UNDP in Ukraine

International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Public Employment Service of Ukraine have presented a Model of employment and job placement for persons with disabilities, which was developed within a joint Project "Social inclusion of people with disabilities trough access to employment".The presentation was dedicated to the International Day of Persons with Disabilities [ 3 December].

The new model aims at increasing the social roles of persons with disabilities as active participants in social and economic life, enjoying their full rights. Moreover, the new model strengthens the institutional capacity of foundations operating within the social safety net, as well as other social partners regarding their employment and job placement of people with disabilities.

Employment is one of the areas where equal opportunities for persons with disabilities should be created, as duly recognised internationally. Most developed countries, having active policies regarding the inclusion of persons with disabilities into general economic activity, proved that the expenses for increasing the accessibility of new jobs bring significant profits on the national level.

Vasyl Kostrytsya, the National Coordinator of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Ukraine opened the meeting saying that “over 650 million of people, which is approximately 10% of the world's population, live with disabilities".

According to the data of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 80% of persons with disabilities live in developing countries.

One of ILO’s long-term goals has been to provide professional rehabilitation and employment to people with disabilities.  This has resulted in the current ILO Programme – Decent Jobs for people with disabilities, which guarantees decent job placement, proper working conditions, and decent social security. In this, social dialogue is the primary component for reaching this goal.

"The UN in cooperation with governments and NGOs are working together for the realization of the Millennium Development Goals, which includes the decrease of the world wide level of poverty by 2015. Unfortunately, in many cases poverty is directly connected to people having disabilities,”  Kostrytsya added.

"Ukraine gradually introduces active policies aimed at ensuring employment and job placement opportunities to people with disabilities in compliance with the provisions of the UN Convention,"  Ricarda Rieger, UNDP Country Director in Ukraine, said.

The expanding of access to employment for people with disabilities allows applying this human resource for the sake of national development and, apart from having significant social effect, it allows to achieve considerable economic benefits. "For this purpose, we adapt and use the existing occupational guidance services and employment services, in particular the State Employment Service, for people with disabilities. In January-October this year, over 30,000 persons with disabilities have used the State Employment Service," said Volodymyr Galytskiy, the Head of the State Employment Centre of Ukraine and National Director of the Project "Social inclusion of people with disabilities trough access to employment".

Nevertheless, there still exist a number of aspects where the ILO recommendations are not implemented yet, with certain obstacles on the way to obtaining and maintaining a job by the person with disability. All this has been associated with the external environment, that needs to be addressed and is possible to be dealt with, as many experts agree.

Therefore, right now there is a need to introduce a new model that will ensure the inclusion of people with disabilities into various economy sectors, giving an opportunity to work in the open market and fostering social and career self-realization of persons with disabilities. Additionally, the new model will contribute to the development of effective training and re-training programmes in line with current and prospective needs in the labour market, encouraging more employers to employ people with disabilities.

A guiding principle in executing all actions and offering services should be shifting key points from asking a question of "what can be done and what cannot be done by a person with disabilities" to the question of "what should be done to enable people with disabilities work and participate in public life," as Olena Ivanova, the Project Manager says.

For more information, please, contact Iryna Zinchenko, Public Relations Expert in the Project "Social inclusion of people with disabilities trough access to employment", tel.: +38 044 353 66 92.