UNDP in Ukraine

Duration: 15.09.2008 - 15.09.2011

WHAT IS OUR GOAL?

Equal Opportunities and Women's Rights in Ukraine Programme is a UNDP-led project co-financed by the European Union, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency SIDA and UN Development Programme. The Project's national implementing partner is the Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports.
The Programme started on 15 September 2008.

The project's main goal is to support the Government and civil society efforts in promoting gender equality between men and women in all spheres of life and to improve the status of women in Ukraine as an instrument towards achieving the sustainable human development, Ukrainian MDGs and building a democratic state in line with Ukrainian international, constitutional and legal commitments and within the framework of the corresponding Government action plans.

This project is based on the experience and results gained during previous implementation phases such as Equal Opportunities Programme "Ukraine: En route to equality". The first phase was implemented by UNDP in Ukraine with the support from SIDA in 2003-2006 and the second one has been implemented since 2006.

During the first phase, our Programme reached a number of important achievements that contributed to establishing Ukrainian legislation and helped us advance further to our gender equality goal. For example, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law "On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Men and Women" in September, 2005. The Government of Ukraine also ratified the Decree "On Adoption for State Programme of Ensuring Gender Equality in Ukrainian Society for 2006-2010". Programme experts took active part in developing these documents.

Where do we work:
The project operates all over Ukraine. Our cooperation is based on respective memoranda of understanding concluded between UNDP and the Regional State Administrations/Regional Councils. For the first time since the independence of Ukraine the issue of gender equality is included into the Programme of Action of the Ukrainian government.

How do we work:
The Programme provides efficient support to the Government of Ukraine for ensuring gender equality and implementing relevant legislation focused on strengthening national mechanisms of gender equality on national and regional level.

We promote culture and education without gender bias and integration of gender knowledge and gender sensitivity into educational system.
We encourage the environment focused on decreasing violence against women and children in all spheres of social life.

The Programme works on increasing governmental capacity for gender reforms and supports the inclusion of gender issues into regional development programmes.

One of our main goals is to develop and strengthen national mechanisms of gender equality while taking into account international experience and best practices in implementing gender equality programmes. With the help of our experts, we will evaluate the efficiency of these mechanisms.

We offer capacity building trainings through the system of capacity building institutions for national and regional State officials responsible for gender policy implementation.

The Programme provides assistance in developing gender-oriented statistics and will help to build capacity of state officials who deal with gender statistics. We elaborate recommendations on improving statistics in state gender reporting and we also conduct seminars, round-tables, etc. on this issue. The Programme conducts monitoring of Ukrainian legislative acts to ensure their conformity with the Law "On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Men and Women" by Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (2005). Our experts participate in developing recommendations in order to harmonize legislative framework with Ukrainian basic law and international obligations to ensure gender equality.

Our project has been deeply involved in monitoring State and regional Gender Equality Programmes up to 2010. In addition, the Programme provides support in establishing the National Gender Advisory/Resource Centre. One of the Programme goals is to mainstream gender standards into educational system.

The Programme supports the development of teachers' training methodology and gender standards for teachers working in the secondary and high schools across Ukraine. We prepare a handbook for teachers on overcoming gender stereotypes as well as corresponding recommendations on how to conduct a gender assessment of manuals and curricula.

Gender questions and issues should be included in general educational curricula and in teachers' trainings. Moreover, our Programme supports the elaboration of gender-sensitive curricula for future teachers and educators.

We provide translations, materials and educational programmes on gender equality. We are working on raising gender public awareness. The Programme supports the development and activities of gender educational centres in different regions of Ukraine.

We are planning to analyse and improve the system of response to gender based violence. Front-line police district officers have an important role to play in this strategy.

Thus, it is necessary to conduct a series of large-scale trainings for them and for future policemen. A special handbook on preventing domestic violence will be prepared as well as an educational film.

Target audience:
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Government, executive structures, ministries and departments, State administrations, NGOs, front-line district police officers, teachers and students.

National implementing partner:

Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports.

OUR PARTNERS:

Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Interior Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, State Committee of TV and Radio Broadcasting, State Committee of Statistics, State Regional Administrations, NGOs.