EXCEPT policy panel discussion in Ukraine

Ukrainian and UK EXCEPT teams organised a policy panel discussion on EXCEPT findings during the international conference “People Matter: Quality of Life and Population Wellbeing in Post-Transition Economies”, which took place on September 14-15 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The panel discussed was titled “Youth in the Focus: Impact of labour market exclusion and job insecurity on later life outcomes” and included policymakers, researchers, representatives of international organisations and members from civil society. The speakers of the panel included the First Deputy Minister of Education of Ukraine, Volodymyr Kovtunets, and the Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports of Ukraine, Oleksandr Yarema, Mariya Aleksynska, Labour Economist, ILO, Geneva, Ihor Samokhin, analyst, CEDOS think-tank. The session was chaired by the Senior Social Protection Specialist of the World Bank, Yulia Smolyar.

At the panel, Olena Nizalova presented key findings of the EXCEPT project, talked about the negative impact of labour market insecurity on health and wellbeing, and presented policy measures proposed by researchers based on youth interviews. Together, the participants discussed measures that could reduce the negative effects of unemployment. Policy makers were interested in EXCEPT results and made arrangements for further cooperation.

The best entries of the EXCEPT photo competition "YouthVision: Becoming adult today" were exhibited during the whole two days of the conference, drawing attention of conference participants and visitors to youth problems.