope with rising inflation, supply chain pressures, labour shortages and decrease in consumer demand, those who are a part of the business ecosystem are now dealing with the unprecedented scale, scope and impact of the crisis brought about by the war. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a shift in focus to business continuity support and reconstruction, and preparedness for an increased competitiveness in international markets, and collective resilience. The Multi-Donor Action "EU4Business: SME Recovery Programme" is jointly co-financed by the European Union and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ as part of the BMZ project "Utilization and Implementation of the Association Agreement between European Union and Ukraine in the field of Trade". The overall objective of the Action is "to contribute to alleviating the suffering of the population caused by the military attack and strengthen the country"s resilience". The specific objective of the Action is to "increase the country"s resilience". The Action is implemented together with its "sister action" "EU4Business: SME Competitiveness and Internationalization" under a common management structure. To achieve these objectives, the Action strengthens the resilience of key economic actors which provide jobs and income to the population and uphold the country"s ability to produce goods and services. Hence, target groups of the Action are micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) from most affected areas, returnees to de-occupied areas, companies that are important for the provision of basic supplies as well as enterprises with near-term growth and internationalization potential. The expected output of the Action is the "increased capacity of economic stakeholders and businesses to maintain operations and contribute to the country"s economic resilience and recovery". To reach this Output, the Action supports the war recovery of MSME of Ukraine. This includes the following workstreams: (1) Direct support to micro and small businesses affected by war; (2) Improved competitiveness of SME in the European market and (3) Better market connectivity to the EU. This tender covers workstream 3: Better market connectivity to the EU.