In the words of Sofia Maksymenko: “Women in decision-making positions bring their unique knowledge and experiences to the local development processes”

Women want to be actively engaged in local decision-making processes and they have proved that they can drive positive results when in top political positions, believes Maksymenko Sofia, the self-help group leader and newly elected head of Zvanivka, a community in the conflict-affected Donetsk oblast located in close proximity to the contact line. Sofia is one of the 72 women members of self-help groups from conflict-affected Luhansk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions who ran in the 2020 local elections elective positions in their communities.

“Women nowadays are not only mothers and housekeepers. Women's political representation in our community has been growing in the recent years. After the last election, half of our community council are women. And I can now say for sure that women in decision-making positions are more detail-oriented and results-driven, mindful, and empathetic. Women are highly responsive not only to women's needs but to the needs and concerns of each and every member of community. Women in politics have a vision and they bring their unique knowledge and experiences to the to the local development processes””.

I am always open for new learning opportunities this is the reason why I have joined the training on Community Mobilization for Empowerment organized by UN Women.

Despite the fact that many small villages in Ukraine are almost drained of people who are migrating to urban settlements, I want to ensure that my community will offer quality health care, education, employment opportunities and social services that will discourage people from leaving. I am planning to mobilize resources to build a kindergarten, open a grocery store, and a pharmacy in Zvanivka. These is my homeland and I want to protect it and contribute to its development. Our community is comprised of very diverse people of different ethnicities, with various skills and competences, who want to contribute to building a prosperous and sustainable settlement”.

UN Women Ukraine supported women from the conflict-affected East of Ukraine by developing their advocacy and leadership capacity to enable their engagement in the local decision-making processes and as a result boosting their participation in the local political life. This work is a part of the United Nations Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, implemented by UN Women, UNDP, UNFPA, and FAO. Twelve international partners support the Programme: the European Union (EU), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, and the governments of Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden & Switzerland.