NIRAS contingency activities for Ukraine

NIRAS has been working in Ukraine for the close to 25 years, which includes substantial activities within sectors such as energy, agriculture, environment, private sector development, good governance, and gender equality.

Prior to Russia’s invasion, NIRAS had 11 ongoing projects in Ukraine that undertook substantial activities in important sectors and had a total contract value of €23 million. NIRAS employed 60 persons as local staff and consultants and 25 international consultants working in Ukraine before the current war.

Working in crisis areas is nothing new or unusual for NIRAS. Our International Development Consulting business has been working in fragile contexts and conflict/post-conflict areas for more than two decades. We have a whole team working on Peace & Stability and as such have the experience needed to handle such security and logistical issues.

During the last 12 months, NIRAS activities have been hit by the crises in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Chad, Mali and now Ukraine.

“In NIRAS, we have developed security guidelines and processes in order to deal with this sort of situation. We have a task force in place to manage crisis situations and also deal with staff evacuations where this is necessary. These plans have also been in place in Ukraine. In this immediate situation, our main concern is to secure the safety of our staff. This has been the primary task for our project managers and local staff, who are cooperating with the taskforce,” says Markus Davelid, Executive Vice President for NIRAS Development Consulting.

Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine.