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

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

Ukraine continues to receive international funding intended for effective demographic policy implementation to overcome the challenges caused by Russian Federation aggression, namely, rising premature mortality, large-scale external migration, internal population displacement, birth rate decline, etc.

The project, which is supported by the UK government, includes measures to ensure the coherence of sectoral policies and the interaction of government agencies, NGOs, and businesses. The project will also contain a communication campaign focused at shaping changes in society that will foster Ukraine's demographic development.

“The war presented extremely difficult demographic challenges to Ukraine, and it is important to have reliable partners to help us solve them. We are grateful to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine, and the UK government for their continued cooperation. We are convinced the project will assist in reversing negative trends and unite society around building a country where we would like to live, where we would like to return, where we would like to raise our children, to lead a healthy active life, to work and develop together,” mentioned Oksana Zholnovych, Minister of Social Policy of 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 restore the economy, the Government of Ukraine needs to be well informed about key demographic trends. The UK is honored to support our partners, namely, the Ministry of Social Policy, the State Statistics Service, and the Institute for Demography and Social Studies, in collecting accurate and timely population data, needed for further policy-making process, socio-economic planning and restoration,” said Stefan Kossoff, Development Director at the British Embassy in Ukraine.

“UNFPA is committed to provide further assistance to Ukraine in addressing the complex demographic challenges that have been exacerbated by the war. For those purposes, in partnership with the Government of Ukraine and with the support of the UK Government, we launch a project 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,” mentioned Mustafa Elkanzi, Deputy Representative, United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine (UNFPA).

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

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