Vision for gender responsive recovery in Ukraine

On 21 and 22 June the Ukraine Recovery Conference is taking place in London. It is crucial that women’s perspectives and needs are heard by its organisers and visiting delegations, and included in the recovery and reconstruction plans.

Women’s organisations in Ukraine and other civil society organisations have already shown their consistent commitment to democracy. They now urge the international community to listen to their calls, to keep pressure on the government and support the movement.

"Help us create and maintain the platforms for dialogue and advocacy. Be with us in this fight for our joint values and in our work to rebuild our country.”

Read the statement of Natalia Karbowska of the Ukrainian Women’s Fund, which she shared during a side event on gender dimensions of recovery, organised by the Foreign Common Wealth and Development Office and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Vision for gender responsive recovery

Natalia Karbowska, Ukrainian Women’s Fund

From my own experience and observations during the last 4 years since URC in Toronto.

For sure, there is progress in gender mainstreaming in the process of reforms and now recovery. There is an indication of political will from international partners and the government to see gender dimensions of recovery. Today’s session is a perfect example of this. Thank you to the UK government and all the partners for such an initiative.

There is also progress at the local level – in Ukraine. WROs are doing everything possible and impossible to join the experts groups, strategize and advocate at different levels (starting from grassroots), get to the tables where decisions are made on the recovery.

I know that many of these organisations are with us online today. So, my voice is the voice of hundreds of WROs that are working tirelessly in Ukraine to provide support and hills the scars but also to plan the future.

So, I will talk briefly about our vision of the gender responsive recovery, as well as risks and opportunities.

With recovery we are learning by doing. There is not much experience and knowledge globally and of, course, in Ukraine.

With all the good intentions there is a risk of the formal approach. We already see the signs of this in Ukraine. In the documents on recovery we see that word "Citizens” is been changed to "women and men”. Or including "gender prospective included”. Thank you. Is this inclusion?

To make recovery gender responsive the following is needed:

• Political will of those making decisions. For real inclusion, not just tick the box.
• Expertise, analysis, and statistics.
• Capacity of the movement to develop policies and advocate for their implementation. We need strong civil society - women’s/feminist organisations not only to develop the strategies but to work with the government as "critical friends” on their monitoring and implementation.
• Platforms for communication with the government and international partners. 
• And last but not least. Gender responsive recovery is about strategies but also about practical implementation. We have to be realistic. We cannot integrate gender everywhere at the same time. We have to decide on the priorities. Criteria. Sectors with the biggest gender gaps, which will benefit the most from women’s participation. Economy and employment is clearly one of them.
• There are 4 million refugees, if there are no jobs how they will return? The same with IDPs. Small coffee shops, sewing and clothes repair ateliers, and beauty salons are in many cases the only businesses in the communities. Invest in these micro and small businesses. They will not only give profit to women owners, but help bring taxes to local (and national) budgets as well as open new jobs. 

All these strategies will be very difficult, impossible to implement without international support. Please keep pressure on the government, support the movement, help us create and maintain the platforms for dialogue and advocacy. Be with us in this fight for our joint values and in our work to rebuild our country.