15.09.2014, Ukraine
Caritas Ukraine project on development of statutory and regulatory field to create possibilities for financing of social services (that are nowadays provided by civic and charitable organizations in Ukraine) by means of budget money has come to an end. Such activity lasted for 2 years and was financed by Caritas Germany.
“Reform of social services delivery system in Ukraine has being discussed for a long time, however, yet there are no complex and consistent approaches to solving of strategic issues for further social development of the country. And if at the beginning of our project in 2012 we were thinking about creation of favorable conditions for state financing of “Home Care” project, nearly two-year activity in this area showed that is required to change approaches to functioning of social sphere in Ukraine in general.
Therefore, our lobbying group had an ambitious goal: demonopolization of delivery of social services by state structures and creation of functioning mechanisms in sphere of social protection, in particular, by charitable organizations,” retells Head of Lobbying group Dzvenyslava Chaykivska.
Well-grounded analysis of medical, social and legal fields of activity was held, afterwards, lobbying group of Caritas Ukraine got actively involved in process of transformations and enhancement of domestic system of social services delivery to vulnerable population categories, and also of medical system and insurance sector.
In addition, during 2013 regional organizations of Caritas Ukraine in Odesa, Kolomyia and Novovolynsk had been implementing a special project on creation of mechanisms of efficient support of vulnerable population categories and medico-social institutions in small towns of Ukraine.
At the moment there is an entire complex of problems in social services delivery sphere in Ukraine, among them, first of all, there are:
• imperfection of legislative basis that regulates a range of issues related to this sphere
• insufficient quality and efficiency of services
• social injustice
• low level of targeted orientation of services
• high administrative expenditures
• lack of transparency, actual absence of standards system
• discrepancy between budgetary institutions network in sphere of social services delivery and its role
• multilevel hierarchy of budgetary institutions network
• underfunding of establishments in sphere of social services delivery
• low efficiency of budgeted funding mechanism that is not related with the results of budgetary institutions activity in the sphere of social services delivery
• absence of legal regulation of budgetary institution administration activity on income management from entrepreneur’s services that leads to ineffective use of this money
• restrictions on rights of social services consumer on selecting service provider etc.
Under such conditions enhancement of country’s social services delivery system for vulnerable population categories is a priority of Caritas Ukraine work, because it is an efficient tool for dealing with social injustice in Ukraine.
In course of two-tear project implementation Caritas Ukraine took the lead in Coordination and Expert Council on social policy in Center of advanced studies of Ministry of Social Policy and National Academy of Ukraine; participated in Sub-committee on reforming social services system in Committee on forming state policy in sphere of social services delivery to seniors, disabled people, homeless and other socially vulnerable population categories. There is a close cooperation with Ministry of Health Care, Ministry of Social Policy, Academy of Medical Science of Ukraine, Shupyk Institute of Postgraduate Education, Institute of Strategic Studies, all-Ukrainian civic organization “League on favoring the development of palliative and hospice assistance”, public association Red Cross, Committee of Veterans of Ukraine and other relevant organizations.
Representatives of Caritas Ukraine lobbying group often take part in sessions of Public Council in Ministry of Social Policy, working group of Reanimation Reform Package, meetings of international organizations – European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), and WHO in Ukraine.
By the end of lobbying project:
• “Law on social services” was fully worked out by experts, public discussion was being held, infograms and all required documents were prepared for this law to be included in the agenda of Verkhovna Rada session and voting process
• project of ”Law on introducing alterations to Budgetary Code of Ukraine on support of charitable organizations activity” (registration № 4176a from 26.06.2014) was registered by Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and should be voted for at the 4th session of VII calling of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
• proposals to the new version of the law of Ukraine “On social services” were submitted (this law unites two basic laws that regulate social services delivery issues, notably: “On social work with families, children and youth” and “On social services”)
• Draft law prepared and public discussions conducted on “Introducing changes to the Law of Ukraine ‘On humanitarian assistance’” on work of Commission for humanitarian assistance in Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine; comparison chart on norms of acting law and proposals of changes were also prepared
• draft “Law on humanitarian assistance” was included in the agenda of 4th session of VII calling of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, however, it didn’t receive enough votes and was stroke down
• package of changes and annexes to the acting legislation in sphere of social services delivery was worked out and handed over to the Head of Social Services Department
• complex proposals for reforming of social sphere were elaborated and handed over to Prime-Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk
• changes and annexes to the Budgetary Code of Ukraine were suggested; they are related to the new edition of Law on social services that was handed over to field-oriented committee of Verkhovna Rada and Ministry of Social Policy
• “Law on humanitarian assistance” project was translated into
English, because there is a great interest of international organizations that implement humanitarian missions in Ukraine in functioning of the Commission and mechanism of delivery/recipiency of humanitarian assistance especially in conditions of undeclared war in Ukraine
• there was a range of round-tables and public discussions on changes to the legislation with participation of charitable and civic organizations representatives, Verkhovna Rada deputies, authorities, field-oriented experts and members of the general public.
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