UNDP in Ukraine

The project "Equal Opportunities and Women's Rights in Ukraine Programme" will last for 3 years. Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports is the national implementing partner on behalf of the Ukrainian Government.

During the official project launch Yuriy Pavlenko, Minister of Family, Youth and Sports of Ukraine, noted, that, unfortunately, the issue of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for men and women persists in Ukraine while existing gender stereotypes already have negative influence, especially on demographic situation in the country.

According to the Minister, Ukrainian men live 12 years less than women - their life expectancy is 62 years. Experts predict that 40% of boys at the age of 16 have very few chances to live until the age of 60. At the same time, women's salary constitutes around 69% of men's salary.

He added that Ukraine realised and admitted that these issues had their impact on the country's human development. Moreover, this understanding has been reflected in the Millennium Declaration that Ukraine signed at Millennium Summit in New-York in 2000, committing to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, one of which stipulates for ensuring gender equality. 

The Minister voiced his confidence that Ukrainian Government's cooperation with the new project would be fruitful and the global experience will be effectively implemented in Ukraine. 

Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecka, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Ukraine, stressed that new multi-lateral partnership project and the experience gained over the previous stages of UNDP-led and SIDA-funded "Equal Opportunities Programme" would boost real gender transformations in Ukraine, contributing to a more prosperous and democratic Ukraine, where each woman and man enjoy equal opportunities at work, home, in politics, in culture and in all other spheres of life.

"Since 1997 UNDP has been implementing gender equality projects in close partnership with the Government of Ukraine. In this context, we provided policy support in developing gender equality legislation, increased the capacity of central and local bodies to address gender equality in their strategic planning, and helped in disseminating best international practices of gender mainstreaming in governance. All this created a good institutional basis for effective gender mainstreaming within the Government. It provides a good platform to pursue further actions," she added.

At the same time, the new project's capacity has grown significantly after the European Union joined the project. UNDP Deputy Resident Representative expressed her confidence that Ukraine could become "one of the model European countries in terms of gender equality", going beyond the post-soviet countries.

Martin Schieder, Chief of the Operations 1 Department at the Delegation of the European Commission to Ukraine, noted that European Union was interested in strengthening democratic society in Ukraine. Ensuring equal rights and opportunities for men and women is an integral part of this process. He wished all partners a successful project and voiced his expectations that "Equal Opportunities and Women's Rights in Ukraine Programme" will become another example of Ukraine's effective cooperation with European community. 

Mirja Peterson, Country Director for Ukraine, Department for Europe at Sida, said that Sweden was Ukraine's ally on its way to European integration. At the same time, she informed that to join the EU Ukraine will need to adapt national legislation, harmonise administrative and judicial structures. In this area, "there exist around 40 gender-related EU directives which could be transpositioned into national legislation", drastically increasing the number of women in decision-making, lowering the pay-gap, improving work-life balance, and lowering gender-based violence volumes. Thus, Mirja Peterson wished fruitful work and success to all partners on this way of reformation. 

Larysa Kobelynska, Equal Opportunities and Women's Rights Project Manager, described the Project's 5 components. Specifically, these include: introducing national mechanism for ensuring gender equality, introducing gender standards in education, fighting and preventing domestic violence, improving qualification of civil servants and harmonising the legislation.

She said the Project aimed at ensuring not only women's rights, but equal rights both for men and women. 

Moreover, the Project closely cooperates with 9 ministries and has signed Memoranda of Understanding with regional state administrations and regional councils in 8 regions of Ukraine. It aims at spreading the network of partners, facilitating the creation of new gender resource and educational centres, as well as pursuing new directions of work.

For more information, please, contact Mykola Yabchenko tel.:+38 067 290 55 01, or email: mykola.yabchenko@undp.org.ua.