On 22-23 November 2023, the coordinator of the EU Erasmus+ Project “Implementation of European Union mechanisms for combating modern challenges and threats” (101085700 – IMEU – ERASMUS-JMO-2022-HEITCH-RSCH), PhD, Assoc. Prof. Viktoriia Shkola participated in the VII Ukrainian Women’s Congress “Women’s leadership. Recovery time. Time to rebuild”. The event was held in a hybrid format.
Scientists, military personnel, volunteers, veterans, state and local governors, representatives of business, the public sector, and the media participated in the Congress.
During the event, more than 50 speakers, including Katarina Mathernova, the Ambassador of the EU to Ukraine; Bridget A. Brink, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA to Ukraine; Penny Pritzker, the US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery; Peter Erben, the Senior Global Electoral Adviser to the election committee and Country Director for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in Ukraine; Dr Marcin Walecki, the Senior Resident Country Director for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Ukraine; Denise Brown, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine; Isobel Coleman, Deputy Administrator for Policy and Programming at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), delivered a speech.
The Congress participants discussed the issues of women’s and men’s equal participation in Ukraine’s reconstruction, women’s role in politics at the central and regional levels, women’s entrepreneurship, and the educational process adaptation to new realities.
During the Congress, there were thematic discussions on women’s participation in security processes, migration, reproductive rights of defenders, veterans’ rehabilitation and reintegration, manifestations of women’s leadership qualities during military challenges, and opportunities for state support of women in business.
In addition, during the event, the participants studied practical cases of female veterans’ social adaptation and the results of the research “Prerequisites for returning Ukrainian women found temporary shelter abroad to Ukraine to participate in the reconstruction”, initiated by the NGO “Ukrainian Women’s Congress” and carried out jointly with the Educational Foundation “MriyDii” and the research company Periscope Research with the support of the U-LEAD project on 1-12 November 2023.
We sincerely thank the organisers and speakers for a professional, meaningful, extremely relevant, and exciting event!