Under this title, on 6 August, the High School started a training for civil servants responsible for implementing gender issues at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. The programme was developed by the High School jointly with the Ministry of Justice and UN Women in Ukraine.

Gender inequality remains one of the most acute problems in the modern world, and Ukraine is no exception. Statistics show significant gaps between women and men in wages, representation in government and other areas of life. The war has further exacerbated these imbalances. That is why the integration of a gender perspective into all areas of public policy and professional training is an urgent necessity.

The purpose of such training is to raise awareness of the essence of gender policy, the functioning of the institutional mechanism for its implementation, the powers of responsible structural units for ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men, gender aspects of the civil service, the content of gender-oriented governance and the tools for its implementation by public authorities.

In her opening remarks, Julia Brusard, UN Women Deputy Representative, noted that this was a large-scale training with 20 hours of theoretical and practical modules on the application of specific gender elements and mechanisms. Ms Julia expressed her hope that such training would contribute to the gender-sensitive recovery and prosperity of Ukraine.

The knowledge and skills gained at the training will enable participants to integrate a gender perspective into their work more effectively, develop and implement gender-sensitive policies, and promote equal rights and opportunities for all.

International cooperation, in particular with UN Women, plays an important role in this process by providing expert support and facilitating the exchange of experience. Yuliia Lykhach, Head of the High School, emphasised this point. “Gender equality is not a separate area, but a cross-cutting principle that should be taken into account at all levels of government. The High School is systematically working on the development of gender equality programmes, adapting them to new challenges and international standards. Cooperation with UN Women allows us to develop innovative programmes.

These are programmes related to the implementation of gender policy, international legal support, gender approach in human resource management in the civil service, gender audit, integration of gender approach into local policies, plans, budgets, etc. One of the new programmes is ‘Gender Mainstreaming in the Process of European Integration’, which will be launched in the near future and will help bring us closer to European standards in this area.”

The High School is constantly updating its study programmes to meet the current needs of the labour market and the challenges of the modern world. In 2023 alone, more than 797 people were trained on gender equality in various programmes. This year, the number of participants will increase to 1,409, which demonstrates the interest in this topic among public servants.