UN Women and the Open Society Institute for Local Democracy launch the project “Strengthening Gender-Responsive Public Finance Management for Community Reconstruction in Ukraine”

Ukraine’s recovery requires not only significant resources, but also informed decisions about where to direct them. Different population groups have different needs and use public services and infrastructure in different ways. Therefore, when planning budgets, public investments and recovery programs, it is important to consider how the planned decisions affect women and men and different population groups. This allows for the use of public funds more effectively, fairly and in accordance with the real needs of people.

The project is being implemented in six regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Sumy and Kharkiv.

The initiative considers gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) in the broader context of public finance management reform in Ukraine and aims to strengthen the capacity of local and regional authorities to integrate gender analysis into budget planning, program-targeted budgeting, performance management, investment planning and recovery processes.

"In recent years, Ukraine has taken important steps towards institutionalizing gender-responsive budgeting: the adoption of Law No. 4225-IX in 2025 and the resulting amendments to the Budget Code require key spending units to take gender aspects into account when planning, implementing and reporting on budget programmes. Yet it is at the local level that these provisions turn into real decisions and services for women and men. Amid Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which further limits women's and girls' access to services, health care, education and decision-making, gender-responsive budgeting matters more than ever," said Tetyana Kudina, Deputy Country Representative, UN Women Ukraine.

From gender analysis to budget decision

At the local level, budget decisions determine what resources and how much are allocated to public services, social infrastructure, health, education, economic development, security, and other areas that directly affect people’s lives. 

The project will help governments use data on women and men and different population groups to identify differences in needs and access to services, assess the impact of budget programs, and use the results of such analysis to improve the quality of budget and management decisions.

Strengthening the role of women's organizations in the budget process and ensuring accountability of public finances

Effective gender-responsive budgeting requires not only the capacity of government, but also the meaningful participation of civil society in the budget process.

A separate component of the project aims to strengthen the capacity of women’s human rights organizations and women’s organizations led by women to conduct budget analysis and monitoring, use GRB tools, and formulate evidence-based recommendations for government.

Representatives of women’s human rights organizations will receive practical tools for analyzing budget programs, monitoring public expenditures, participating in budget consultations, and advocating for gender-responsive budget decisions.

Participatory consultations will be held in each of the six oblasts with the participation of representatives of state authorities, local governments, and representatives of women’s human rights and women’s organizations led by women. The focus of the consultations will be on specific budget programs, services, and recovery priorities.

This format will allow to move from a general dialogue on gender equality to a joint analysis of budget decisions and the formation of specific recommendations for a more effective and fair use of public resources.

This transition is supported by the experience of partner countries that have already gone through a similar path. The Government of Finland, which supports this project, has been systematically implementing gender-responsive budgeting at all levels of governance for decades.

"Finland has long been a pioneer in advancing gender equality, and gender-responsive budgeting is part of our broader gender mainstreaming approach in public administration: at the central, regional and municipal levels. For us, it is essential that decision-makers and the public understand how investments, expenditures and policy decisions affect women and men differently. Gender-responsive budgeting is not about separate budgets for women. It is about integrating a gender perspective into all budget decisions and public financial management processes. Ultimately, it is about equality, trust and cohesion – and for Ukraine's recovery, these are essential," said Karita Laisi, Head of Cooperation, Embassy of Finland in Ukraine.

Institutionalization of dialogue and sustainability of results

An important outcome of the project should be the creation of conditions for the systematic application of the GRB even after the end of project support.

In the six target oblasts, support will be provided to establish or strengthen sustainable dialogue mechanisms between authorities and women’s human rights organizations and women’s organizations led by women. They will facilitate regular discussions on budget programs, recovery priorities, gender analysis results and possible solutions.

Where possible, such mechanisms will be integrated into existing local consultation and coordination structures and linked to the budget cycle. This will allow for the involvement of civil society not only after budget decisions are made, but also at stages when the results of the analysis and recommendations can still be taken into account when planning budget and investment decisions.

“Gender-responsive budgeting should not be a separate area of gender policy, but part of the process of making budget and investment decisions. Our task is to strengthen the capacity of government bodies and civil society to use gender analysis and data to improve the quality of management decisions, improve budget programmes and allocate public resources in a more informed way, in particular for recovery,” said Svitlana Khodakova, Chair of the Board of the Open Society Institute for Local Democracy. 

Special attention will be paid to the use of project results in the 2027–2028 budget cycles. Project activities will be synchronized with the main stages of budget planning, preparation of budget requests, determination of expenditure priorities, recovery planning and public investments, so that the results of gender analysis can be used directly when making relevant decisions.

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The “Strengthening Gender-Responsive Public Finance for Local Recovery in Ukraine” project is implemented by the NGO Institute for Local Democracy “Open Society” within the framework of UN Women Ukraine’s Strategic Note (2025–2029), with financial support from the Governments of Finland, Austria, Denmark, France, Norway, Poland and Sweden.

The views and content expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the official position or endorsement of the United Nations.