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During 2023-2024, the Ukraine Investment and Trade Facilitation Center will conduct training on the implementation of the Principles of Women's Empowerment (WEPs) for representatives of private and public companies, business associations and civil society organizations. The goal is to support and stimulate companies to work on increasing the economic empowerment of women. The first wave of the Training, which took place offline in Ivano-Frankivsk from November 30 to December 2, 2023, has now ended.

 

Training program

The training program included an introduction to each of the 7 Principles and training sessions based on them. Participants learned about cases of successful implementation of WEPs in private companies and business associations, as well as about projects of public organizations aimed at supporting women. In addition, the program included a gaming element thanks to the board game "Women IN: Leadership and Business" and daily networking.

During the 3 days of training, the participants had the opportunity not only to familiarize themselves with the theoretical and educational aspects of ensuring gender equality, but also to work out directions for expanding the economic empowerment of women from the practical side.

The most controversial issues were the programs for strengthening women through internal corporate tools, policies to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women, quotas for the number of women at all levels of management and in the personnel reserve for replacement, advertising of "non-feminine" professions among women through marketing tools.

An additional bonus for training participants was the provision of comfortable logistical movement thanks to the transport partner Uklon, which provided a promotional code for a discount.

 

Who participated in the training

20 people from business, state and private companies, civil society, business associations were selected to participate in the first wave of training. The participants represented various sectors of the economy in which they implement their activities:

● processing industry

● sphere of services

● food industry

● energy

● creative industries

● education

● trade

 

Participants represented companies and organizations from 8 regions of Ukraine: Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv.

 

The main motivation of participants:

● the desire to participate in the change of society and contribute to the promotion and provision of equal rights and opportunities for women and men;

● meeting new people, expanding the horizons of cooperation, deepening knowledge about gender equality;

● strategic planning, development of projects, products and partnerships in cooperation with business and public organizations and their further implementation;

● a deeper understanding of the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and how to effectively apply them in practice;

● improvement of personal steps to strengthen the roles and positions of rural women in the labor market / in the private sector;

● development of inclusiveness and gender equality in companies;

● implementation of best practices for compliance with WEPs;

● increase in social influence regarding the implementation of WEPs

 

Why are the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) relevant?

Gender equality is an inseparable part of responsible business behavior, as well as international and national human rights protection systems, in particular labor rights. Empowering women is not only an important reputational issue, but also an effective business decision. Research shows that preventing and combating discrimination against female specialists and managers can increase productivity by 25-40% per person in the company.

 

A study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows that almost every third entrepreneur in the world is a woman. And one in six women who do not have a business reported their intention to open one in the near future. At the same time, the data of the study "Ukrainian Female Entrepreneur Profile" for 2021-2022 prove that women face prejudice and pressure from the environment more often than men, in particular, in matters related to career. For example, in the combination of the roles of a mother and a careerist and in general with regard to work activities due to gender. The coronavirus pandemic and the full-scale war in Ukraine have complicated labor relations, particularly among women.

 

"We aim to use transformative approaches to advance gender equality and women's empowerment through the collaboration of all key partners: government, parliament, civil society organizations, the private sector and the media. Among other strategic goals, we want to involve private companies in the implementation of programs that will contribute to the achievement of gender equality and the economic empowerment of women in the workplace, in supply chains and in communities," says the executive director of the Ukraine Investment and Trade Facilitation Center Iryna Tytarchuk .

 

"The total number of signatories of WEPs in Ukraine is 25 companies. We want to expand the circle of signatories who will undertake and contribute to the support of women and girls during the full-scale Russian aggression and in the subsequent recovery processes," says Galina Meshcheryakova, program specialist of UN Women.