Oksana Zholnovych, Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine, presented the strategy of social development at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2023), which began on 21 June in London.

The event brought together international partners, Ukrainian government officials, representatives of international financial institutions, the private sector and civil society to jointly identify priorities for Ukraine’s recovery and economic and social stabilisation.

Oksana Zholnovych spoke about the concrete steps taken by the Government of Ukraine to build a new holistic sustainable social system.

“Rebuilding Ukraine is impossible without people. Unfortunately, every day Ukrainians face challenges that cause physical, mental, economic and social losses. Millions of our citizens are already in need of support and recovery. Therefore, we are working tirelessly to ensure that Ukrainians have the desire to live and return to Ukraine,” said Oksana Zholnovych.

The Minister emphasised that Ukraine’s social policy aimed to build people’s capacity rather than their dependence on the state. She added that Ukraine would become a country of the best digital social solutions, where almost all services would have online support, and social services would be of high quality and accessible.

Oksana Zholnovych identified key vectors and priority projects in the work of the Ministry of Social Policy: digitalisation of all social solutions, building a new system of social support, development of family forms of education, creation of a prosthetics hub in Ukraine, and support for the resilience of Ukrainian families and the elderly.

“The current demographic situation requires the Government to take active steps, including to increase the birth rate. The state will provide support for family planning so that future parents have the necessary access to all medical and social services in this regard,” added Oksana Zholnovych.

The Ministry of Social Policy also focuses on supporting families in difficult life circumstances. To provide systemic support to families, the Government is simplifying payments through the creation of a universal allowance. The Minister also emphasised that the Government’s attention was currently focused on creating conditions in which every child would be brought up in a family as the best environment for growth.

“An important aspect of the reforms is to provide every child with a family. If it is not possible to preserve a family, we must do everything to find a foster family. That is why we have launched a project to train foster families and build housing for them. Almost 9,000 children today do not have parental care and need to be placed in family-based care,” said Oksana Zholnovych.

The Minister stressed that Ukraine was responding to another challenge caused by the war – a significant increase in the number of people with disabilities. Therefore, the Ministry of Social Policy is working to ensure that these people are included in social life as much as possible, receive timely and comprehensive rehabilitation, and are provided with assistive technologies and support during employment.

“Today in Ukraine, we have a lot of cases of extremely complex prosthetics. However, we also want to transform this experience into our advantage and develop the best possible rehabilitation practices and innovative solutions. I am confident that we will create a global hub for prosthetics in Ukraine and that it will be useful not only for Ukraine but also for the whole world,” added Oksana Zholnovych.

She also noted that according to WHO, almost 15 million Ukrainians could have mental health problems and needed support. In this context, the focus of social programmes is on building resilience and human development.

“In order to prevent the exacerbation of mental health problems, we plan to create resilience centres in each community where everyone can receive psychosocial support. These will be spaces for community development and centres for the formation of our unique volunteer movement, which will be able to respond to any challenges and meet any needs,” the Minister said.

In conclusion, Oksana Zholnovych emphasised that everyone in the country was important and should become part of the recovery and find their place in rebuilding Ukraine.