The United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA, has reported that Ukraine is in urgent need of “comprehensive recovery strategies focused on human capital and socioeconomic reform.”
This report comes after the agency’s findings that the country has seen its population decline by 10 million since Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. The UN describes this as a “substantial loss of human capital necessary for the country’s recovery.”
The demographic crisis in Ukraine has only deepened following Russia’s 2022 invasion. There are now 6.7 million Ukrainian refugees, and its birth rate has plummeted to one child per woman, which is the lowest in Europe.
Ukraine’s population has faced a demographic crisis for over a decade
Ukraine has faced a demographic crisis long before the start of Russia’s 2022 invasion. The country already had one of Europe’s lowest birth rates, the country’s population is getting older, and substantial amounts of people have left to seek better opportunities elsewhere.
Ukraine and the UNFPA have developed what they call a “national demographic strategy,” which not only focuses on raising birth rates but also on human capital.
The strategy is tipped to be used through 2040 and focuses on “enabling people to realize their fertility intentions, reducing premature mortality, achieving positive net migration, adapting to demographic aging, and creating conditions for a high quality of life to reverse negative demographic trends.”
This strategy introduced a novel concept in the hopes of resolving the crisis, referred to as “demographic resilience.” This essentially highlights how crucial it is to build a society’s capabilities to thrive under fast demographic changes.
The UN says Ukraine’s path to recovery is linked to peace
The UNFPA has also said that there are other indicators that have been severely hindered since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For instance, the agency says that the invasion has left entire regions of Ukraine depopulated and a considerable number of Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territories.
Accordingly, the UN says Ukraine’s population recovery “hinges” on peace. The NGO has said that the Ukrainian government recognizes a need to focus on broad socioeconomic factors, such as access to healthcare and education, and creating opportunities for families and young Ukrainians.
President Zelensky recently presented Ukraine’s allies, as well as the Ukrainian PM, with a plan to end the war in Ukraine. It is unclear whether this will work or not, as the Kremlin told President Zelensky to “sober up,” but it shows Ukrainian leadership’s will to end the war on good terms for their country.
It remains to be seen whether or not this plan will be successful. What is certain, however, is that Ukraine is in desperate need of a population management policy.
