This recently published work gives an account of the proceedings of the Cyprus Roundtable on the Design and Governance of Social Protection Systems which took place in Larnaca, Cyprus in March 1994. The conference set out to address the specific problems of social protection reform in Central and Eastern Europe and to confront an international tripartite group of high-level decisionmakers from the region with experience of the governance of social protection systems in OECD countries.

The book is the first ever attempt to address this important issue: it is only through careful design and strong governance that new social protection schemes can be made truly independent and reforms can succeed.

Those interested in obtaining a copy of this work should contact ILO-CEET at the address given in the box at the foot of this page.

The Ukrainian Challenge: Reforming Labour Market and Social Policy

All CEET members and many Ukrainian partners contributed to the report that gives a compre-hensive overview of labour market and social policy in that major European country. Ukraine acquired independence in late 1991. The work was done in close cooperation with and supported by the United Nations office in Kiev.

Ukraine's political and social infra-structure had to emerge against the background of rapidly shrinking living standards and concern about the sus-tainability of the country itself.

In the coming period, it will be essential for the Government, for those agencies providing financial assistance, for the emerging employer and trade union organisations and for others involved in that process to give very high priority to the substantial reform of labour market and social policy.

Open unemployment will mount in 1994-95, poverty is already widespread and severe, life expectancy has fallen from what was an already low level, the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident is still having profound social effects and will continue to do so for many years, and very much in the foreground is the need to address the social and labour market policy consequences of restructuring the economy away from its overemphasis on production for military purposes.

This report is an attempt to assess the trends in social and labour market policy in Ukraine.

Those interested in obtaining a copy of this work should contact the publisher, Central European University Press, Hüvösvölgyi út 54, 1021 Budapest, Hungary.