The Ukrainian Feminist Network joined the Women Deliver Conference — one of the world’s largest global platforms dedicated to women’s rights, gender equality, youth leadership, and social justice. The conference brought together more than 6,000 participants from around the world, including activists, civil society representatives, donors, researchers, youth leaders, and government officials.
For UFN, participation in Women Deliver was an important opportunity to engage in a global dialogue, share Ukraine’s experience, and strengthen the voice of the Ukrainian feminist movement internationally.
This year’s discussions focused on some of the most urgent global challenges affecting women and girls worldwide: the rise of anti-gender backlash and anti-rights movements, shrinking civic space, funding cuts for feminist and human rights organisations, economic inequality, climate injustice, wars, and growing food insecurity. Across many sessions, participants highlighted how these interconnected crises continue to deepen inequalities and disproportionately affect women, girls, and marginalised communities.
In addition to the main conference programme, UFN representatives participated in several side events and two pre-conferences.
The first pre-conference focused on gender-based violence (GBV) and examined how wars, economic instability, climate change, political uncertainty, and social crises contribute to increasing levels of violence globally. Discussions stressed that GBV must be treated as a systemic global crisis requiring public awareness, long-term investment, stronger institutions, and sustainable support for organisations working on prevention and response.
Participants also noted that despite the devastating consequences of recent global crises, many structural realities surrounding violence are becoming harder to ignore. For Ukrainian participants, this discussion strongly resonated with the realities of wartime Ukraine, particularly in relation to conflict-related sexual violence, which has become an even more urgent issue since 2022.
Throughout the conference, UFN representatives shared insights on how Russia’s war against Ukraine impacts the rights and safety of women and girls, contributes to rising levels of gender-based violence, and places additional pressure on already overstretched social protection and response systems.
Another pre-conference focused on youth leadership and participation. One of the key reflections was that, despite years of advocacy, young people are still often excluded from decision-making spaces. Conversations repeatedly centred around perceived “risks” of involving youth in leadership and policy processes. However, participants also raised another critical question: what are the consequences of not giving young people opportunities, trust, and meaningful participation?
For many activists, youth movements in different countries continue to demonstrate strong political potential and civic leadership. Discussions referenced recent youth-led protests and civic mobilisation globally, including in Ukraine, as examples of young people actively shaping democratic processes and demanding accountability.
Women Deliver was not only a space for panel discussions, but also for workshops, advocacy meetings, networking, and building new partnerships. UFN representatives participated in conversations with international donors, feminist funds, and civil society organisations to discuss the changing funding landscape, the challenges caused by shrinking international support, and the need for sustainable long-term investment in gender equality work.
For the Ukrainian Feminist Network, participation in the conference became another important step toward strengthening the international visibility of the Ukrainian feminist agenda and expanding cooperation with organisations working on women’s rights, democratic development, and social justice worldwide. UFN also had the opportunity to share Ukraine’s experience of resilience, advocacy, and supporting women during wartime.
Participation in the event was made possible thanks to the support of the Government of Canada within the framework of the project “Women’s Voice and Leadership – Ukraine: New Strength,” implemented by the Ukrainian Women’s Fund.