Support to the Capacity of Government Institutions and Local Communities to Strengthen Social Protection Systems in Ukraine is the new name of the project we have been implementing since 2022 with the support of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in Ukraine. From 2022 to 2024, the project was called Supporting the Capacity of the Social Protection System to Register Internally Displaced Persons.
Within the project, we provide institutional, technical, advisory, and methodological support to institutions working in the social protection sector. We also assist people affected by the war, offering free legal consultations, among other services. Additionally, we work on capacity building for IDP Councils, which represent the rights and interests of displaced persons at the local level. Through this project, we collaborate with communities to address the consequences of the demographic crisis caused by internal displacement and to develop long-term strategies for strengthening the social protection system across the country.
Why Is It Important to Support the Social Protection System?
Ukraine first faced internal displacement in 2014. The number of displaced persons increased sixfold after the onset of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion. According to the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, 4.88 million internally displaced persons were registered in mid-December 2022. The full-scale war has caused significant demographic changes in communities that need to be addressed as soon as possible.
As a result of large-scale internal migration, the social protection system was overloaded and could not function properly: the servers of institutions were subjected to numerous cyberattacks, and some labor and social protection departments fell under military occupation, were bombed or looted. In order to provide timely services to IDPs and the affected population, these institutions need to upgrade their equipment and receive support in informing the public, and their staff needs training on basic procedures for working with IDPs. Thus, providing technical assistance to create additional jobs for registering IDPs is essential to the social protection system.
“In the ninth year of the war, the social protection system has faced unprecedented challenges. Social protection is always about people, their lives, well-being, and self-respect. It is about people who need help and people who, no matter what, have to provide help. Now our task is to help the system overcome the consequences of military aggression and help it prepare for future challenges,” says Valeriia Vershynina, Executive Director of the Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Services Charitable” (Project Manager, 2022–2024).
We are committed to doing all that we have planned to accelerate the restoration of the stable functioning of the social protection system in Ukraine.
