On 5th of December 2006 the roundtable of practicioners “Implementation of Activities Aimed at Establishing Gender Equality in Novohrad-Volynsky” was held in Novohrad-Volynsky municipality of Zhytomyrska oblast in participation of about 30 representatives of the local government, enterprises, academia, public organisations, UNDP/MGSDP, and gender-specialised Rivne-based NGO “Chayka”. The purpose of the event was to analyse gender in all spheres at local level, assess the activities implemented by end 2006 and plan for the future.
In 2006 the Municipal Support Unit of Novohrad-Volynsky municipality initiated series of activities aimed at raising the local awareness on gender issues in context of sustainable development and Ukrainian MDGs. Under support from UNDP/ Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme and the City Council the information campaigns were organised targeting the communities of neighbourhoods, local schools and colleges, and public organisations. For this purpose, leaflets were developed providing basic information on “Sustainable Development”, “Millennium Development Goals” and “Gender”, and disseminated among the target groups of local population covering about 4000 of local citizens. Trainings for trainers were conducted for the young leaders – representatives of school parliaments – and students of local colleges during which about 50 young trainers were prepared to further disseminate the knowledge to their peers. Also, the publication “Gender: Partnership at Home, at Work, in the Society” was developed reflecting the success stories of local women in Novohrad-Volynsky and providing basic information on gender in national context.
The roundtable was opened by Mrs. V.Tytyanevych, Novohrad-Volynsky Deputy Mayor, who stressed the importance of establishing gender equality at local level in process of building the democratic state and civil society in Ukraine. She identified the purpose of the roundtable as to motivate the governmental and public bodies for considering the gender aspects in their activities for fostering the development processes at local level. Mrs. O.Ursu, Monitoring and Communication Expert of UNDP/MGSDP, briefed about the importance of gender in context of the decisions declared at the World Sammit on Sustainable Development and Ukrainian MDGs. She also told the participants about similar interventions supported by the Programme in other partner municipalities of Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne. Trainings for youth from schools and colleges, awareness events for local media, school competitions and comparative sociological studies about the level of awareness of school students were of great interest to the participants.
Later, the participants discussed the local situation with gender in politics, economic sphere/ entrepreneurhsip, at labour market, in family, education and science, health protection and youth activities. After all, the local stakeholders prepared the plan of priority initiatives to be implemented in 2007 for this purpose, including the following ones:
1. Promote values of democratic families, gender equality, family planning, and healthy life style through the city festival of family creativity “Treasures of Novohrad-Volynsky”, thematic talks with students, young couples before marriage etc.
2. Conduct the public hearings on the prevention of the family violence at local level.
3. Disseminate the informational materials on gender success stories among the local stakeholders for raising their awareness on the subject.
4. Create volunteer groups and promote volunteerism for disseminating knowledge on gender.
5. Conduct the sociological research on gender analysis of local community of Novohrad-Volynsky.
All the participants committed themselves for joint efforts in achieving these plans and invited all interested agencies to join Novohrad-Volynsky in its endeavour.
“Pure talks about the inadequacy of legislation leads to insignificant results at local level. Stengths of each community are in its members and their potential. Development results to be achieved by the community depend very much on how this potential is being used and for what purpose. Our efforts should be aimed at unleashing the potential of local communities and women in particular for implementation of the development initiatives. This approach was successfully applied by Novohrad-Volynskyy through cooperation with UNDP/MGSDP which helped to implement 9 local sustainable projects in 2006”, said Tamara Sakhnenko, Head of Women’s Council of Novohrad-Volynsky.
In 2006 the Municipal Support Unit of Novohrad-Volynsky municipality initiated series of activities aimed at raising the local awareness on gender issues in context of sustainable development and Ukrainian MDGs. Under support from UNDP/ Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme and the City Council the information campaigns were organised targeting the communities of neighbourhoods, local schools and colleges, and public organisations. For this purpose, leaflets were developed providing basic information on “Sustainable Development”, “Millennium Development Goals” and “Gender”, and disseminated among the target groups of local population covering about 4000 of local citizens. Trainings for trainers were conducted for the young leaders – representatives of school parliaments – and students of local colleges during which about 50 young trainers were prepared to further disseminate the knowledge to their peers. Also, the publication “Gender: Partnership at Home, at Work, in the Society” was developed reflecting the success stories of local women in Novohrad-Volynsky and providing basic information on gender in national context.
The roundtable was opened by Mrs. V.Tytyanevych, Novohrad-Volynsky Deputy Mayor, who stressed the importance of establishing gender equality at local level in process of building the democratic state and civil society in Ukraine. She identified the purpose of the roundtable as to motivate the governmental and public bodies for considering the gender aspects in their activities for fostering the development processes at local level. Mrs. O.Ursu, Monitoring and Communication Expert of UNDP/MGSDP, briefed about the importance of gender in context of the decisions declared at the World Sammit on Sustainable Development and Ukrainian MDGs. She also told the participants about similar interventions supported by the Programme in other partner municipalities of Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne. Trainings for youth from schools and colleges, awareness events for local media, school competitions and comparative sociological studies about the level of awareness of school students were of great interest to the participants.
Later, the participants discussed the local situation with gender in politics, economic sphere/ entrepreneurhsip, at labour market, in family, education and science, health protection and youth activities. After all, the local stakeholders prepared the plan of priority initiatives to be implemented in 2007 for this purpose, including the following ones:
1. Promote values of democratic families, gender equality, family planning, and healthy life style through the city festival of family creativity “Treasures of Novohrad-Volynsky”, thematic talks with students, young couples before marriage etc.
2. Conduct the public hearings on the prevention of the family violence at local level.
3. Disseminate the informational materials on gender success stories among the local stakeholders for raising their awareness on the subject.
4. Create volunteer groups and promote volunteerism for disseminating knowledge on gender.
5. Conduct the sociological research on gender analysis of local community of Novohrad-Volynsky.
All the participants committed themselves for joint efforts in achieving these plans and invited all interested agencies to join Novohrad-Volynsky in its endeavour.
“Pure talks about the inadequacy of legislation leads to insignificant results at local level. Stengths of each community are in its members and their potential. Development results to be achieved by the community depend very much on how this potential is being used and for what purpose. Our efforts should be aimed at unleashing the potential of local communities and women in particular for implementation of the development initiatives. This approach was successfully applied by Novohrad-Volynskyy through cooperation with UNDP/MGSDP which helped to implement 9 local sustainable projects in 2006”, said Tamara Sakhnenko, Head of Women’s Council of Novohrad-Volynsky.
