The Kyiv School of Economics, with the support of UNICEF, in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine and under the coordination of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, continues to implement a large-scale project aimed at improving the efficiency of social spending with regard to the interests of families with children. One of the project’s components is the educational component — organizing and conducting trainings for hromadas professionals. In June, such a training was held for the first time in Kyiv, which was the start of a program of events throughout Ukraine.

In July, offline trainings on “Public Finance Management for Children and its Role in Local Recovery” were held in Lviv (July 3-5) and Vinnytsia (July 23-25). They were attended by representatives of local governments and regional military administrations from Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Lviv, Zakarpattia, and Volyn oblasts who are responsible for social protection, regional development, financial management, and services for children. 

According to Larisa Kushnirenko, Head of the Department of Social and Veteran Policy of the Hostomel Military Administration, who attended one of the trainings, this experience was highly beneficial: “Currently, the public finance management in our hromada does not sufficiently take into account the interests of the families, children, and youth. Current programmes do not fully cover all categories of children and youth; attention is focused only on preferential categories.”

She added that they are now ready to implement new approaches based on what they learned: “Participation in the training changed the vision on many things. First of all, we will change the approach to solving the problems of different age groups of children, considering that each of them has different needs. We will also definitely develop gender-oriented budgeting. I am very grateful to the organizers of the event for their training, interesting ideas, and qualified advice. We will use them in our further work.”

So far, three three-day sessions have been held in Kyiv, Lviv, and Vinnytsia, and the project aims to cover 47 communities in total.

The training program consisted of three modules, during which, in particular, participants analyzed tools and approaches to financing social programs, peculiarities of gender-oriented and child-centered approaches to budgeting, and studied best practices of international experience in the field of child social protection. Each module included theoretical and practical exercises aimed at improving the participants’ competencies in public finance management.

The workshops are expected to become an important platform for knowledge exchange between experts from different regions. Participants will work on real cases, develop practical strategies, and learn how to raise financial resources effectively to support social programs.

The trainings are part of the project “Integrated Social Services for Conflict-Affected Children and Their Families in Western and Central Ukraine,” funded by KfW and UNICEF and “Shock-Responsive Social Protection analytical study of national budget programmes including vulnerable categories affected by the war, families with children, and beneficiary perceptions of social support response in an emergency context.” Implemented by the Kyiv School of Economics under UNICEF funding.