‍Tetiana Huzenko:

«The opportunity to combine resources strengthens women's security capacity – physical, mental, economic».

In 2022, when Kyiv came under constant shelling, security became a tangible concept: electricity, heating, shelter, mobility, and access to resources and employment... Each of these challenges has a real human dimension and shapes the priorities of the City Action Plan for implementing the 1325 Agenda. Therefore, it was essential for the capital to find partners who remained in Kyiv to collectively seek solutions and take action. To achieve this, the city authorities joined the «1325 Kyiv» Coalition on the basis of partnership and mutual respect.

Tetiana Huzenko, Head of the Gender Equality Management Office of the Department of Social and Veteran Policy of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) and one of the key advocates of the «Women, Peace, and Security» agenda in the capital, has repeatedly emphasised that the opportunity to combine resources strengthens women's collective security capacity – physical, mental, and economic. In practice, during the war, the Office's team began building a community that has transformed approaches to gender sensitivity.

Over the 2022–2026 period, this approach became decisive. As of the beginning of this year, Kyiv has officially registered 432,000 internally displaced persons, 747,000 pensioners, and over 100,000 veterans, making the issue of sensitivity towards diverse groups a key priority.

Alongside the Office's team, Tetiana Huzenko is working to ensure that local policies take into account the needs and experiences of women, mothers, older people, male and female veterans. The process may not be fast, but it delivers results.

«We can only speak about change if we have powerful change-makers across every sector», ‒ she notes. The Office she leads has become a platform for this transformation. This is where the framework of integrating the 1325 agenda into city policy is shaped – from analysis to concrete decisions.

A prime example is the Kyiv Academy of Women's Leadership ‒ a space for continuous learning where women gain not only knowledge but also the opportunity to forge sustainable partnerships. During the full-scale war, this is crucial: women are no longer waiting for the right time, permission, or approval. They have learned to take responsibility, make decisions, and step into leadership roles that ensure greater economic capacity and security.

As part of local-level engagement, a collaboration for safety audits was launched with a new group of partners: women leading homeowners' associations. They are often the first responders during a crisis: setting up shelters, coordinating residents, and liaising with emergency services. Consequently, their empowerment has become a vital component of the city's security framework.

«Since the start of the war, more than a thousand missiles and over 2,000 drones have targeted Kyiv. Our Armed Forces intercept them, but hits and destruction still occur. In these moments, it is not only emergency services and district administrations that come to the aid of residents, but also women volunteers who have survived strikes themselves and know exactly how to provide support. Last year, we helped them establish the NGO «Women Leaders in Housing Management», and now we have an influential lobby to respond to safety challenges», ‒ says Tetiana Huzenko.

Another project is the Resilience Center, which, since the first days of the full-scale invasion, together with UN Women and the Ukrainian Women's Fund, has been providing psychological first aid to female frontline responders and critical infrastructure workers. This represents a new culture of governance, where efficiency goes hand in hand with attention to the needs of those who keep amajor city functioning under extraordinarily difficult conditions.

Another key focus of the Office has been the development of analytical and educational materials that document and promote transformative practices. Notably, the team contributed to the preparation of the bilingual publication Gender Practices of Kyiv – a journal that summarises the experience of implementing equality and safety principlesat the city level.

More than just a compilation of materials, it is an attempt to document the city's transformation amid the war: how governance approaches are shifting, how the 1325 agenda is being integrated, and how various institutions are changing the way they operate, where security is viewed holistically, and women's participation in decision-making is central. Tetiana Huzenko emphasises: «It is vital for us to ensure the innovativeand inclusive development of every project. That is exactly how sustainability is built».

The journal gathers case studies, approaches, and solutions that are already working in Kyiv ‒ and which can be implemented in other communities.

Partnerships are an important part of this work. Since September 2023, the Сoalition has been working closely with the Gender Equality Management Office. This cooperation is a clear example of how civil society and local authorities can go beyond mere coexistence within a community to mutually reinforce one another in implementing the city's Action Plan for the Resolution 1325 agenda.

The Сoalition is sincerely grateful to the Office for its openness to dialogue,support for initiatives, as well as readiness to jointly implement the «Women, Peace, and Security» agenda in Kyiv, while also congratulating Tetiana Huzenko alongside the Gender Equality Management Office of the Department of Social and Veteran Policy of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) on receiving the «Championsof 1325» award, as their work integrates the principles of this Agenda into real life through everyday practice.

Today, the results of this work may not always be obvious, but they are reflected in shifting approaches, in new practices, and in the fact that equality and security issues are no longer treated as secondary.

Useful links:
‍National Action Plan 1325
Women, Peace, and Security
‍We are launching the development of the Kyiv City 1325 Action Plan for 2026–2028‍