The ultimate goal of the strategy is to make barrier-free principles a new social norm

Kyiv, 2 March 2021 – Suggestions to the draft National Strategy on a Barrier-free Ukraine will be presented on 4 March 2021, at the intersectoral working group meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. 

The presentation will be followed by wide public discussions of the draft strategy, in which everyone can take part.

Finalized and approved by all line state institutions, the document will be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers for review and approval. A meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers during which the strategy will be approved has been scheduled for mid-April 2021. Following that, the large-scale implementation process will start.

More than 150 experts from all over Ukraine have been engaged in developing the National Strategy for a Barrier-free Ukraine, working under six thematic groups covering a range of areas from the physical to the digital.

UNDP is supporting the development of the national strategy and its experts are engaged in the development process. Their package of recommendations forms the experts will form the basis of the draft national strategy.

The development of the National Strategy on a Barrier-free Ukraine is being implemented as a result of the Big Talk initiative of First Lady Olena Zelenska, and under a presidential decree. The ultimate goal of the strategy is to make barrier-free principles a new social norm.

A survey conducted as part of this initiative showed that the issue of barriers is of great concern to Ukrainians, as it affects nearly everyone.

For example, it is hard for a student or an elderly person to get a job; a parent with a stroller or a person with a disability sometimes can’t enter a shop; and a child living in a village can’t study online because of the lack of internet connection. The experts stress that these barriers not only negatively affect individuals, but also hamper the country’s development as a whole. This makes the development of the national strategy, which will provide comprehensive solutions to address these issues, of high importance.

The development of the strategy is being coordinated by an intersectoral working group of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine under the leadership of Oleksiy Chernyshov, the Minister of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine.

The group includes 11 ministers, members of parliament, and representatives of the Office of the President of Ukraine, state government bodies, the National Institute of Strategic Studies, civil society, and the expert community. 

More than 150 experts from different regions of Ukraine are engaged in the development of the strategy. They are working on specific proposals within six thematic groups:

-     social inclusiveness;

-     educational inclusiveness;

-     economic inclusiveness;

-     digital inclusiveness;

-     physical inclusiveness.

The thematic groups include representatives of the state authorities, the expert community, relevant civil society organizations, charity funds, business, and researchers from various regions of Ukraine who have strong expertise in the abovementioned areas.

Analytical and technical support is provided by the "Ednannia" Initiative Centre to Support Social Action and the civil society organization “Barrierfree,” and is supported by the Human Rights for Ukraine project implemented by UNDP Ukraine, which is financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.