The Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Municipal Economy of Ukraine Mr. Gennadiy Zubko participated in the signing ceremony which took place during the launch of the new Swiss-Ukrainian joint program.

After the signing of the Memorandum, the Head of the Swiss Cooperation Office Ukraine Mr. Guido Beltrani highlighted: „Within the EGAP Program we plan to use e-governance and e-democracy tools as enablers for building the trust and cooperation between local authorities and citizens. We are confident that modern information and communication technologies are excellent tools for a more efficient provision of administrative services to citizens both from urban and rural areas, and for more transparent and inclusive decision making”.

The EGAP seeks to strengthen good governance and modern public service delivery and social innovation in Ukraine by using the new information communication technologies (ICTs).

The selected partner regions are the Oblasts of Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Vinnytsia and Volyn.

This is a new tool of the SCO Ukraine to acknowledge the best performing initiatives in addressing gender inequalities and empowering women and men in the particular fields of projects interventions. The best cases of the period 2012 – 2014 were presented for consideration.

Three projects, in particular the Energy Efficiency in Vinnytsia, the Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production Centre and the IOM project Prevention of Human Trafficking through Community Mobilization (two lasts are located in Kyiv) received the Gender Award certificates and special prizes.

The Energy Efficiency Project located in Vinnytsia got a set of wooden and other modern toys for the children playing room “Smile” at Vinnytsia “Transparent offices” (providing administrative services at the Vinnytsia City Council). The Vinnytsia City Council is a partner of the project and jointly they put efforts to promote energy saving approaches among citizens of Vinnytsia. While the parents look for consultations by the specialists of the “Transparent office” the children get professional care in the playing room under supervision of the social workers.

Another two projects located in Kyiv, namely the Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production Centre (RFCPC) as well as the IOM project Prevention of Human Trafficking through Community Mobilization were invited to a city tour in Kyiv with a special focus on the role of women and men at different stages of city development from the historical, political, economic and cultural point of view. The teams of the both projects discovered a lot of interesting facts about their lovely city and had the opportunity once more to discuss about the roles and inputs of both genders in a daily life and at the crucial key points in the history.

After this first exercise, the SCO Ukraine planes to continue to award the best initiatives aimed at promotion of gender equality and special achievement in outstanding performance and role models in Gender Equality and mainstreaming within the Swiss Cooperation Programme in Ukraine.

For more information please follow the links:

1. „Transparent Office” in Vinnytsia got a Gender Award – only in Ukrainian

2. IOM helps tackle gender inequalities in Carpathians

3. Chronik-Fotos – only in Ukrainian