Women as agents of change, peace building and conflict prevention at the grassroots level in Ukraine

NGOs from Ukraine and Lithuania have started to implement a European Union funded project, which aims to promote the contribution of women to peace-related and conflict prevention processes by supporting local stakeholders in developing, implementing and monitoring regional action plans for the implementation of the National Action Plan on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 Women, Peace and Security*. Local authorities, NGOs, mass media, academia, and experts in Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Luhansk and Khmelnytskyi oblasts of Ukraine will be the main target groups of the project.

Project objectives:
• Improve understanding of UNSCR 1325 principles and objectives by local stakeholders and build their capacity to implement specific initiatives aimed at promotion of women’s participation in peace-related processes.
• Provide direct support to local stakeholders in developing, implementing and monitoring local actions plans on UNSCR 1325.
• Organize sharing of best practices and experience and develop knowledge products for replication.

Project duration: March 2018 – January 2020

Project partners: Ukrainian Women’s Fund (project coordinator), Women’s Information and Consultative Centre (Ukraine) and the Centre for Equality Advancement (Lithuania)

*About UNSCR 1325: Adopted in 2000 the resolution acknowledged the differential impact of war on women and the significance of their role in peace and security efforts in their communities. The resolution therefore calls for increased participation of women in conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding mechanisms, it also urges to incorporate gender perspectives in these mechanisms and take special measures to protect women from gender-based violence in situations of armed conflict.

Women who build Lithuania

This project is an innovation to enhance historical memory, which will introduce little known achievements in the field of gender equality throughout the centennial of restored Lithuania.

Women movement for the right to vote in Lithuania started back in 1905, when women’s association for the protection of women’s rights was founded in Vilnius. Its purpose was to fight for the right of women to vote and to be a part of restoration of the state. The main goal was reached on November 2, in 1918, when women were granted a right to vote, which was also written in the interim Constitution. Historical facts attests that the restored state of Lithuania was built on solid foundations of democracy and gender equality. The creators were outdistancing the elite of other European countries and that is why today we can be proud of the fact that our democracy is inseparable from the fundamental virtues of gender equality. After given political rights women started to actively participate in shaping the newly restored country. They always actively participated in political, public, science, charity and art fields and in that way essentially contributed to the shaping and cherishing of Lithuanian culture, without which the Lithuanian state of nowadays couldn’t exist.
Nevertheless this contribution in the official history is often unseen and that essentially impoverish the history itself and the understanding of the cultural heritage. We must admit that the society is still too little informed about these achievements throughout the century of the Lithuanian state. This project will help to fill in the gaps and will show that we can be also proud about Lithuania because of the rich history of our women.

During the project the attention will be drawn in particular to young people . Traditional decisions of revitalization of the memory will be joined with innovative ways of communicating using social networks.

Project is funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture.

Boys in Care – strengthening boys to pursue care occupations (BiC)

Project aim: Create and improve initiatives for gender untypical vocational choices supporting boys in untypical vocational pathways, challenge the under-representation of men in professional care education including health care, elder care, early childhood education and primary school and teaching, challenge a cultural ascription of care work as an extension of women’s ‘natural’ function in the family and foster caring masculinities and challenge rigid gender norms.
Project activities:
1. Review of textbooks, teaching and informational material for vocational choices
2. Developing an online toolkit for gender sensitive educational and vocational counselling for teachers and counsellors.
3. Developing and/or improving gender sensitive online informational material for professionals, boys and parents.
4. Developing and implementing modularized training courses for teachers and vocational counsellors with a focus on gender sensitive vocational counselling for boys.
5. Development of a manual, oriented on the needs of teachers and vocational counsellors (incl. strategies, tools, specific knowledge).
6. Awareness raising campaigns

The consortium consists of Dissens Institut für Bildung und Forschung e.V. – Germany (project coordinator), Verein für Männer- und Geschlechterthemen Steiermark – Austria, The Peace Institute – Slovenia, Instituto degli Innocenti – Italy, Center of Women’s Studies and Policies – Bulgaria, Center for Equality Advancement – Lithuania.

Associate partner in Lithuania – Education Development Centre

Funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union