Women’s Increased Leadership for Resilient and Peaceful Societies Programme
Date:
Women’s Increased Leadership for Resilient and Peaceful Societies Programme
Strategic Visioning Meeting of Programme Partners
- Date: 3 October 2024
- Location: Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
- Venue: Urban Business Center, 115/1 Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt Blvd (Location Link)
- Working languages: English/Romanian/Ukrainian with the simultaneous translation
- Event Agenda
Background
As part of its partnership with Denmark within the four-year “Women’s Increased Leadership for Resilient and Peaceful Societies” initiative, UN Women works across key impact areas within its corporate mandate, as outlined in the UN Women Strategic Plan 2022-2025. These areas include Governance and Participation in Public Life (Moldova), Women, Peace, and Security (Georgia, Ukraine), Women’s Economic Empowerment (Georgia, Ukraine), and Ending Violence Against Women (Moldova). Through this partnership, UN Women supports gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) across Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine by providing technical assistance and advocating for gender-responsive policy reforms and legal frameworks.
Countries currently undergoing the European Union (EU) accession process face specific challenges, such as institutional reforms, economic adjustments, and social integration. Addressing these challenges effectively is essential for facilitating successful EU integration and contributing to long-term prosperity. The EU accession process also unlocks opportunities for gender transformative and inclusive economic growth, governance improvements, and social development and advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE).
To support exchange of knowledge on EU accession among candidate countries through their integration journey, UN Women is organizing the Strategic Visioning Meeting which will contribute to sharing insights and best practices to better navigating the complexities of the accession process. This collaborative approach will foster stronger actions to ensure GEWE perspectives are fully addressed in the integration policies and broader development plans, with the vision of inclusive societies and lasting peace.
The Strategic Visioning Meeting will focus on how GEWE can be mainstreamed to meet EU membership commitments through reforms of legislation, evidence-based policies, and public service programmes, and within two thematic pillars of the partnership between UN Women and Denmark: Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) and transformative economic development, and advancing the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda, with a focus on amplifying women’s voices and leadership, coordination and mobilisation.
In addition, acknowledging relevance, similarities, and synergies across the EU Enlargement region, the meeting will be joined by UN Women representatives from the Western Balkans region to enable learning, networking, and exchange on gender mainstreaming the EU accession processes, focusing on social development sectors.
More information on the achievements during the programme's inception phase can be found here.
Key Objectives
- Take stock of progress made on gender equality and women’s rights and address challenges ahead.
- Foster knowledge exchange and to build a community of practice for countries with EU accession status.
- Pursue partnerships and knowledge sharing to advance gender commitments in the frame of EU accession.
Participants
- National Gender Machineries/Institutional Mechanisms
- Government bodies/institutions in charge of EU integration
- Experts/CSOs working on gender equality/women’s empowerment and EU integration
- Representatives of MFA Denmark
- EU Delegations
- UNDP Regional Hub for Europe and Central Asia
- UN Women Regional and Country Offices
More information about the speakers of the event can be found here.
A critical component of the programme is gender mainstreaming in EU accession countries, ensuring that efforts and policies are sustainable and aligned with the European future of Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. Further details on UN Women's unique approach and expertise in supporting accession countries—through capacity building, policy work, and the empowerment of women in the context of EU integration—are available in the Gender Equality Facility (GEF) policy brief.