Yuliia Lykhach, Director of the High School of Public Governance, took part in a meeting of the working group on the development of a draft standard general short-term professional development programme on preventing and combating gender-based violence, including domestic violence.

The meeting, which took place on 24 August 2023, resulted in the approval of the general programme. Its volume is 0.6 ECTS, and the duration can be determined by the providers of educational services.

The purpose of the programme is to raise awareness of public servants and local government officials on the prevention, detection, and response to cases of gender-based violence, including domestic violence. Given the fact that on 1 November 2022, Ukraine ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, the issue of providing a national training system for professionals in the field of combating gender-based violence, including domestic violence, has become relevant.

The project was also discussed by Lyudmyla Rykova, Director of the General Department for Professional Development of public Servants and Local Self-Government Officials of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service, Chair of the Working Group, Natalia Shcherbak, Coordinator of the National Training Centre for Combating Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, Kateryna Borozdina, Vice President of the NGO La Strada-Ukraine, Nadiya Zosim, Head of the Office of the Government Commissioner for Gender Policy, Elvina Kurtalieva,Deputy Director of the Department – Head of the Division for Equal Rights and Prevention of Discrimination of the Department for Monitoring of Equal Rights and Freedoms, Rights of National Minorities, Political and Religious Views of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Olena Maslova, Head of the Expert Group on Combating Human Trafficking, Domestic Violence and Gender Equality of the Directorate for Social Services Development of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, Nadiya Prokopenko, Programme Analyst at UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine; Oleksandra Khamulenko, Deputy Director of the Department for the Protection of Children’s Rights and Equality Standards, Head of the Department for Adoption and Protection of Children’s Rights at the National Social Service of Ukraine.

It should be noted that this year, as part of the cooperation between the High School and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine, the National Training Centre on Combating Gender-Based Violence was launched.

One of the main areas of the centre’s work is to ensure a sustainable training process to strengthen the capacity and knowledge of relevant professionals in the field of preventing and responding to cases of gender-based violence, including domestic violence.