On August 18, Cedos and UNICEF in Ukraine held an expert workshop as part of the study on the implementation of social protection reform in hromadas.

Yaroslav Onyshchuk, Cedos analyst, shared interim results from the field phase of the study. He highlighted key challenges on the ground, particularly the fact that staff do not always understand the division of responsibilities and lack sufficient information to do their jobs. Yaroslav also presented principles and solutions that will help improve the social protection system in communities. These include:

  • a clear division of responsibilities and authorities among the local, regional, and national levels;
  • an audit of the regulatory framework in the field of social protection;
  • a review of the roles and authorities of district social protection departments;
  • a detailed definition of the authorities of regional departments.

Following the presentation, workshop participants worked in a “world café” format. They discussed the following topics:

  • strategies for informing and providing practical training to social protection workers during the reform implementation process;
  • refining the functionality of registries and ensuring access to them in accordance with the official duties of social protection agencies;
  • developing mechanisms for financial support of communities during the implementation of comprehensive reforms, particularly those related to infrastructure;
  • mechanisms to support communities in assessing the population’s social protection needs.

At the end of the workshop, participants emphasized that it is at the hromada level that people best understand the local situation and interact with residents. Therefore, at the national level, it is important to listen to the experiences of local authorities and take them into account when formulating policies.

The materials developed during the workshop will be included in a study on the implementation of social protection reform in hromadas.

This is the second workshop organized by Cedos and UNICEF in Ukraine as part of the project. As a reminder, the first expert workshop was dedicated to the project’s launch: participants discussed the main barriers and developed recommendations for creating an effective and people-centered social protection system.

This study is supported by the UK government within the framework of the Social Protection for Inclusion, Resilience, Innovation and Transformation (SPIRIT) project, implemented by UNICEF Ukraine. The views do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s and the UNICEF Ukraine official policies.