On 6 March 2012 Swiss-Ukrainian Project “Decentralization Support in Ukraine” (DESPRO) presented at the Presidium of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine” its study “Decentralization and Local Self-Governance as a Good Potential for Gender Equity”.

International documents on gender equity presuppose that main spheres of its implementation on national, regional and local levels shall include the following: women’s professional training and their capacity building; raising the awareness and changing the public views on men’s and women’s gender roles; creating the network of partner organizations aimed at women’s more active involvement in politics and government. 

On the other hand, Ukraine has a legal framework for the implementation and development of gender equality in the country. Relevant national strategies include the development of mechanisms on ensuring real equality between men and women as well as mechanism that ensures protection from discrimination. Within Millennium Development Goals Ukraine shall achieve a gender ratio of at least 30% of each gender representation in public bodies and halve the income gap between men and women. However, the lawyers estimate the changes related to gender equity that took place in Ukraine within recent years, do not promote real women’s advancement.

Mrs. Lidiya Amdzhadin, the expert of “Intellectual Perspective” Foundation briefed the audience on the study’s results. “Men’s and women’s benefits resulted from DESPRO implementation can be estimated as equal ones: everybody received relief in domestic labor, psychological atmosphere in the families became calmer and some improvements appeared on the plots. The most important lesson is that both men and women understood that they shall promote their interests related to villages’ development as well as they’ve learnt to find the best solutions for current challenges”, said Mrs. Lidiya Amdzhadin.

Mrs. Svitlana Pavlysh, chief specialist of International Relations Unit, National School of Judges of Ukraine, told the audience about the results of gender study and their implementation in decentralized governance and DESPRO. The speaker stressed that project activities aimed at promotion of decentralized services had a positive impact on gender potential of both a separate community and society as a whole.