On 2 May, with the support of the Polaris Programme ‘Supporting Multi-Level Governance in Ukraine’, the third meeting of the ‘Women in Governance’ Network took place in the Lviv region on the theme ‘Women in Governance: Collaboration through Networking’. The event brought together female hromadas leaders and representatives of local government bodies from various regions of Ukraine to jointly develop a vision for the Network’s development, strengthen professional cooperation and create an effective platform to support women in governance.
The Network currently comprises 32 members – representatives of three national associations of local government bodies: the All-Ukrainian Association of Amalgamated Territorial Communities, the All-Ukrainian Association of Hromadas, and the Ukrainian Association of District and Regional Councils. The members represent hromadas, districts and regions from across Ukraine.
The meeting took the form of interactive activities, discussions and group sessions. During the events, participants worked on a vision for the Network’s future development. Key proposals included developing a shared vision and development strategy, creating a communication strategy and brand for the Network, defining participants’ roles, developing regional branches, organising regular thematic meetings, and creating spaces for professional exchange, support and training.
Special attention was given to the topics for future meetings. The participants proposed discussing global and European experiences of women in government, psychological resilience, crisis communications, cyber threats to women, advocacy for women’s rights, gender-sensitive approaches in the post-war period, and issues of peacebuilding and memorialisation.
Based on the results of a ranked vote, the participants identified the top three priority topics for the Network’s future work:
- advocacy for women’s rights;
- global and European experiences of women in governance and the activities of women’s networks;
- crisis communications and cyber threats to women in governance.
“The ‘Women in Governance’ Network is a space for mutual support, the exchange of experience and the joint search for solutions for women working in the field of local self-government. It is important that participants not only shape the vision for the Network’s development, but also identify specific topics and areas of cooperation that address the current challenges facing communities and society,” noted Yuliia Savelyeva, gender expert at the Polaris Programme.
