UAE Pledges Support to Women & Children affected by Ukraine War

• UAE committed to women entrepreneurship and education of children affected by war at the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
• It entered into joint programmes to enhance psychosocial care, education, and institutional reforms with Ukraine and Italy.

The UAE has agreed to a declaration in favour of women-owned small businesses and enhanced access to education for children of the Ukraine war. The pledge was made at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome, with Reem Al Hashimy, the Minister of State for International Co-operation, leading the UAE delegation.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees official Karolina Lindholm Billing informed the conference that the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 displaced nearly 10 million individuals, with some 3.8 million within the country and 5.6 million outside the country, but they all prefer to remain near their homes.

The forum is likely to seal separate agreements of guarantees and grants to release over 10 billion euros ($12 billion) worth of investments. Ms Al Hashimy also met with Olena Zelenska, the wife of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the UAE inked a new series of joint programmes with the Olena Zelenska Foundation.

These programs will strengthen psychosocial care, increase access to schooling, and establish safe havens for child victims of the conflict. The UAE also entered into a trilateral declaration with Italy and Ukraine to enhance Ukraine's institution-building capacities and support women-owned small businesses. The statement formalizes co-operative technical co-operation in digital transformation, vocational training and governance with a guarantee of prioritizing women's economic empowerment.

It was prepared in co-ordination with Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and Italy's Deputy Foreign Minister Edmondo Cirielli. The UAE and Italy also signed a statement to expand support for children, adolescents, and young people in Ukraine.