The promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) are central to the mandate of UNDP and its development approach to deliver on the 2030 Agenda. UNDP seeks to address gender equality by:

     a) Strengthening interventions to produce structural changes that accelerate progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, rather than engaging primarily in programmes focused on women as beneficiaries;

     b) Strengthening the integration of gender equality into UNDP’s work on the environment, energy, and crisis response and recovery;

     c) Better aligning UNDP programming with its corporate messaging on the centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment to achieving sustainable development; and

     d) Building upon institutional mechanisms for gender mainstreaming, such as the Gender Equality Seal and the gender marker, which provide measurable standards and incentives to drive progress. 

Based on the above, UNDP in Ukraine, in line with its Gender Equality Strategy 2019-2022, is working to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls through:

Inclusive and effective democratic governance

We strive to:

• promote women’s national- and local-level representation and leadership; and strengthen the Ukrainian parliament’s capacity for mandatory gender screening of draft legislation;
• focus on empowering vulnerable persons and groups to assert their rights and seek remedies for grievances, including discrimination and domestic and gender-based violence;
• continue to work with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UN Women to support the implementation of the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and the Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women;
• support the Ombudsperson’s Office, the Ministry of Justice and other government institutions in implementing Ukraine's international obligations on the UPR and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, and focus on facilitating a civil society-Government dialogue on the implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy;
• support the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in introducing gender mainstreaming in procurement procedures, and support women and men affected by HIV, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersexual individuals.

Inclusive and gender-responsive sustainable development

We strive to:

• strengthen advocacy and programming to address gender pay gaps and promote women’s economic empowerment;
• mainstream gender equality principles when assisting the Government, communities and private sector in planning and managing a low-carbon, energy-efficient economy, ensuring equitable access to resources, particularly for marginalized groups;
• promote decent work conditions for men and women, taking into consideration the unequal sharing of childcare and domestic responsibilities. The discriminatory culture, attitudes and stereotypes in the world of work will be addressed, as will gender provisions in labour standards (green jobs) and social protection systems, with a focus on young women;
• build the capacity for gender and gender mainstreaming of the UNDP regional coordinators under the SDG localization portfolio.

Recovery and peacebuilding in conflict-affected areas

We strive to:

• ensure that all infrastructure and rehabilitation work is designed in line with joint assessments of social and environmental impact, integrity, gender, human rights and building-back-better;
• facilitate cooperation between the Ministry of Social Policy in Ukraine and its counterparts in Western Balkan countries to promote employment for vulnerable women and men;
• work closely with UN Women to prioritize women’s empowerment by strengthening women’s groups’ organizational and advocacy capacities to address gender and conflict risks;
• provide policy advice and technical assistance to the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs (MTOT), local governments, law enforcement agencies and civil society to improve services, build trust, promote dialogue and citizens’ security and protect conflict-affected populations, women and girls;
• work with justice sector agencies to scale up community-based early warning and monitoring systems in conflict-affected regions;
• work with administrative service centres (with UN Women) to ensure that concerns over women’s safety and gender-based violence that have been identified are being addressed.