The agreement has been launched with the NGO Equal Opportunities Platform and the main objective is to empower women and displaced people. The NGO operates in the country's fourth biggest city, Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine.

Head of Equal Opportunities Platform Maryna Shevtsova said more initiatives, campaigns and training are needed to improve awareness in this area.

"The major business sectors in the Dnipro region are lagging behind in diversity management and in the empowerment of women and other vulnerable groups as well as in the provision of inclusive workplaces. Even though an increasing number of highly qualified women with higher education are joining the organizations, the leading sectors, such as IT and industry, remain very sexist and all too male," she said.

As part of the project, the NGO will create a network of organizations that hold diversity, equal treatment and the rule of law in high regard. Experts of the Estonian Human Rights Center will share their experience in creating and maintaining a diversity agreement network in Estonia.

Director of the Estonian Human Rights Center Egert Runne said: "After seven years of military conflict, domestic refugees are one of the biggest vulnerable groups in Ukraine and in the context of the pandemic, the women among them are in a particularly complicated situation. The center's experience shows that visible support by private companies helps create faster change in the society and this is what we aim to achieve in cooperation with our project partner". 

The project runs for two years and is supported by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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