Ukrainian women at the UN: Changing how the world sees them
by Svetlana Salamatova
The impossible is possible! This was the motto for the project “Ukrainian Women in the UN 2018”, which ran from September 2017 to April 2018.
This project grew out of the Women’s Partnership Forum, which was implemented in Ukraine in May 2017 using Technology of Participation (ToP) facilitation. The Forum gave birth to six projects created by 11 working groups, which continue their work today. See photos .
During one of these projects, the “International Effective Forum” implemented by the NGO “Association Diya (Movement)” in Odessa in September 2017, I facilitated a panel on “Gender Equality”. Reflecting later on the beach with a glass of champagne, we thought about what we could do together to ensure the Forum results were effective. “Let us go to the UN?” I said. “And let’s go!”, said the rest …
Six months later, the first extended independent delegation of 17 women took part in the 62nd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62). The world’s largest platform, CSW gathers active women from all over the world annually for two weeks every March. Eight thousand women, who organized 450 events, took part this year, talking about rural women and girls, opportunities for their development, effective practical tools for implementation, and women’s access to media in rural areas.
During our session, “Transformation of Ukraine: New Opportunities for Women in Rural Areas”, we presented 12 short reports on our successful work experiences in Ukraine. Our goal was to change the world’s negative picture of Ukrainian women, by showing a strong, successful woman who is not afraid of difficulties and who is open to effective interaction and partnership. About 80 delegates from a variety of countries attended.
We had begun reaching out to our potential audience during registration, intriguing them with flyers that asked “Why Ukrainian women’ in large print. I approached people individually, introduced us and our mission, goals and tasks, and invited them to attend our event. While I reached to the end of the hundred-meter line, I realized what steps can and should be done to bring peace to Ukraine. The day before the session began, we also had a one-day “Advisory day”.
Our event opened with a short film about the famous 40-meter Ukrainian flag sewn by the women of Kramatorsk to lift peoples’ spirits during separatist riots in the city. We talked about the appalling situation of mined agricultural lands in the eastern Donbas region, which will require at least half a century to be demined. We told the stories of women who had to leave their homes to escape shelling and then, in more peaceful territory, build new businesses and new lives for their families. We outlined microfinance prospects for women in rural areas and the development of women’s private entrepreneurship there. We explained opportunities opened for women in the OTG (new amalgamated communities) created by decentralization reforms. We showed successful examples of women’s associations and cultural projects that develop village infrastructure. Summarizing, we noted that the happiness of a woman is the success of the country.
Our delegation represented a “mini model of Ukraine”. It included women from the center — Kiev, Irpin and Cherkassy; women from the west — Lviv; women from the east — Kramatorsk; women from the south — Odessa; and women from Crimea (annexed by Russia). All of us, as women leaders, first met in this project. While learning how to work together was initially challenging, we were inspired by our important mission — to show the world a new picture of Ukrainian women. I practiced facilitative leadership that could create the conditions for personal growth of each participant. And we were successful with these tasks.
Separately from us, a five-member governmental delegation participated in one day of the session and presented a short report. The delegation was headed by Ivanna Klimpush-Tsintsadze, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the 8th convocation. As we were there for two weeks, we were able to actively study the thinking and experience of women from all over the world and thus develop our capacity to represent ourselves before official government bodies. We made many contacts that we hope will help us with our work in Ukraine. For example, we met representatives of several large international organizations that work with and support projects developed by rural women which have never worked in Ukraine, and are talking with them about how they could begin working in our country.
Apart from our session, we took part in an event organized by the former head of the Ethics Commission in the office of the President of the United States. We also built bridges of friendship with the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations (WFUWO), NGO Razom for Ukraine, and the official representation of Armenia in the UN. In Washington, we were greeted at the historic Ukrainian embassy by Valeriy Chaly, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, and his wife Lyudmila Mazuka, and talked about possibilities of creating a program to develop women’s leadership. The US-Ukraine Foundation, organized in the early 1990s by five US congressmen with Ukrainian roots, gathered a group of Friends of Ukraine for acquaintance and dialogue. Nadia McConnell, the foundation’s president, organized our meeting with Marcy Kaptur, a Congresswoman with 35 years experience who heads the US Congress’ inter-factional association on the Ukrainian issue. For ninety minutes, we focused on understanding how to make state decisions based on the problems of ordinary citizens. This invaluable experience helped us think in completely new ways.
Unsurprisingly, we all came back home different. Each of us learned what kind of knowledge, competencies, and skills we lack. We realized that here in Ukraine, we live in illusions, under the influence of a closed and toxic space that forces us to compete with each other. This isolation is fueled by toxic media and the targeted policies of our “big brother”.
While many Ukrainians think Ukraine has a bad reputation in the world, our trip proved that it is not so. Ukraine and Ukrainians are loved and respected for what we are doing in our country. Today — unlike a quarter century ago — the rest of the world knows where Ukraine is on the world map.
The women of our delegation were tremendously impressed by seeing how women from African and other countries worked in solidarity during the 62nd session. We learned about the thinking and knowledge of women in other countries, and realized that the world’s women share the same problems and thus must work together to overcome them. We also learned to appreciate the uniqueness of our Ukrainian experience, knowing how to live and survive in constant crisis with food prices doubling every two years while still staying human and being positive towards other people.
We deployed the 40-meter Ukrainian flag at the UN and the White House, and we also brought with us a collection of copies of Ukrainian historical flags provided by the National Museum of Ukrainian History. The new UN Educational Center gave us a room for our strategic planning session.
The project consisted of three phases. Our first preparatory stage lasted five months. The main phase lasted two weeks. The final phase, during which we are working with the media to show how we grew professionally and how our newly-learned thoughts and ideas are taking shape, is taking place now that we are back home in Ukraine.
This project was aimed at realizing the mission of the Institute of Cultural Affairs International — the development of human potential — and we believe ICAI’s participation in CSW63 could be beneficial. At the concluding session of CSW62, you could hear many statements about the fact that while we are able to create excellent documents, we do not know how to implement them. And we altogether have to do something about that.
P.S The delegation included representatives of the city of Kiev (Natalia Kaplun, Tatyana Sosnovskaya, Olga Pasko, Julia Gerzanich), Odessa (Natalia Delieva, Elena Palashek, Svetlana Kudryavtseva, Oksana Sokolova, Ilona Zgurov), Kramatorsk (Svetlana Chepeleva, Anna Aladieva), Lviv Zvezdnaya Oleynik), Cherkassy (Marina Guryanova), Irpenya (Olga Ivanova), Donetsk (Inna Mikhno), and the Crimea (Tamara Makarova).
Svetlana Salamatova, author of the idea and coordinator of the project svetasalamatova@gmail.com
Iuliia Fomenko, translation yulfom@gmail.com
Author’s note: I want to express special gratitude to our organization’s Supervisory Board for the opportunity to have my idea realized under the ICAI umbrella; to Martin Gilbraith for technical assistance in implementing the project; and to all ICAI members for their support and kind words, without which the impossible would not be possible .
