UNDP in Ukraine

The overall objective of this joint action is to support the Government and civil society efforts in promoting gender equality in Ukraine in line with country’s international, constitutional and legal commitments. According to the project document the total budget of the three-year initiative will be over EUR 7 million.

The announcement about the launch of this new Women and Children’s Rights in Ukraine Project was made earlier today at an official meeting with participation of Laura Garagnani, Head of Operations at the Delegation of the European Commission to Ukraine, Francis O’Donnell, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Vasyl Kostrytsya, International Labour Organization’s (ILO) National Correspondent in Ukraine, and Danuta Wisniewska-Cazals, Head of Unit in the Council of Europe (CoE).

Francis O’Donnell stressed the importance of the new projects, particularly saying that gender equality has been a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.

"The UN Millennium Summit reaffirmed gender equality and women’s empowerment as development goals in themselves - which was translated into the Millennium Development Goal 3 - and underlined their importance as a valuable tool to achieve all of the other MDGs”, he added.

It is expected that the new joint initiative will include four main projects: each of which will be implemented by UNDP, ILO, the Council of Europe, and an international media and communications company. The project entitled Women Rights in Ukraine will be implemented by UNDP and will focus broadly on building the capacity of Ukrainian counterparts in ending gender inequality in policy formulation, eliminating gender stereotypes in the education system, as well as introducing nationwide measures to prevent and/or respond to domestic violence.

It is planned that the Project will combine both policy advice actions and well-targeted public education activities, aimed at raising awareness among state officials, teachers, judges and policemen.

“Gender inequality is of particular relevance to Ukraine. Looking at the significantly higher mortality rates of men with respect to women, we realize that there exist specific challenges to the health and wellbeing of men in Ukrainian society, which might be related to their socially prescribed gender roles. On the other hand, women are significantly under-represented in leadership roles, both in the public and private sector, face a 30%-lower wage discrimination in all employment sectors, and suffer from a very large incidence of gender-related violence, particularly in their domestic sphere”, O’Donnell said.  

The project partners include the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine [parliament], Ministry for Family, Youth and Sport, Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Science and Education, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, State Committee of TV and Radio, State Committee of Statistics, State Regional Administrations, and NGOs.

Background Information: The Government of Ukraine has clearly recognized the need to engage the State in addressing gender inequality in Ukrainian society, through specific policy action. Very important moves in this regard were the adoption of the Law on Gender Equality and the State Programme on Gender Equality 2006-2010.

UNDP has had a long and fruitful experience in implementing gender equality projects in partnership with the Government of Ukraine, starting from 1997. For the last three years, through its SIDA-sponsored Equal Opportunities Programme, UNDP has increased the capacity of central and local bodies to address gender equality in their strategic planning, by disseminating international European best practices of gender mainstreaming in governance. As a result, a good institutional basis for effective gender mainstreaming on the governmental level was created.

 For more information please contact Sergiy Grytsenko, UNDP Communications Officer, by phone (+38 044) 254 00 35 or e-mail sergiy.grytsenko@undp.org.