Building a stronger feminist ecosystem—Gender Bureau

Through the Women’s Humanitarian Leadership Fund (WHLF), Gender Bureau brought together women-led and women’s rights organisations across Ukraine to strengthen collaboration, share expertise, and build collective responses to humanitarian challenges. By combining peer learning, joint initiatives, leadership development, and feminist facilitation, the project helped create stronger connections between organisations working in different regions and sectors.

Community of Practice: from individual work to collective action

One of the project’s key achievements was the creation of a Community of Practice that brought together organisations from across Ukraine. Through an offline gathering in Truskavets, online MasterMind sessions, and continuous communication through thematic WhatsApp groups, participants exchanged experiences, analysed real challenges, and developed solutions together.

According to Gender Bureau: "The Community of Practice confirmed the effectiveness of peer learning and collective action. Horizontal connections between organisations strengthened, openness to partnerships increased, and participants gained greater confidence in their own expertise. What emerged was not only a network, but a culture of collaboration based on shared responsibility, trust, and resource sharing."

Strengthening knowledge and feminist leadership

Gender Bureau also organised a series of organisational development workshops covering humanitarian standards, the Humanitarian–Development–Peace Nexus, and gender-sensitive approaches to supporting vulnerable groups. A three-day workshop in Lviv equipped participants with feminist dialogue facilitation skills and practical tools for leading conversations in complex environments.

According to Gender Bureau: "The programme demonstrated that women’s rights organisations possess significant expertise that can be shared across the sector. By investing in feminist leadership, facilitation skills, and humanitarian knowledge, organisations became more confident actors within the humanitarian system and better prepared to respond to the needs of their communities."

Creating sustainable change

The project supported joint initiatives between partner organisations and culminated in the development of a Casebook documenting 15 examples of feminist practice from across the network.

According to Gender Bureau: "The most sustainable result of the programme is the network itself. New partnerships, initiatives, and collaborations continue beyond the funding period. Flexible funding allowed organisations to act not as beneficiaries, but as co-authors of collective change. This strengthened not only individual organisations, but the wider ecosystem of women’s rights organisations in Ukraine."