The International Labour Organization (ILO) has increased its assistance to Ukraine. The US$760,000 contribution will serve the emergency assistance provided through employers’ organizations and trade unions.
The ILO support will be an important contribution to the digitalization agenda of the Ukrainian government, helping to provide vocational education under the condition of war and beyond, for Ukrainian TVET students inside and outside the country. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ILO piloted an e-Learning platform for TVET in four different occupations. The Ministry of Education of Ukraine intends to replicate the e-Learning platform nationwide with the inclusion of 160,000 students.
Before the beginning of the war, ILO’s work in the country focused on employment, social dialogue and labour law, conditions of work, and pension reform. The ILO funded these programmes with US$1 million from its regular budget and US$13 million from voluntary contributions. Most of this work had to be put on hold and was reprogrammed.
The ILO funding needs for Ukraine in 2022 has been set at US$6.3 million. With the ILO reserves added, the funds received amount to US$3.3 million, meeting roughly half of the needs.
The Russian aggression against Ukraine has caused widespread internal displacement and refugee flows, as well as large-scale employment and income losses. Preliminary assessments indicate that national income will drop drastically this year – between 35 and 45 per cent. According to ILO estimates, 30 per cent of employment (equivalent to 4.8 million jobs) has been lost.
Since the onset of the crisis, both social partners have mobilised to quickly assist internally displaced people and enterprises that had to relocate to safer areas of Ukraine. Ukrainian trade unions have opened their vacation centres and sanatoria for refugees, providing 13,000 nights in beds, and employers have distributed food and medicines to people in the regions most affected by the war.