Unicef Ukraine in the field of social work About unicef in Ukraine

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) opened its office in Kyiv in 1997. Since then, the children’s agency has been working to improve the lives of children and families throughout Ukraine.

Over the years, UNICEF has increased its support to the Government of Ukraine to develop health, nutrition, education and protection programmes for children. UNICEF advocates for children’s right to participation and prioritises actions for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Recognizing that the well being of children is depend on their mothers, UNICEF also works to help women in Ukraine to make their health and education, and better to protect their rights.

In 2006 UNICEF launched a new programme that reflects the country’s pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals that include improving maternal health, reducing child mortality, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and protecting the vulnerable and promoting gender equality.

UNICEF’s current Country Programme of Cooperation with the Government of Ukraine runs from 2006 and consists of four programmes:

• Advocacy, Information and Social Policy Programme 

• HIV/AIDS, Children and Youth Programme 

• Child Protection Programme 

• Child Health and Development Programme 

UNICEF programmes are being implemented in Kyiv, Crimea, Odessa, Donetsk, Lviv, Kherson, Sumy, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytsky, Chernigiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Mykolayiv.

UNICEF is funded by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Advocacy, Information and Social Policy Programme

Issue:

The Government of Ukraine has developed a number of national policies and programmes to benefit children. However, implementation mechanisms and budgetary allocations for these efforts are often inefficient and insufficient.

Policy making is not always well informed due to a lack of data and inadequate analysis. Furthermore, children have little opportunity to participate in political decisions that affect their lives and well being.

Action: Improving the situation of children in Ukraine through more effective policies, improved child rights monitoring and increased participation

In 2006 UNICEF Ukraine started a new programme called Advocacy, Information and Social Policy. This involves working with the government and civil society to help develop child-friendly policies and norms, establish a transparent and efficient monitoring system for child rights and empower young people to get to know and enjoy their rights.

To achieve these goals the following activities are being implemented:

• Development of a comprehensive child rights monitoring and advocacy system.

• Introduction of a Child Friendly City governance model to encourage the redistribution of resources to benefit children and families with children; improve the quality of social services; protect vulnerable children; and introduce the participation of children in decision-making at the local level.

• Strengthening the capacity of the government to develop and implement informed policies through the introduction of the DevInfo data management system for collating, storing and mapping data.

• Assisting the Government of Ukraine to develop and implement a National Action Plan of Action for Children and other important policy documents.

• Strengthening national regulations on media reporting that will protect children’s rights.

• Ensuring children’s participation in decision-making processes by giving them a voice through the media and child advisory councils.

• Engaging the mass media in partnerships for children.