Country analysis for Ukraine as a part of “Feasibility study for the Programme Reforming child protection systems – strengthening children’s rights”

The SOS Children’s Villages Worldwide Hermann-Gmeiner Fonds Deutschland developed a multi country programme “Reforming child protection system, strengthening children’s rights” to support the alternative child care reform across the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe region. The programme was implemented in the following five countries: Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Northern Macedonia and Ukraine. The overreaching objective of the programme was to support the reform of the child protection sector in the five countries and contribute to the development of adequate care services for children, increased separation prevention measures and successful De-institutionalisation.

The feasibility study of the “Reforming child protection system, strengthening children’s rights” programme was aimed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the current child protection policies in five countries and evaluate to what extent the programme will contribute to the overarching goal, improved childcare systems. The feasibility study included two main components: 1) the country analysis for each of the five countries and 2) the ex-ante programme evaluation.

“Socioconsulting” Analytical Center conducted the country analysis for Ukraine. The aim of the country analysis was to have an overview of childcare sector status quo in the country. The country analysis included:

1) the profile, the situation and the needs of the target group;

2) the childcare main stakeholders;

3) legal and policy situation;

4) childcare main policies and reforms;

5) policy gaps.

The country analysis was based on the secondary data collected through desk research and primary data collected through in-depth key informants’ interviews. The desk review included review of legislation, policy reports and strategic documents, childcare national and regional reports, national statistics on vulnerable children etc. A key childcare stakeholders, projects and programmes mapping was also done.

The primary data collection was done to support the main findings and conclusions of the secondary analysis and to fill in the data gaps. Twelve semi-structured interviews have been conducted with: child protection authorities at national and regional level, with childcare service providers, main child protection donors and experts.