2,323,369 research outputs found
Integration without Europeanisation: Ukraine and its Policy towards the European Union
Get PDFThis paper examines the progress of, and conditions for, Europeanisation in one of the EU's new neighbours to the East. Since the late 1990s under Leonid Kuchma's presidency, Ukraine regularly expressed its willingness to participate in European integration via membership of the European Union. Yet these foreign policy declarations have not been accompanied by the necessary acceleration of domestic reforms. The paper argues that Ukraine has sought integration with the EU but without undergoing Europeanisation-extensive change to institutions and policies at the domestic level in line with EU's more or less explicit 'normative targets'. This is despite the fact that this is a model of proven utility as evidenced by its implementation in East-Central European states. The paper aims to explain why the progress of Ukraine's integration with the EU has been confined to foreign policy declarations by exploring: first, the role of sources of Ukraine's policy towards the EU both at the elite and mass levels; and second, the reasons for Ukraine's inability to enact the 'European choice' in domestic reforms. Finally, the conditions under which a shift from declarations to actual Europeanisation in post-Soviet non-EU countries might occur will be identified by extrapolating from insights drawn from the literature on the EU's eastern enlargement in the context of the EU's new European Neighbourhood Policy.legitimacy; East-Central Europe; political science; European identity; identity; democratization
Ukraine: On the border between old and new in uncertain times
Get PDFThis chapter provides an overview of the demographic situation in Ukraine, including explanations for the decline to very low fertility and changes in family policy. Drawing on official statistics, survey data, and focus group interviews, the analysis shows that the country’s decline to lowest-low fertility is primarily due to the postponement of or the reduction in second births, as opposed to the postponement of first births. The chapter includes a discussion on the link between low fertility and changing marriage patterns, contraceptive prevalence, and abortion. The author then reviews the evidence for the leading explanations of fertility decline in Ukraine, including economic uncertainty, social anomie, the Second Demographic Transition, and unequal gender relations. In addition, the author proposes unexplored factors that may lead to fertility limitation, such as the increasing difficulty of combining work and childrearing, insufficient housing, changes in intergenerational support, and the deterioration of health lifestyles and marital relations.childbearing, fertility, Ukraine
Progress in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection in Ukraine: results from a birth cohort study
No full textBackground: Ukraine was the epicentre of the HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe, which has the most rapidly accelerating HIV epidemic world-wide today; national HIV prevalence is currently estimated at 1.6%. Our objective was to evaluate the uptake and effectiveness of interventions for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) over an eight year period within operational settings in Ukraine, within the context of an ongoing birth cohort study.Methods: The European Collaborative Study (ECS) is an ongoing birth cohort study in which HIV-infected pregnant women identified before or during pregnancy or at delivery were enrolled and their infants prospectively followed. Three centres in Ukraine started enrolling in 2000, with a further three joining in September 2006.Results: Of the 3356 women enrolled, 21% (689) reported current or past injecting drug use (IDU). Most women were diagnosed antenatally and of those, the proportion diagnosed in the first/second trimester increased from 47% in 2000/01 (83/178) to 73% (776/1060) in 2006/07 (p < 0.001); intrapartum diagnosis was associated with IDU (Adjusted odds ratio 4.38; 95% CI 3.19-6.02). The percentage of women not receiving any antiretroviral prophylaxis declined from 18% (36/205) in 2001 to 7% in 2007 (61/843) p < 0.001). Use of sdNVP alone substantially declined after 2003, with a concomitant increase in zidovudine prophylaxis. Median antenatal zidovudine prophylaxis duration increased from 24 to 72 days between 2000 and 2007. Elective caesarean section (CS) rates were relatively stable over time and 34% overall. Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) rates decreased from 15.2% in 2001 (95% CI 10.2-21.4) to 7.0% in 2006 (95% CI 2.6-14.6). In adjusted analysis, MTCT risk was reduced by 43% with elective CS versus vaginal delivery and by 75% with zidovudine versus no prophylaxis.Conclusion: There have been substantial improvements in use of PMTCT interventions in Ukraine, including earlier diagnosis of HIV-infected pregnant women and increasing coverage with antiretroviral prophylaxis and the initial MTCT rate has more than halved. Future research should focus on hard-to-reach populations such as IDU and on missed opportunities for further reducing the MTCT rate
Sustaining Low Inflation in Ukraine
Get PDFThis publication presents the collection of papers written in 2004 within the project that aimed to broaden the knowledge about sources of inflation in Ukraine and indicate policies that can support low inflation in the future. While working on analyses of monetary policies and inflation, the authors used the experience of other transitional countries, Polish in particular. The project team1 hopes that the research gathered in this volume will contribute to the understanding of the sources of inflation in Ukraine and to the influence of monetary policy instruments on other variables. And that the results presented here can be of practical use for the National Bank of Ukraine.Ukraine, transition, monetary policy, inflation, core inflation, financial market, monetary transmission
Ukraine and the European Neighbourhood Policy: Ensuring the Free Movement of Goods and Services. CEPS Working Documents No. 240, 1 March 2006
Get PDFThe negotiation of a regional trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine is the next significant step towards Ukraine’s deeper integration with the West. Drawing on analyses of official and independent analytical materials and statistical data, this paper explores the form such an arrangement should take – namely, which of the existing models would be an appropriate model for EU-Ukraine trade relations: a Free Trade Agreement, a Customs Union or something along the lines of the European Economic Area Agreement. The author, Olga Shumylo is a researcher at the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kyiv
Tackling the Informal Economy in Ukraine
Get PDFThe problem of informal work and informal networks (blat) in Ukraine is long-standing. Until now, research on the informal economy in Ukraine has largely focused on measuring its size rather than exploring the nature and motives of the people engaged in informal activities. Moreover, few studies in relation to Ukraine have sought to evaluate the validity of the contrasting theorisations of the informal economy and no studies in Ukraine have considered the issue of contemporary informal networks (blat). The intention of this thesis is to fill these gaps. In doing so, the objective is to start to resolve the lack of knowledge on the nature of the informal economy which leads to ineffective and even destructive policy approaches to tackling it.
The aim of this thesis is to critically evaluate the existing theorisations of the informal economy and their applicability to Ukrainian society in order to start to enable a move towards developing policy solutions for tackling the informal economy. To achieve this aim, a mixed methods approach is adopted in this thesis. The survey, consisting of 200 semi-structured interviews, was carried out in an urban area of Ukraine – the city of Mykolayiv. The data collected was analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively.
The results of the survey affirm that informal activities are diverse in nature and are driven by a variety of motives. Thus, no single existing theory fully explains the informal economy in Ukraine; instead, there is evidence to support each theory of the informal economy. As such, policy responses need to be tailored in order to effectively deal with the challenges faced by the different types of informal activity. Such a response is more likely to result in the formalisation of such activities by removing the barriers to formalisation and nurturing fledgling business activities rather than simply trying to eradicate them
The Determinants of Dairy Farming Competitiveness in Ukraine
Get PDFWTO accession and the expected free trade agreement with the EU pose significant challenges for Ukrainian agriculture, implying structural changes for the sector as well as adaptations at the farm level to improve efficiency and competitiveness. However, a recent study by von Cramon-Taubadel and Nivievskyi [2] demonstrates a clear lack of competitiveness. This directs attention to the forces that drive competitiveness in Ukrainian agriculture. Dairy farming deserves particular attention in this regard, since it is one of the main income generating sources for the rural population, and of raw material supply for the fast growing dairy processing. In this paper at first we analyze the profile of competitiveness of dairy farming in Ukraine, demonstrating that only about 20% of dairy farms produce at competitive level. Then using a fixed-effect panel regression we analyze the determinants of competitiveness in Ukrainian dairy farming. The size of the farm, productivity and labor intensity have a strong positive effect on competitiveness, while arable land per head has negative effect. Finally, total subsidies received by farms are found to have a negative impact on competitiveness, and this impact does not differ significantly between farms with different herd size.Dairy, Ukraine, Competitiveness, Livestock Production/Industries,
Alcohol and mortality in Ukraine
Get PDFUkraine has experienced a long-term decline in life expectancy since the late 1960s. While spectacular improvement in longevity has been observed in Western countries, the trend in Ukraine has been accompanied by increasing or stagnating mortality. Although many studies indicate that alcohol is one of the leading contributors to low life expectancy in Eastern Europe, little is known about its impact on premature mortality in Ukraine. The aim of this study is to estimate alcohol-attributable deaths at working ages (20-64) in Ukraine. We investigate the contribution of alcohol to adult mortality between 1980 and 2007 using a new method for estimating alcohol-attributable fractions by causes of death. We also assess the public health burden of alcohol in terms of length of life losses. We find that in 2007 alcohol-related deaths constituted 40% and 22% of all deaths among adult men and women, respectively. The results also indicate that alcohol-related deaths at working ages account for approximately one-third of the male and one-fifth of the female life expectancy difference between Ukraine and western countries. Alcohol is an important public health threat in Ukraine and should be addressed by relevant measures.
The Banking System in Ukraine
Get PDFBanking services, during Soviet times were primarily provided by a government dominated bureaucracy that processed documentation. Bank personnel were used to provide financial accounting records on credits obtained by entities for projects approved under five year plans. The banks' activities did not include serious financial analyses, or a review of the profitability or credit worthiness of projects and their sponsoring entities. These traditional banking activities were effectively considered to be irrelevant by bankers. One could say that the clients of the banking system were essentially government ministries, rather than the enterprises who received credits approved by higher authorities in government.transition, banking system, Ukraine
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