Cherkasy hosted the Ukrainian Women’s Congress — a key platform dedicated to women’s leadership and gender equality. About this reported on the Cherkasy City Council website.
The event was attended by representatives of the Cherkasy City Council, delegates from other communities, local deputies, businesswomen, farmers and public activists. Among the participants were also the co-founders of the Congress, Olena Kondratyuk, Maria Ionova and Svitlana Voytsekhovska, people’s deputies, heads of ministries, ambassadors of European and G7 countries.
Discussions on four discussion platforms covered the topics of women’s leadership in local government and business, increasing financial literacy, supporting women in rural communities and strengthening national identity.
The co-founder of the Ukrainian Women’s Congress, the vice-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Olena Kondratyuk emphasized the importance of the regional dimension of the event.
“We need to talk about the role of women not only at the national level, but also at the regional level. We already see a change in the social paradigm due to the new functions and new roles of women acquired during the war. Women are happily given responsibility. But they still do not give equality in pay, decision-making.” – she noted.
Alyona Shkrum, First Deputy Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, spoke about state support for regions in the process of attracting funds from international partners for reconstruction. She cited examples that testify to the more effective participation of women in recovery processes.
Photo: cherkasy-rada.gov.ua
“We currently have 3 oblasts where at the level of rural and town communities over 50% are women. These are Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia and Zaporizhia oblasts. And those communities where there are more female deputies at the local level apply for help, win and receive over 60-70% of the money for reconstruction.” – she explained.
The experience of attracting international aid was shared by the deputy head of the Kuyalnytskyi village for economic issues, Sofia Khodyuk. Thanks to participation in the UNDP program, her community managed to develop a Recovery Plan and become one of the dozen pilot communities that received support.
“Key directions were identified: development of small and medium-sized businesses; energy-efficient measures; community safety. We involved a large number of women in the implementation of these projects.”, – reported Sofia Khodyuk.
Tetyana Volochai, deputy of the Cherkasy Regional Council, head of the Community Development Council of the “MHP-Community” charitable foundation, spoke about the role of women in leadership and community development.
“Our experience has shown that if women are supported, they begin to implement quality initiatives and influence the development of communities.” – believes Tetyana Volochai.
On behalf of the mayor Anatoliy Bondarenko, the participants of the Congress were greeted by the deputy mayor Maryna Harkava. She joined the panel discussion on “Gender-sensitive recovery and overcoming barriers for women in small communities”, where she presented the approaches of Cherkasy in the field of social policy.
