Ukraine is making significant strides towards gender equality and women’s rights protection. On March 22, the country’s Deputy Minister Uliana Tokareva and Deputy Minister for European Integration Hanna Prophet met with UN Women Ukraine’s Head of Office Sabine Fraser Günes and her team to discuss the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda and other strategic documents.
Updated National Action Plan
During the meeting, the UN Women Representative in Ukraine commended Ukraine for approving a number of strategic documents, including the updated National Action Plan for the Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 “Women, Peace and Security”, which aims to ensure women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution, and the State Strategy for Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men. Günes also expressed support for UN Women in further localizing and implementing these documents.
Gender Component
Deputy Minister Tokareva stressed the importance of including a gender component in all strategic documents developed by the government, including the Recovery Plan of Ukraine. This would allow for the needs of different groups of women and men to be taken into account and for effective planning of all activities, including the budget process, in various spheres of society. Tokareva drew attention to the need to support communities in expanding services and developing social services on the ground, including by providing them with tools and algorithms, creating a case management institute and a map of available services.
Cooperation for Localization and Monitoring
Following the meeting, the parties agreed to continue cooperation on localization and further monitoring of the implementation of the National Action Plan and the State Strategy. They also committed to implementing gender equality policy not only in the strategic documents of the Government of Ukraine but also in the process of European integration.Overall, Ukraine is making progress in gender equality and women’s rights protection. The country is taking proactive steps towards the localization and implementation of strategic documents, and there is a commitment to ensuring that the needs of different groups of women and men are taken into account. The cooperation between the government and UN Women is a positive development that will lead to a brighter future for all Ukrainians.
