Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze participated in the regional meeting on gender equality priorities in Zhytomyr with the participation of deputy ministers, representatives of local authorities, experts and coaches from international organizations that are actively promoting the topic of gender equality.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze told about the priorities of gender policy, which the Government is pursuing, named the principal accents on gender issues in the work of ministries and departments. She noted that the core principle of implementing the principles of gender equality in the country is localization, inter alia taking into account the specific features of each separate region. It is the localization of gender policy at the regional level that enables to prevent negative situations, to study them and to correct them more quickly and efficiently than it would have been done at the state level.

Among the peculiarities of Zhytomyr region, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze highlighted the gender pay gap, which dropped in comparison with previous years and in 2017 amounted to 16.6%, which is lower than the average for Ukraine - 24.4% (men get higher wages than women). According to the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the negative trend is that the average life expectancy of men in Zhytomyr region is almost 12 years lower than that of women (this is one of the highest gaps in Ukraine). The rate of suicides among men in Zhytomyr region is 85%.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze drew the attention of the regional leadership to the fact that gender statistics in education and political representation areas should be present on the RSA website, as well as the availability of regional programs and the institutional mechanism of gender policy.

At the same time, the Vice Prime Minister emphasized as positive the fact that this year Zhytomyr City Council decided to join the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life. "This is a correct statesman-like and well-balanced decision that Zhytomyr has adopted being second among the Ukrainian cities that approved such a decision", said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze. "Although in the current composition of the Zhytomyr City Council only 19% of deputies are women, it is still more than in our Parliament with only 12% of women. And I am pleased to see in this hall representatives of two deputy groups of the City Council - "Women of Zhytomyr" and "Equal opportunities".

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze focused on three important documents on gender equality: the State Program for Equal Rights and Opportunities till 2021, the National Action Plan to implement the UN Security Council Resolutions "Women, Peace and Security" till 2020 and the National Action Plan till 2021 on the implementation of recommendations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

On the basis of these documents, the relevant regional programs in the field of gender equality should be approved. In addition, regions need to implement gender budgeting, conduct gender expertise before introducing regulations, work on gender statistics and strengthen the status of gender advisers.

The Vice Prime Minister also drew attention to the main aspect of the decentralization reform, namely, the rapid response to the needs of local residents. "The very essence of the gender approach is to put a person at the center of the policy-making process", she accentuated. "We must focus on a specific person, a specific man or woman. Gender-based strategies and programs based on the needs of each particular community, region, provide local participation and responsibility, and appear a tool for better coordination and cooperation. As a result, the level of trust in public authorities and local self-government grows."

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze expressed gratitude to the head of the Zhytomyr Regional State Administration Ihor Hundytsch for organizing a meeting for representatives of five regions. This time, in the meeting, in addition to Zhytomyr region, representatives of Volyn, Khmelnytsky, Vinnytsia and Rivne regions took part. Previous similar meetings held in Dnipro and Ternopil covered 10 regions of Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ternopil, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi).

The events take place with the support of UN Women Ukraine and the NDI.