Including Women in Sustainable Reconstruction in Ukraine

Check out this insight article by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), exploring how sustainable reconstruction should include inclusive efforts to ensure women´s full participation in the post-war recovery.

We include some extracts highlighting the critical importance of capacity building and gender inclusion. Read the full article here

The total value of infrastructure loss has reached an estimated USD 138 billion.

Kyiv School of Economics, December 2022

While no large reconstruction projects are planned until the end of the war, planning for recovery has already begun. To ensure that this recovery is sustainable, many stakeholders are now starting to underscore the importance of foregrounding gender equality and women’s empowerment in these efforts. This means recognizing that the damage caused by war is impacting women and girls differently than men and boys, and it means acknowledging and reflecting their differing needs and priorities from the outset of reconstruction planning and implementation.

Of the 5.4 million internally displaced persons from the war in Ukraine, 55% were women and girls.

International Organization for Migration, January 2023

The double burden of care work is real: with the destruction and closing of infrastructure such as health care facilities, schools, childcare, and eldercare centres, women’s care burden is increasing. Simultaneously, women are also facing growing unemployment, especially in occupations often dominated by women, such as nursing and teaching. The lack of access to stable electricity supplies also has gendered implications, including having a severe impact on household activities, thus further increasing the strain of care work on women.

For gender considerations to be integrated into all aspects of project design, appraisal, and budgeting in the reconstruction efforts, the different stages of the infrastructure life cycle must adopt gender-responsive decision making. This requires recognizing that men often dominate decision-making processes when it comes to infrastructure and construction. The many stakeholders involved in reconstruction need to ensure women’s participation in decision making at all levels, from the subnational to the international, so that their needs and priorities are represented and reflected appropriately in each instance.

The infrastructure life cycle must adopt gender-responsive decision making.

Reconstruction will mobilize different sectors, some of which are also historically male-dominated, such as the energy sector or the construction sector. For instance, estimates indicate that women only account for 9% of the construction workforce worldwide and approximately 27% of the energy workforce in Ukraine.

Involving women at all levels and in all economic sectors that will be implicated in the reconstruction effort means considering them as an active part of the labour force.

Procurement is another key area that fosters socio-economic benefits for women and men. Equality and inclusion criteria can support more inclusive procurement systems and practices that can contribute to gender equality. Likewise, decision-makers can rethink procurement processes to include, in a meaningful way, Ukrainian women business owners, suppliers, and contractors in recovery plans.

This is important to help ensure that women are given equal opportunity to access and benefit from the procurement of those goods and services needed for the country’s economic recovery.

IISD´s Insigth Conclusion

To ensure that post-war reconstruction is truly sustainable, it must consider and address the needs of all Ukrainians, with specific attention to those disproportionately affected by the war. This means incorporating the gendered dimensions of recovery and reconstruction in relevant frameworks, programs, projects, and funding platforms that are developed or revised, and for this to take place across all sectors concerned.

This is the only way reconstruction can be sustainable, just, and equitable. It also has the potential to become a driver for greater inclusion and equality for all Ukrainians in post-war recovery.