We reflect upon the week of the Ukraine Recovery Conference, why there’s hope for Ukraine’s care reform process, and how domestic political will and international attention has galvanised into commitment to all Ukrainian children growing up in safe, loving families.

The Ukraine Recovery Conference 2023 was co-hosted in London by the Governments of Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Focusing on rebuilding the war-torn country both physically and socially, the conference and associated events were an opportunity for the Government of Ukraine to outline its reconstruction plans.  These included an ambitious care reform agenda, and an appeal to international donors to support this process. 

We’ve been working in the run-up to the conference, in Ukraine and internationally, to ensure the international attention focused on Ukraine turns into tangible support for an inclusive, sustainable care reform process.  In late June, alongside 16 organisations including Save the Children, Lumos, Disability Rights International (DRI) and Human Rights Watch, we published joint recommendations on the reform of Ukraine’s child protection and care system. 

Mykolayivka Special Boarding School of General Education, Ukraine, 2016 Photo credit: Aleksandr Glyadyelov.

Securing political will and commitment to care reform  

One essential element of making change happen is ensuring the political will to change is unmistakeably there. 

The day before the conference, Chatham House hosted a dedicated ‘Road to URC 2023’ event, for civil society to discuss its vital role in Ukraine’s recovery. At the event, Yulia Sokolovska, Deputy Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, highlighted the level of political support for the care reform agenda by saying “the President’s (Zelensky’s) ambition is to eliminate children’s facilities while he is President.”¹

At the conference itself, one session on ‘Human Capital’ had significant focus on care reform. Minister for Social Policy, Oksana Zholnovych, and UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Partnerships, Karin Hulshof, highlighted the importance of their Better Care agenda, while Darya Kasyanova, Chair of the Ukrainian Child Rights Network, outlined why the need for care reform is so urgent.  UK Minister for Development, Andrew Mitchell, referenced the UK’s commitment to supporting Ukraine’s care reform agenda “working to ensure that each Ukrainian child, including children with disabilities, has the opportunity to live in a nurturing family.”² 

To secure such consistent commitment to reform on a public stage was a huge step forward.  But there was more to come.  

International support for a Ukrainian vision of the future of child protection 

After the conference, alongside UNICEF, Lumos and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Government of Ukraine, we hosted a side event dedicated specifically to the care reform agenda.  Here, Minister Zholnovych presented Ukraine’s ambitious Better Care agenda, and called for all those in the room to join Ukraine and publicly commit to supporting the reform process.

The call was answered by Denise Brown, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, who spoke of the UN’s commitment to supporting the Government of Ukraine’s journey towards care reform and Danae Dholakia, UK Special Envoy for the Ukraine Recovery Conference, who reiterated the UK’s ground-breaking 2018 commitment to support global care reform efforts. 

Ukraine’s accession to the European Union 

The role of the European Union (EU) in Ukraine’s reform process is key, particularly in the context of Ukraine’s accession journey. The Vice President of the European Commission, Dubravka Šuica, made clear that the EU is ready to rise to this challenge.

Building back better – together 

The clear, public alignment between speakers that ‘the time for reform is now’ is a source of genuine hope that we can make real progress together. In a moving speech, Baroness Helena Kennedy made parallels with the UK’s recovery from World War II, building a stronger social protection system in the aftermath of destruction. 

Tellingly, none shied away from the scale of the challenge; all were clear that the Government of Ukraine is not alone in this process.  UNICEF is supporting the Government to develop its Better Care agenda. Philippe Cori, Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, gave a powerful speech highlighting what will be needed to make this reform a success, including support for the social workforce and concrete funding commitments.  

Indeed, it is only active involvement from Ukrainian civil society experts can ensure that this reform process is sustainable and inclusive. Halyna Kurylo, of DRI, emphasised the importance of the participation of children and adults with disabilities in the process. Lumos’s Yaroslav Laguta made the key point that the child, and their destiny, must be at the centre of reform. Kasyanova willed all involved to consider more than recovery, and focus instead on development – building a better system than before. 

With private sector support also crucial for Ukraine’s recovery, our own CEO Mark Waddington outlined the importance of private sector and civil society collaboration, to ensure resources are allocated towards sustainable, inclusive reform. 

This moment was a product of amazing co-operation. Governments, multilateral institutions and civil society came together as partners to present a clear, aligned position on Ukraine’s care reform. This demonstrates we can move closer to a future where no child in Ukraine grows up missing the love and security of a family. 

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Recovery Conference Should Prioritise Family, Community Care

Officials and business leaders at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London on 21-22 June 2023 should ensure that any “Marshal Plan” for the war-ravaged country includes ensuring children are not separated from their families and shutting down its network of 700 state-run children’s institutions, Disability Rights International, Hope and Homes for Children, Human Rights Watch and Lumos said today.

Even amid the brutal conflict, the Ukrainian government has rightly pledged to ensure “the right of every child to live in a family”. The groups called on Ukraine and its partners to implement key recommendations for the needed care-system reforms, issued on 14 June by 16 organisations with expertise in child protection, disability inclusion and human rights. Replacing Ukraine’s institutional care system, a Soviet-era legacy, with modern social services that strengthen families to help keep them together, and keep children out of institutions, should be central to rebuilding plans, the groups said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been devastating for children, with recent reports highlighting the grave risks and human rights violations experienced by children in residential institutions. As of February 2022, before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine had one of the highest rates of child institutionalisation in the world, despite the fact that over 90 percent of these children had a living parent. War in this country has intensified some of the leading drivers for family separation and child institutionalisation: poverty, disability and conflict.

“There’s a hidden humanitarian crisis playing out in Ukraine, where millions of families are displaced, social services are in tatters, unemployment is growing, food prices are rocketing, daily air raids are the norm and trauma from Russian occupation is widespread. As a result, many parents are struggling to cope, and thousands of children are at risk of being placed in harmful institutions. Now, at a time of war, children need loving and comforting families more than ever. The Ukraine Recovery Conference offers an incredible opportunity to talk about physical reconstruction of buildings, roads and infrastructure, but it must also address social reconstruction that directly serves families and children. This must include a commitment to closing every last children’s institution in Ukraine, and creating a modern care system that helps to keep families together. Families are the future of Ukraine, and leaders at the recovery conference must not ignore this.”

Mark Waddington, CEO of Hope and Homes for Children

Peter McDermott, CEO at Lumos, said:

“The coming together of Ukraine and key partners at this Recovery Conference marks a crucial moment for the international community to build the foundations for – and take significant steps towards – a future where Ukrainian children are not trapped in orphanages, but where families are equipped with the resources and community services they need to take care of children where they belong – at home.”

Eric Rosenthal, Executive director of DRI said:

“With massive international aid being channelled toward Ukraine we call on donors to prioritise family inclusion of children with disabilities and ensure meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations in all aspects of funding, policy making, and program development and implementation.”

Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, said:

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated the harm faced by institutionalized children, and there’s no time to waste. Supporting Ukraine’s recovery means supporting reforms to protect every Ukrainian child’s right to live in a family and a community.”

The 16 groups, with years of experience working in Ukraine, provided specific recommendations to the Ukrainian government, its international partners, and the EU in particular, to realise the right of all children in Ukraine to family and community life, free from the harm, neglect and abuse that are common practice in institutions:

• Ukraine should establish a single national strategy that fully transforms the care system and end the use of residential institutions for all children, including children with disabilities.

• Donors and international partners should dedicate long-term funding to this reform strategy, prioritise funding to develop inclusive, family- and community-based care services, and prohibit funding to institutions.

The EU accession process for Ukraine gives the EU a crucial role as a champion and catalyst for care reform for children in Ukraine, the groups said. The prospect of Ukraine becoming an EU Member means that it is poised to unlock unprecedented attention, resources and technical assistance to ensure the country transitions from an institutional to a family- and community-based care system. It is the international donor community’s role to support Ukraine’s care reform efforts and conform to EU accession requirements, the co-signatories concluded.

Read the joint statement here.

For press enquiries and expert perspectives on children’s care reform in Ukraine, please contact us.

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We’re delighted to launch our flagship publication ‘Families. Not Institutions.‘ This work distils nearly thirty years of our experience in driving forward care reform, across a variety of contexts.

Authored by our global advocacy, research and programmes teams, with additional input and advice kindly provided by strategic partners, it provides

• critical lessons learned,
• practical evidence
• and recommendations.

For global, regional and national decision makers, ‘Families. Not Institutions.’ can help build political will, define strategies and policies, and target funding that transforms care systems.

‘Families. Not Institutions.’ has two modules:

Module I – Unlocking progress through care reform

This module is divided into three parts:

Part I: The harm of institutionalisation

Part II: The case for care reform

This module highlights how tackling the drivers of institutionalisation is key to unlocking broader change in the system, and how that in turn will strengthen progress in key areas such as

• health,
• education,
• poverty reduction,
• gender equality and the rights of persons with disabilities,

Part III: Introducing the roadmap for care reform

Briefly introduces the roadmap, highlighting the key stages and concepts involved in the care reform process.

Module II – A roadmap for care reform for children

This section provides a practical roadmap to guide anyone planning to implement, fund or otherwise support a process of care reform. It includes an overview of the key steps and processes needed to embark on transforming care systems for children. It’s written for government officials, donors, civil society and any other stakeholder that seeks to better understand the care reform process.

Including real testimony and case studies from young people and families with experience of alternative care systems across the world, we hope this publication will galvanise a commitment to children, to their future, and to building equal societies, through transforming the systems that care for them.

Access the full publication including both modules below:

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