90% of Ukrainians who have moved abroad because of the war are women and children. Creating conditions for their return home is one of the key priorities of the Government of Ukraine.

This was stated by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Economy of Ukraine, during the panel discussion "No Peace Without Women" at The Time to Rethink conference, which was opened in Esturil, Portugal, by the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, on 24 October 2024.

In addition, Yuliia Svyrydenko spoke about programmes to support women's economic activity, such as grants for starting their businesses, retraining and professional development programmes. In particular, the Minister called on Portugal to join the Skills Alliance, which Ukraine launched together with its partners in June during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin.

"According to the recent UN data, 6.4 million people have fled abroad because of the war. 90% of them are women with children. Creating conditions for our people to return home is something we are actively working on as a Government. And at every opportunity, we ask our partners to support these efforts. In particular, we urge them to join our grant programmes for business creation or development so that women are motivated to return and set up their own businesses in Ukraine. I also called on Portugal to join the Skills Alliance, which has already been supported by 50 countries, organisations and business representatives.
The goal of this initiative is to retrain 180,000 Ukrainians in three years," said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The Minister of Economy also stressed the important role that Ukrainian women play during a full-scale war. She noted that the capacity of women and the companies they lead is the foundation of economic resilience.

To support women's leadership, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, on the initiative of First Lady Olena Zelenska, launched the Of Course You Can! information campaign, which aims to reduce the gender pay gap from 18.6% to 13.6%. According to Yuliia Svyrydenko, the gender pay gap in Portugal is currently at 13.1%, and this is an example for Ukraine to follow.