The World Bank announced recently that its board of executive directors has approved a $300 million loan to Ukraine for the Social Safety Net Modernization Project.

"The new project will help improve the performance of Ukraine's social assistance and social services system for low-income families," Qimiao Fan, the World Bank country director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, said. "This help for the poorest is critical, especially as Ukraine embarks on a series of essential reforms, including raising gas and heating tariffs. We don't want the increase in tariffs, for instance, to have an undue impact on the most vulnerable."

The loan will help expand the Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) program, a cash-transfer program for those most in need. The number of people covered by the GMI is expected to nearly double from 586,000 in 2013 to 1.1 million in 2019.

The project will also help to meet the needs of orphans and disabled children under the age of 18 in four separate regions of the country.

The six-year project is part of the larger assistance package announced by the World Bank Group in March; it plans to provide up to $3.5 billion to Ukraine by the end of this year.