The Ministry of Social Policy and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine, with support of the UK Government, announce the launch of a new project to strengthen Ukraine’s demographic resilience.

The Ministry of Social Policy, with the support of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine, together with a wide range of experts from the Institute of Demography and Quality of Life of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Centre for Economic Strategy, government agencies, and international partners, has developed a draft Demographic Development Strategy until 2040.

Ukraine continues to receive international support in implementing an effective demographic policy to overcome the challenges caused by russian aggression: rising premature mortality, large-scale external migration, internal displacement, declining birth rates, etc.

The project, which is supported by the UK Government, envisages measures to ensure coherence of sectoral policies and interaction between government agencies, NGOs and businesses. The project will also include a communication campaign to promote changes in society that will contribute to Ukraine’s demographic development.

“The war has presented Ukraine with extremely challenging demographic tasks, which require a reliable partner to address. We are grateful to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine, and the UK Government for their continued cooperation and are convinced that the project will help reverse negative trends and unite society around building a country where we want to live, where we want to return, where we want to have children, lead a healthy active life, work and develop together,” said Oksana Zholnovych, Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine.

According to Stefan Kossoff, Development Director at the British Embassy in Ukraine, the war has led to significant demographic changes in Ukraine. Given the limited resources that the state can allocate to support the population, provide quality social services and rebuild the economy, the Government of Ukraine needs to be well aware of key demographic trends. The UK is honoured to support its partners – the Ministry of Social Policy, the State Statistics Service, and the Institute for Demography and Social Studies – in collecting accurate and timely population data to inform policy-making, socio-economic planning and recovery.

According to Mustafa Elkanzi, Deputy Representative, United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine, UNFPA is committed to continuing to support Ukraine in addressing the complex demographic challenges that have been exacerbated by the war. To this end, in partnership with the Government of Ukraine and thanks to the support of the UK Government, a project is being launched to strengthen national capacity to collect and assess population statistics that are critical for the development, implementation of evidence-based policies for recovery and long-term demographic sustainability.

The Demographic Development Strategy of Ukraine is aimed at implementing sectoral policies to increase the birth rate, overcome premature mortality and ensure migration growth of the population, as well as creating cross-cutting conditions for a comfortable life in Ukraine: affordable housing, quality public infrastructure, safe and barrier-free environment, inclusive labour market and social cohesion.

The draft Strategy is a high-level document that provides a general description of the problems and goals and objectives aimed at solving them, and is supplemented by an Action Plan that will ensure the coordinated implementation of the Strategy by all relevant authorities. The draft Strategy is currently at the final stage of approval by the Government of Ukraine.