Two-day conferences on community security and justice, bringing together around 200 representatives of communities, local authorities, the media, the judiciary, the police, and civil society organizations from Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, wound up on Thursday, April 27, 2017. UNDP presented the key finding of its new report, “Justice and Security: Perspectives of Communities in Three Oblasts.” The conference included a series of workshops and roundtable discussion between various stakeholders about community security and justice systems, and sought to identify problems and find solutions to the challenges that conflict-affected Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts are facing today.

UNDP Deputy Country Director comments on the progress of health care reform in Ukraine achived during the past two years.

In November 2017, Ukraine will present its national report to the UN Human Rights Council under the 3rd cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. This provides the opportunity for each UN Member State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situation in their country, and to fulfil their human rights obligations.

A group of young representatives of NGOs in the Donbas has left on a fact-finding trip to Ivano-Frankivsk. There, they are to meet their counterparts from Teple Misto, an organization set up to develop the western Ukrainian city. The trip is one of a programme of visits designed to encourage peer-to-peer learning and best practice sharing between NGOs from around the country. The overall goal of the visits is to inspire activists from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to change their cities and communities for the better.

The Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the United Nations Development Program report the completion of all procurement procedures for adult and child hemophilia medicines according to the agreement.

With a Human Development Index of 0.743, Ukraine is now at the 84th place out of 188 countries and territories – down from the 81th place in 2015. This reflects reality in a country which has an armed conflict on its territory and is struggling to modernize its economic, political and social institutions.

The restoration of critical infrastructure is a necessary requirement for the economic and social recovery of the conflict-affected regions in Ukraine. Since 2015, UNDP has rehabilitated 18 social and 10 economic infrastructure facilities that are of critical importance to the region.

At UNDP Ukraine’s Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, we have an ambitious goal: to promote entrepreneurship in Donbas, inspire people who worked all their life in mines and factories to step in the unsure path of entrepreneurship, and make them believe in themselves and their country again. So we decided to start by showing the joy of creating and developing your own business through the stories of ordinary people. Stories of people like us who, despite all the difficulties, have succeeded. Written by Janthomas Hiemstra, UNDP Ukraine Country Director and Sofiya Oshchebska, National Coordinator - Crowdfunding Academy, UNDP Ukraine.

In March 2016, UNDP set up four сitizens advisory bureaus to support the government in providing administrative, psychological and legal aid to the vulnerable population in the atermath of the conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

Over the past 2 years UNDP has been supporting anti-corruption civic activists in Ukraine. 60 community movers and shakers have been equipped with knowledge and tools for tackling corruption on the ground under its annual anti-corruption school. As a result, 40 best ideas were supported by UNDP with seed funding, to continue anti-corruption initiatives at the local level. This April, UNDP kicked off its third annual Anti-Corruption School for a pool of young, ambitious CSOs and newly-formed initiative groups.

"If there is one reform in Ukraine that can really change Ukrainian society – a game changer for the whole of the country – it is health care reform. Yes, other reforms are enormously important too – from pension reform to anti-corruption to reform of education. Yet, for every person, there is a moment in life when health is critical, always when we are old, but often when we are surprisingly young, such as for wounded veterans or when unexpected illness strikes.