UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. The year 2020 is a historic year for the women’s rights and gender equality as the world marks the 25-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 20-year anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security; and the 5-year since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs. UN Women will leverage this year to galvanize attention and action on key issues including to support the following six priorities, as outlined in the Secretary-General’s report on women, peace and security to the Security Council, i.e. to make leadership accountable for women, peace and security, monitor and support progress through targeted data collection, joined-up analysis, strategic planning and raised visibility; enable, facilitate and ensure women’s meaningful participation in peace processes, the implementation of peace agreements, and across all peace and security decision-making processes; publicly condemn human rights violations and discrimination and prevent all forms of gender-based violence, including against women human rights defenders; increase the number and influence of women in uniformed services in peacekeeping missions and national security services; guarantee women’s economic security and access to resources; and mobilise to finance the women, peace and security agenda and invest in women peacebuilders. In 2017, with funding from the Government of Sweden, UN Women launched the project “Enhancing accountability for gender equality and women’s empowerment in national reforms, peace and security”. The aim of this project, implemented during 2017–2021, is to support the consolidated efforts of the Ukrainian Government, Parliament, women’s groups and civil society organisations (CSOs) to meet state commitments on gender equality and women’s rights through the reforms, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security (including UNSCR 1325) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The project will also support the Government and other important stakeholders, including civil society, to establish or strengthen adequate mechanisms for financing, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of gender equality commitments. In order to achieve these objectives, the project provides the Government, including the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, with policy and technical support to mainstream gender and women’s human rights, especially in state planning and budgeting, to ensure that policies and programmes address the conflict’s profound impact on gender relations and roles and the specific needs and priorities of women affected by the conflict. UN Women supported the state institutions with the development of the new National Action Plan for Implementation of UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security for 2021-2025 (NAP 1325) adopted in October 2020 and stands ready to provide technical support in its implementation. The National Action Plan on the implementation of recommendations provided in the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to the 8th periodic report of Ukraine on the implementation of CEDAW was adopted by the Government of Ukraine in 2018 and is in force till 2021. The Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine is one of the state institutions, responsible for implementation of both mentioned plans. The Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine has demonstrated continued engagement into the integration of gender equality perspective in their programmes and strategies and specific actions targeting the concerns of IDPs and other affected groups of women and men, girls and boys. UN Women has successfully supported the Ministry on a number of different initiatives, including providing technical expertise in formulating the gender-responsive objectives and actions of the State Programme on Recovery and Peacebuilding. In November 2018, the action plan on implementation for the “Strategy of integration of IDPs and implementation of long-term decisions concerning IDPs for the period to 2020” was adopted by the Government of Ukraine. It included number of gender-responsive measures, which have been integrated by the Ministry upon technical support of UN Women, which also facilitated the collection of recommendations of IDPs for inclusion of their voices to the action plan. Based on this experience, UN Women would like to continue this collaboration by supporting the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine to mainstream gender in its strategies, policies, plans and budgets. UN Women, therefore, seeks to hire a National Consultant on Gender Mainstreaming for providing support with gender analysis and gender-responsive policy advice on development, implementation and monitoring of the Ministry’s policies; providing expertise on gender mainstreaming to the legislation, policies and programmes on reintegration and deoccupation, as well as transitional justice related issues; facilitating dialogue with representatives of the civil society organisations, especially those working with IDPs and conflict affected men and women for promoting women’s leadership and meaningful participation in peace-building, reconciliation and recovery processes.
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