Yuliia Zaika

Yuliia ZAIKA

[ region ]

Chernihiv

02 / 11 / 2020

Executive director of the League of Business and Professional Women of Ukraine, Chernihiv city

[ topic ] Economic Development

Ukraine is a country with a challenging business environment, especially for SMEs. Voice of business associations is to be strengthened for them to be able to influence central and regional level decisions.

Switzerland supports Business Membership Organizations in order to provide a collective voice to small businesses, to improve the regulatory environment through a public private dialog, to support their members in improving their operational platform and to strengthen women’s economic empowerment.

There are more and more women who open micro-businesses in Ukraine. Women play an important role in the business environment in general and in the context of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in particular. We know that the MSMEs make up the backbone of the economy. It is more important than ever to represent women in business and to defend their interests. It is at the heart of the mission of our organisation. Now we are in a much better position to reach our goals because of the trainings we followed with our international partners. We received invaluable advice and guidelines that helped us to strengthen the coordination between our 120 members.

We promote the values of transparency, democracy, professionalism and emotional intelligence.

Our league is 20 years-old but we recently understood the importance to develop an ethics charter to define values that unite our businesswomen. We promote the values of transparency, democracy, professionalism and emotional intelligence. We also worked hard to improve our expertise and to develop proactive positions when dealing with local authorities. We also enhanced our communication strategy to share our messages across the broader society. What is the use of discussing our challenges among ourselves if no one hears about it? We do everything to give entrepreneurial women the recognition they deserve.

Since 24th February 2022

Our head office is in Chernihiv. The city was a hot spot. We stayed in Chernihiv the whole time during the attacks. Every day brings a new challenge and one needs to respond not just quickly, but instantly. Life often depends on it. Chernihiv Region suffered significant damages, some nearby villages are in ruins. Of the 300,000 residents in Chernihiv, only about 120,000 remain. 90% of the business is out of work and it has to adapt fast in order to allocate its resources and to support the overall recovery.

We do care about our staff yet we also have to attend to the needs of the most helpless. We work on creating a platform called “Interaction" in order to efficiently process the delivery of humanitarian aid. Overall, we have to identify key goals to fasten humanitarian supplies, economic recovery and reconstruction. These goals can only be obtained through an intense coordination between local government, civil society, business representatives and ordinary citizens.

after

24 feb 2022

What else is Switzerland doing for Ukraine?

Switzerland has been assisting those impacted through various means – from humanitarian aid, humanitarian demining and financial support to granting protection status S to individuals from Ukraine seeking refuge. By 15 February 2024, the Swiss federal government had spent a total of around 3 billion Swiss francs to support Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland and people in Ukraine.

In 2022, Switzerland organised the first Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano and launched the political process to help Ukraine rebuild. The Summit on Peace in Ukraine, held in Switzerland in 2024, set up a path towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. In the longer term, the Federal Council aims to allocate 1.5 billion Swiss francs to support Ukraine's recovery efforts by 2028.

organic farming

energy efficiency

search for missing persons

food security

culture

tourism

diplomacy

peace process

health

psychosocial support

protection

education