In Ukraine, Svitlana Pakulko creates the conditions to achieve impact and foster resilience

Svitlana Pakulko has spent her career strengthening the often-invisible systems that allow civil society to function, adapt, and endure, even under extraordinary pressure.

Trained as an accountant, Pakulko began her career at the Ukraine office of the International Center for Nonprofit Law, a U.S.-based NGO that, at the time, was supporting the development of new legislation for civil society across Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. Over time, she advanced through the organization, eventually becoming head of the local office. The experience strengthened her operational and financial management skills, as well as her desire to make an impact in her country.

When the organization later scaled back operations in Ukraine, Pakulko began searching for a new role where she could continue applying her expertise while contributing meaningfully to the country’s development. That search led her to Pact in 2012.

“I accepted the offer from Pact because I could apply my knowledge of operational and financial management, as well as continue to support the development of civil society” she said. “But I stayed for more than 13 years because I share Pact’s values and culture.”

Since joining Pact, Pakulko has held a range of roles supporting country directors and chiefs of party across multiple projects. Her responsibilities have spanned financial management and reporting, grant management, human resources, operations, fundraising, and business development. She has followed projects from inception to closeout, including donor audits, and supported teams through every phase of the project.

“The essence of the work has ranged from start-up style to building and managing quite large, complex teams,” she explained.

What has kept her motivated, beyond the technical challenge, is the tangible connection between operational support and real-world impact.

Pakulko’s career at Pact has unfolded during some of the most turbulent years in Ukraine’s recent history. When reflecting on the challenges she has faced, three moments stand out: the Covid19 pandemic, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the closure of USAID.

“In the first two cases, the challenge was to support security — mine and the wider Pact team’s — and keep order and processes running at a level ready for recovery,” she said.

While funding remained available during the pandemic and the early stages of the war, the closure of USAID added a new layer of uncertainty. Pakulko’s expertise became critical as teams worked to responsibly scale down and close projects while also exploring new ways to deliver essential activities for communities.

“The role of the operational and finance team during these crises was to create the conditions to keep going,” she said, “not only for Pact’s program team and consultants, but for our wider network of partners, including sub-grantees and local communities — while still maintaining compliance with rules and regulations.”

For Pakulko, the measure of success during crisis was not only whether systems continued to function, but whether people did.

“My key personal impact was keeping the operational and finance team capable of supporting Pact activities while remaining safe and sound — mentally and physically,” she reflected.

On a broader scale, Pakulko sees her work as contributing to the resilience of Ukraine’s civil society as a whole. Through Pact’s programs, her teams have supported organizations serving vulnerable populations such as veterans and people living with HIV, alongside initiatives promoting resilience, such as mental health awareness campaigns.

“We provide resilient channels to quickly operationalize available support funding,” she said. “That matters when communities are under pressure and time is critical.”

One project stream in particular stands out as deeply meaningful: a war-survivor and veteran-centered mental health initiative scaled up after 2022.

“Until then, wars and violent conflicts were something distant for Ukrainians,” Pakulko said. “Since then, everything changed.”

The project helped people with both mental trauma and physical injuries reintegrate into society. While the immediate services were directed toward veterans and war survivors, Pakulko emphasizes the wider ripple effects.

“It’s about keeping families together, neighbors and colleagues feeling comfortable and safe, and preventing criminal circles from swallowing people in despair,” she explained.

Pakulko and her team worked to ensure the project launched quickly and operated effectively. The result was not just individual support, but the creation of a sustainable system: an ecosystem of 380 trainers equipped to carry the work forward.

For Pakulko, development programming is essential to Ukraine’s future — not only during wartime, but long after.

“Many communities and social segments still lack funding and skills to cope with various issues,” she said. “Development programming doesn’t just help directly; it identifies issues and puts them in the spotlight for government and society.”

She also notes that development actors are uniquely positioned to work on complex or politically sensitive challenges, from internal institutional reforms to long-term social issues that lack immediate political payoff, as well as issues that lack local funding.

Looking ahead, Pakulko hopes Pact will continue to serve as a trusted partner during recovery and reconstruction.

“Pact has proven itself as a reliable partner,” she said. “It’s now important for channeling wartime resilience-focused support and future reconstruction aid.”

She believes that without Pact, Ukraine’s civil society would lose an important support and partner — an organization that understands both their needs and the operational realities.

As for her own role, Pakulko remains focused on ensuring that the systems behind the scenes remain strong enough to carry Ukraine forward — through recovery, rebuilding, and beyond.