The vision behind Connecta started taking shape in 2023, when its founders realised that their experience across international organisations, donor-funded programmes, public-sector engagement, and recovery-related work was needed in a new context. Ukraine’s recovery and EU accession path were creating demand for stronger partnership architecture, clearer cooperation models, and a more practical bridge between international frameworks and local delivery. Connecta was built to meet that need.
Connecta’s Co-Founders bring complementary expertise shaped across international organisations and environments. Marianna Zaichykova brings over 20 years of experience across UNICEF and WHO, spanning emergency response and development programming in Ukraine and internationally, including assignments in South Sudan, the Philippines, and the Pacific. She combines strategic communications, partnerships, and government relations expertise with hands-on experience in complex, high-pressure environments. Liudmyla Palamar has a decade of experience across multilateral systems, from UN agencies to the global chemical weapons disarmament body, including work in international policy and advocacy environments in Brussels and The Hague. She combines Ukrainian field experience with a strong understanding of how international institutions operate from the inside. Kseniia Yoruk brings over 10 years of experience across Ukrainian research institutions, UNICEF, and OSCE, combining sociological research, social and behaviour change, and project coordination expertise.
They launched Connecta to help Ukrainian organisations engage with international systems on equal terms, and to make international cooperation in Ukraine more structured, effective, and likely to deliver for all sides. Turning complex frameworks into implementable projects and durable partnerships. As Ukraine’s recovery and EU accession processes accelerated, that need became more urgent, more operational, and more strategic.
Today, Connecta brings together the experience of 20 professionals across its core team, alongside a wide network of external experts engaged in selected projects. Together, we focus on cooperation that is structured, well-governed, and built to hold in complex environments.
Connecta is a Ukrainian social impact group working at the intersection of recovery, EU accession, and international cooperation. We operate through Connecta Consulting — a commercial, mission-driven consulting company — and two civil society organisations with teams based in Kyiv, Brussels, and Warsaw.
We are built for complex, multi-actor environments, where international frameworks, Ukrainian institutions, business, and civil society need to work together in practice.
We are selective about the work we take on. Every engagement — whether a funding application, a service contract, or a multi-actor partnership — starts with an honest assessment of fit: whether we can add real value, whether the conditions for delivery are in place, and whether the project makes sense beyond the proposal stage.
Where we commit, we take ownership of our part: clear roles, transparent reporting, and results that hold up to scrutiny.