Ukraine

Almost three years after the start of the large scale aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, and a massive United Nations (UN) humanitarian operation,UN Women increased awareness of the need for gender-responsive humanitarian and recovery operations and women�s participation in decision making, contributing to improved women and girls access to services and rights. UN Women encouraged the UN system to more integrally meet the needs of women and girls, especially those facing multi forms of discrimination, in their humanitarian response through the work and advocacy of the Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) Working Group and the visible contributions of UN multi-donor Women�s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), which demonstrated that women�s rights organizations (WRO) and CSOs across Ukraine can effectively provide humanitarian assistance and that women and girls have specific needs that need to be accounted for. Both GiHA and WPHF grew significantly in 2024 under UN Women�s chairing of their respective secretariats. GIHA expanded in 2024 to over 300 members, including 40 Ukrainian WROs, securing its position as Ukraine�s main coordination body on gender mainstreaming in the humanitarian response. Through GiHA the CO regularly convenes partners, providing them capacity building and skills development, support to communication, advocacy and data collection. GIHA successfully contributed to the HNRP and other humanitarian planning documents to make them more responsive to the needs of women and girls. UN Women supported WPHF to become the largest feminist fund for gender-responsive and inclusive humanitarian assistance and recovery in Ukraine. Through $6.5 million allocated to 54 women�s CSOs in 2024, some 25,000 women and their families across Ukraine received vital support, including food, hygiene kits, medication, legal aid, information on humanitarian assistance and emergency protection referral pathways, evacuation services and economic empowerment initiatives. Through the WPHF efforts were also invested in enhancing the institutional capacities of WROs facing multiple forms of discrimination to strengthen their agency and voice. The CO also increased awareness and commitment to address the needs of women and girls in the recovery process through numerous advocacy efforts including the launch with the Governments of Ukraine and Germany of the Alliance on Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Recovery. It aims to encourage the 60+ commitment makers to invest more financially in gender responsive recovery, to support women�s leadership in decision making on recovery and to help plan and implement projects and programs advancing gender equality during recovery. Commitment makers will be asked to demonstrate accountability to their commitments in a report to be published before the 2025 Ukraine Recovery Conference. The result contributes to achieving the SDG 5, SDG 8 including nationalized SDG targets and indicators for Ukraine.