Pubblichiamo l’intervento del Prof. Valeriy Heyets, Direttore, dell’Istituto di Economia e Previsione, Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze dell’Ucraina (Kyiv), nel corso della conferenza scientifica per Eurispes e CNR-DSU dal titolo “Verso il Vertice Sociale Mondiale ONU” tenutasi a Roma il 1º luglio 2025.
Dear colleagues, On behalf of the Ukrainian academic community and the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, we are pleased to extend our greetings from Kyiv to all participants of the International Scientific Conference “Verso il Vertice Sociale Mondiale dell’ONU (Quatar, 4-6 Novenbre 2025): il contributo dell’Italia”, in Rome. We express our sincere gratitude to the organisers of this Conference — the European Institute for Political, Economic and Social Research and the Department of Social Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy — and, in particular, to Prof. Marco Ricceri and Prof. Salvatore Capasso.
In the 21st century, social policy is less frequently perceived as a mechanism for redistributing resources and more as the foundation of a new societal contract — one that defines resilience, dignity, and social cohesion. The systemic challenges of our time — war, pandemics, climate change, and digital transformation — compel us to revise the role of the state, the responsibilities of institutions, and the very parameters of public policy. They demand a departure from technocratic management toward a human-centred approach of transformation. Against this global backdrop, the war in Ukraine has become both a critical test and a catalyst for a new quality of statecraft. Under conditions of full-scale aggression, Ukraine is not only preserving the functionality of its social institutions, but also initiating a deep reconfiguration of the strategies, frameworks, and normative underpinnings of social policy.
The War in Ukraine as Catalyst: Strategic Transformation of Social Policy
The full-scale war launched by the Russian Federation in 2022 has produced a profound societal crisis that has simultaneously triggered a fundamental transformation of Ukraine’s social policy. Under extraordinary circumstances, the state has demonstrated its capacity not merely to respond but to strategically innovate — across three mutually reinforcing levels: functional, normative, and operational.
At the functional level, the shift has been from a fragmented, category-based approach to human assistance toward a systemic, digital, and person-centred approach. Core principles now include adaptability, proactive engagement, targeted support, and respect for human dignity. Social policy (or societal oriented politics and policies) is no longer confined to compensating vulnerability but is instead evolving into a framework for enabling development, civic participation, and mobility.
At the normative level, a revision and renewal of key strategic documents has taken place, which define not only directional goals but also a conceptual framework for policy in the post-war period. In particular:
- The National Social Policy Strategy to 2030 was adapted to address wartime challenges, with emphasis on digitalisation, decentralisation, and community-based approaches;
- The Programme for Implementing the International Classification of Functioning reframed disability policy in terms of equal participation, rather than assistance alone;
- Community recovery frameworks have established social cohesion as a core indicator of territorial resilience;
- In 2024, Ukraine launched the development of a National Employment Policy Strategy aimed at building flexible, resilient, and equitable labour markets.
At the operational level, a range of institutional innovations is reshaping the infrastructure of societal relationship:
- The Unified Social Sphere Information System (USSIS) has enabled transparent societal oriented transfers, reduced duplication and fraud, and ensured real-time monitoring and responsiveness;
- A three-tiered model of social services allows for adaptable provision according to the complexity of needs — from basic counselling to supported living arrangements;
- A basic social benefit, effective in 2025, establishes a universal safety net for individuals not covered by pension or insurance systems;
- The “money follows the service” principle ensures competition and equal access, regardless of provider ownership (state, municipal, or non-governmental);
- The expansion of active labour market instruments, including vocational retraining, digital education, and microenterprise development, is shaping a more adaptive and inclusive social contract, in the meaning of the social quality perspective.
In sum, the transformation of Ukraine’s social policy represents not only a pragmatic response to the consequences of war but also a deeper institutional shift. A new paradigm is emerging, in which:
- the individual is not merely a recipient of aid, but an active agent of reconstruction;
- the community is not a dependent object, but a driver of social cohesion and innovation;
- the state moves beyond its supervisory role to act as a guarantor of dignified and enabling societal oriented frameworks.
This evolution establishes not just a set of procedural decisions, but an ethical and normative orientation — one that will shape the architecture of post-war Ukrainian society.
The Social Quality Approach as a Perspective for Transformation: A Comprehensive Framework for Post-War Recovery
In the pursuit of a renewed paradigm of societal reconstruction, the Social Quality Approach (SQA) as a Perspectivehas gained particular significance. Developed by the founders of the International Association on Social Quality (IASQ) — Dr Laurent van der Maesen and Prof. Alan Walker — this interdisciplinary concept transcends sectoral or categorical thinking. It offers a comprehensive framework for understanding societal well-being as an integral attribute of the societal based relationship, which defines the capacity of individuals to realise themselves in ways that are dignified, secure, and inclusive.
The SQA is built around four interrelated dimensions:
- The Socioeconomic / Financial Dimension encompasses access to employment, housing, basic resources, and economic security. It emphasises not only the availability of aid but also the capacity of individuals to achieve self-sufficiency through decent work, lifelong learning, and social mobility.
- The Sociopolitical / Legal-Institutional Dimension pertains not only to the formal recognition of rights but also to their enforceability, institutional protection, non-discrimination, and the predictability of government action.
- The Sociocultural / Welfare Dimension reflects the level of societal trust, cohesion, civic participation, and shared identity — the conditions under which people feel part of a community capable of collective action.
- The Socioenvironmental / Ecological Dimension is interpreted as a responsibility for spatial and intergenerational sustainability — from access to safe and healthy environments to equitable infrastructure and climate justice.
The uniqueness of this approach lies in its capacity to view social policy not as a patchwork of tools but as a coherent system of interrelated coordinates. It provides a paradigm capable of balancing social needs, institutional accountability, and personal empowerment.
In Ukraine’s post-war context, this framework offers an opportunity to:
- Integrate physical reconstruction with human agency, focusing on rights, voice, individual needs, and future perspectives;
- Align employment policy with participatory mechanisms, enabling citizens to engage in decision-making on labour development and local economic strategies;
- Transform the system of social assistance into one of human development, where support functions as a foundation for strengthening individual, economic, and civic capacity.
Thus, the Social Quality Approach as perspective may serve as the methodological bedrock for Ukraine’s post-war transformation — enabling the emergence of a deeper, structurally coherent, and dignity-oriented approach of societal transformation.
Implementation Potential: Institutional and Contextual Conditions
As of mid-2025, Ukraine has accumulated a set of interrelated factors that together form a favourable environment for the phased implementation of the Social Quality Approach as Perspective as a strategic framework for post-war recovery. These conditions span financial, regulatory, institutional, societal, and epistemic dimensions that mutually reinforce the potential for successful implementation.
Financial and programmatic foundation: conditional reform support from the EU. The Ukraine Facilityprogramme, with a €50 billion allocation for 2024–2027, links macro-financial support with the advancement of structural reforms, including human protection, employment, decentralisation, and governance. This conditionality creates not only incentives but also a built-in logic for aligning national policies with the values and criteria as expressed in the configuration of social quality frameworks.
Normative and political impetus: European integration as a standardisation framework. The anticipated launch of EU–Ukraine negotiation clusters offers an institutional window for formally embedding the Basic SQ principles into progress evaluation mechanisms. Given that solidarity, participation, inclusion, and social justice are central tenets of the so-called European social model, aligning these with Ukraine’s reform trajectory could produce a powerful national-European convergence, both in vision and practice.
Decentralised implementation infrastructure: communities as the operational arena for social quality.Ukraine’s decentralisation reform has created an unprecedented opportunity to deliver policies at the level closest to citizens. Local governments are now responsible for the whole range of services, health care, education, sport, cultural provisions and spatial development. This is fully consistent with the SQ philosophy: social quality can only be realised in contexts where local histories, relationships, and resources are meaningfully considered.
Societal foundation: growing expectations and the public demand for justice. Sociological surveys from 2024–2025 indicate that the majority of Ukrainians expect social policy to focus not only on protection, but also on personal development, education, and self-realisation. This reorients the social contract (as based on the social quality perspective) toward an ethics of trust, partnership, and forward-looking responsibility.
Epistemic and analytical capacity: Ukrainian academia in global dialogue. Ukrainian scholars, think tanks, and educational institutions are actively engaged in developing, testing, and analysing the Social Quality approach. International research exchanges have fostered mutual learning, shared understanding, and interpersonal trust. Today’s Rome Conference stands as a prime example. We also look forward to the upcoming Expert Group meeting in October at Liverpool Hope University, and we thank our partners for their efforts in preparing it.
Particularly noteworthy is the International Journal of Social Quality, published under the auspices of IASQ, which serves as an institutional bridge connecting research communities across Europe and beyond. Despite the war, Ukrainian scholars continue to publish in the journal — a sign of growing academic integration and a key platform for advancing the social quality perspective in Ukraine’s reconstruction. It is crucial for the Ukrainian academic community to sustain and develop this unique intellectual forum.
Barriers and Constraints: Structural Challenges and Systemic Risks
Despite the strategic potential described above, the implementation of the Basic principles of social quality approach as perspective for the transformation of Ukraine encounters a range of deep-seated obstacles. These are not accidental or circumstantial but structural in nature — and they must be critically addressed as part of any responsible policy design process. They reflect not only technical or financial barriers but also broader challenges to administrative rationality, societal based ethics, and the culture of public interaction.
Chronic uncertainty and the protracted war. The war has made stable strategic planning difficult, undermining the development of long-term indicators and legal guarantees. Emergency logic dominates the policy cycle — which contradicts the foundational principles of social quality, namely continuity, participation, and institutional trust. SQ policies typically require 5–10 years of sustained commitment; Ukraine’s current policy cycles are often constrained to annual or quarterly timeframes.
Desolidarisation and social erosion. Studies conducted in 2024–2025 identify growing signs of societal and personal fatigue: regional polarisation, perceived injustice in resource allocation, and declining public trust. If 2022–2023 saw solidarity as a driving social force, it has since been partially replaced by frustration and distrust. This threatens key pillars of social quality such as cohesion, civic engagement, and mutual responsibility. It highlights the need to accompany reforms with strategic communication, cultural policy, and spaces for inclusive public dialogue.
Human capital depletion. According to estimates from the World Bank and ILO, the war has caused record levels of displacement and demographic loss. There is a growing shortage of skilled professionals in social, educational, and healthcare sectors, particularly in frontline and rural communities. Social quality implementation requires a new generation of public professionals — capable of cross-sectoral cooperation, critical thinking, and adaptive governance. Without comprehensive training and systemic human resource development, there is a real risk of declarative or symbolic reforms.
Institutional asymmetry among territories. The war has exacerbated inter-regional inequalities in resources and administrative capacity. Some municipalities lack even basic infrastructure or access to digital tools. This challenges the principle of territorial equity in SQ implementation. A differentiated strategy is therefore essential — including pilot projects, inter-municipal mentoring, and targeted financial and methodological support for under-resourced communities.
Fragmented interministerial coordination. SQ requires integrated governance across social protection, employment, education, health, and environmental policy. As of 2025, coordination in Ukraine remains sporadic and often hampered by regulatory fragmentation. Policies are frequently developed and executed in isolation. Without a cross-sectoral coordination centre or institutional hub for SQ, its implementation risks becoming a rhetorical frame without operational substance.
Summary diagnosis. The Social Quality Approach as a Perspective for addressing Transformation can — and should — serve as a guiding framework for Ukraine’s post-war transformation. But implementation is not merely a technical task. It is a question of civic leadership, institutional courage, and a public culture grounded in values, foresight, and reciprocity. Realising this vision will require not only legislation, but the creation of an institutional ecosystem that enables: (a) horizontal coordination, (b) professional learning and development, (c) public communication, and (d) stable, multi-year financing. Only under these conditions will social quality cease to be a slogan — and instead become a measurable, durable, and empowering social reality.
Conclusion: Social Quality Approach as a Perspective for the Substantiation of main Strategies for Ukraine’s Post-War Recovery
Ukraine today is navigating not only a post-war reconstruction phase, but an historic moment of rethinking its societal development model. The war has exposed structural vulnerabilities — but it has also brought to the fore values that had long remained in the shadows: dignity, solidarity, participation, justice, and shared responsibility. These values lie at the heart of the Social Quality approach.
Implementing the SQA is not about transplanting external concepts. Rather, it is a way of articulating a national response to the central question: “How do we live together after destruction?” The answer lies not only in technical reform, but in the forging of a new societal contract — one in which the state, community, and individual act as co-producers of the future.
To realise this potential, several key actions are essential:
- Institutionalise social quality within the strategic frameworks of state policy;
- Establish a cross-sectoral coordination mechanism for reform implementation;
- Integrate social quality indicators into national and regional monitoring systems;
- Provide value-driven training for public managers, social workers, and analysts;
- Support local communities in adopting and applying contextualised standards of social quality.
Ukraine now has the opportunity to lay the foundation for recovery not only as a physical reconstruction, but as a humanistic project — the development of a society in which the person is not a statistical unit, but a full-fledged subject of public policy.
Thus, the Social Quality Approach is not merely a governance framework. It is a strategy of dignity. It is an infrastructure of trust. It is a social language through which we can interpret, design, and realise the future. Thank you for your attention!
*Prof. Valeriy Heyets, Director, Institute for Economics and Forecasting, IEFNAS National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv)
