In Ukraine
In Ukraine
Ukraine takes the 66th place in the world the level of urbanization: 68% of its population lives in cities (Urbanization statistics, n.d.). This trend causes a lot of problems for the country, although it has some positive effects. The economic potential of Ukraine is insufficient to deal with the problems of urbanization.
Positive results of urbanization. Urban population growth promotes to the development of social production. Industrial enterprises are concentrated in cities mostly and provide employment for the urban population. Perspectives of business development are small in villages.
Institutions of science and culture are concentrated in cities. For this reason many young villagers go to study there and try to find a job. The high concentration of educational institutions enables people to make choice, creating more employment opportunities for qualified teachers. So the quality of education in the cities is constantly improving. But at the same time, this leads to the closure of village schools, so children have to go to the neighboring village every day. Education in rural schools is at an extremely low level. There are situations when village children aren’t being taught some subject of the state education program simply because of the lack of teachers. 1510 country's schools were closed during period from 2003 to 2011 (Deputies refused, 2013).
Qualified medical care is possible only in the city. The quality of health care in urban hospitals is gradually improving. Young doctors from city hospitals have a great opportunity to practice and get an experience of using complex expensive equipment. That’s why there is no reason for them to work in villages.
Negative effects of urbanization. The urban environment has bad influence on citizens’ health as the air is polluted with cars exhausts and a number of domestic waste is constantly growing. The existing municipal systems are unable to meet the growing needs of the population.
People leave their village homes and move to the city. This is mainly caused by the fact that the average monthly salary in agriculture is almost 35% below the level of wages in Ukraine in general. Since 2002 the rural population in Ukraine has been decreasing and this out-migration to cities continues today. Over the years of independence more than 600 settlements has disappeared from the map of Ukraine. The villagers mostly provide themselves with what they grow on their land, because there is no work-places in their villages.
At the same time, prices per square meter of housing in cities are increasing due to high demand. This year average price has already increased by 10.9%. Ukraine takes the10th place in the Knight Frank’s rating of growth in house prices in different countries around the world. One example shows what is bad about this situation. The Lavra clinic for AIDS patients, situated in the center of Kiev, is going to be relocated to the suburbs. The simple reason is hidden behind good intentions – to get an expensive piece of land and build some business-center there (Ukraine's Lavra clinic, 2012). Such cases often happen in Kiev like destruction of green space and demolition of monuments. Their places are usually taken by multi-storey houses with Incredibly expensive flats. This congestion of living space adversely affects on the quality of life in the city.
As the population density grows the epidemiological situation is getting worse. Public places are overcrowded and this causes fast spreading of diseases. The rate of urban population growth outpaces the rate of infrastructure development, so schools and kindergartens have to take more children than they are able to provide suitable conditions for.
The specific actions of Ukrainian leadership. Ukraine receives significant funds from developed countries for solving problems of its population. The United States government plans to provide $95.271 million aid for Ukraine in 2014. The size of the U.S. aid to Ukraine in 2013 amounted $104.407 million. This amount included $53,975 million to support the economy, $27.2 million for health programs and $7.9 million for the fight against AIDS (Woehrel, 2013).
There is an agreement between Ukrainian and Japanese governments, which is the part of the ten-year aid program of Japanese government. Ukraine has already received grants of $ 16 million in total. In 2014 Japan is going to provide Ukraine with aid in the amount of $ 4.2 million to improve the equipping of children's hospitals in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions. The first grant was for children's hospital "Okhmatdyt" (Kiev) in the amount of approximately $ 6.2 million in 2000.
Ukraine became the only European country which Canada provided the aid in 2009. $21.3 million aid was directed to Ukraine in 2008-2009 (O'Neil, 2011).
During 2011-2013 the European Union has allocated $682 million for Ukraine for bringing its economy and living standards to the European level.
The effectiveness of government action. The Ukrainian government is taking action for solving specific local problems, but there are no comprehensive programs to fight against negative effects of urbanization. Still there are some positive examples of effective cooperation between Ukrainian leadership and international aid organizations.
Positive trends are observed in the area of health care. For example during these last five years of cooperation with The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria 160,000 of people injecting drugs, 25,000 Ukrainian prisoners, 30000 sex workers and 20000 men who have sex with men received treatment and care. This yielded results and the epidemiological situation has stabilized.
Ukraine is one of the main aid-receiving countries in Europe. The main aid donors – the World Bank, the European Union, USAID and IMF concern about situation with corruption and conduct their policies respectively.
Unfortunately such results as fighting AIDS haven’t been achieved in other areas of concern, as the government's actions are not systematic. Allocated funds aren’t used for the introduction of modern methods of solving problems and infrastructural changes. The lack of political stability makes difficulties for the government effective work with foreign aid funds.
The IMF allocates loan to Ukraine to cover the deficit of budget and now requires the government to raise gas prices for households by 60% and the elimination of benefits. The taxation should remain at the same high level.
The average income of Ukrainian citizens grows much slower than prices for food and utilities, which greatly aggravates existing problems caused by urbanization. Young families can’t buy housing having low incomes and high prices. At the same time the government allocates very little funds to build low-cost housing on mortgage programs for young people. Only 40.5% of the population have a housing area that meets sanitary standards 13,65 m2 for 1 person. In 2012 693 000 families (67.9% of the total queue), had been expecting to improve their housing conditions for 10 years or more (Social and economic development, n.d.).
Also there is a big problem with bureaucratic procedures in Ukraine. The customs has recently detained about 500 consignments delivered to Ukraine as humanitarian aid. One of the charity organizations - "Light of the Resurrection" from the Donetsk Oblast has to pay EUR 1,600 for the storage of consignment at customs. They aren’t able to pay as this is non-profit organization (Humanitarian aid n.d.).
References
Urbanization statistics - countries compared. (n.d.). NationMaster.com. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_urb-people-urbanization.
Deputies refused to impose a moratorium on the closure of rural schools. (2013, September 18). ZN, UA. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://zn.ua/UKRAINE/deputaty-otkazalis-vvesti-moratoriy-na-zakrytie-selskih-shkol-129392_.html.
Ukraine's Lavra clinic is operating on borrowed time. (2012, December 7). Global Fund Blog. Retrieved November 5, 2013, from http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/blog/30975/.
Woehrel, S. (2013, May 24). Ukraine: Current Issues and U.S. Policy. Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved November 4, 2013, from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33460.pdf
O'Neil, P. (2011, January 13). FAIR. Ukraine slow to battle corruption: OECD report. Retrieved November 4, 2013, from http://fairwhistleblower.ca/content/ukraine-slow-battle-corruption-oecd-report.
Social and economic development of Ukraine Archiv 2013. (n.d.). Ukrstat.org. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://ukrstat.org/uk/operativ/operativ2013/so_ek_r_u/soekru_u/arh_soekru_13.htm.
Humanitarian aid for Ukraine has stuck at the border. (n.d.). ZN, UA. Retrieved March 19, 2013, from http://zn.ua/UKRAINE/gumanitarnaya-pomosch-dlya-ukrainy-zastryala-na-granice-118976_.html.
