The WIN Ukraine team had the honor and honor to welcome distinguished guests from the IAEA, led by the Director General, Mr. Rafael Mariano Grossi, during the Chornobyl Anniversary Week.
The IAEA delegation includes: Rafael Mariano Grossi (IAEA Director General); Edgar Arturo Perez Alvan (Senior Advisor to the Director General of the IAEA); Olena Mykolaichuk (Section Head Decommissioning and Environmental Remidiatio); Martin Klingenboeck (Associate Multimedia Officer).
From WIN Ukraine: Margaryta Rayets, Anastasiia Nechytailo, Natalia Klos, Kateryna Myrnaua-Pavlova, Irina Cherednichenko, Alexander Bely, Evgenia Serova, Anastasia Khorechko, Yana Obushna, Lilia Khimich.
In his address, Raphael M. Grossi emphasized the need to make every member of society aware of the importance of gender parity and the depth of the issue of equality between women and men.
“Gender equality requires determination, fairness and adequate policies. More women in the nuclear field will bring us closer to this goal, will allow us to join all available talents in the management of the atom for peace and development, “said Grossi.
According to Rafael Grossi, the situation regarding gender parity in Ukraine is not entirely critical, and he is open to communication and discussion of new ideas for achieving the goal of gender parity.
Mr. Grossi also stressed that when he first started working for the IAEA, only 27-28% of the team members were women, which is why one of the important tasks since then is to increase this percentage.
In addition, the head of the IAEA shared his vision on the important steps of
development and achievement of gender parity:
- it is not enough just to discuss this problem, it is necessary to constantly work on overcoming it, both inside the organization and outside it;
- it is important to ensure decent working conditions in order to avoid gender discrimination in, for example, business trips;
- the stated policy on gender equality requires appropriate structural changes, revision of administrative documents, which is a long but important process on the way to gender parity;
- for clear and comprehensive thinking it is necessary to have a gender-diverse team;
- it is necessary to provide an opportunity for the young generation of girls to study, which will help increase the number of specialists and the demand from women in this field (the more countries are interested in this, the better);
- as an international organization, IAEA, must take into account the cultural characteristics of different countries, which plays an important role in the process of achieving gender parity;
- observe all structural units of the organization, taking into account the characteristics of each person (for example, the IAEA maintains statistics for each unit, what helps to monitor the percentage increase, but there are still specific units where these statistics are lower than others);
- it is necessary to create a real scientific plan to increase gender equality and strict adherence to this plan;
- it is important to enable women to develop to the same extent as men, without affecting their personal lives;
- the approach should be both from the point of view of science and from the point of view of politics in the country;
- the issue of gender parity should be discussed both in society and at the legislative level.
For its part, WIN Ukraine reported on the results of activities, priorities and immediate plans, including: implementation of a program of scientific and technical cooperation on internships and scientific visits to educational facilities of higher education and vocational institutions, as well as the creation of an industry portal for students and graduates of the nuclear industry; dialogue to achieve gender parity; cooperation with institutions (eg Energoatom, KPI); promoting understanding and exchange of information; development of international cooperation (IAEA, WiN Global, SSM, WINS,
NRPA, Government of Great Britain, USA, etc.); research activities.
Natalia Klos, Director for Regional Cooperation and Development of WIN Ukraine, stressed that gender parity is an equal part of the representation of men and women, equal opportunities for everyone, regardless of gender, to realize themselves in society.
“This is exactly the goal outlined in our future activities. In the near future, it will be implemented in our joint project with SE “Energoatom”, where the formula “Woman-Motivation-Development” is built, and where professionalism, that is the basis of nuclear and physical nuclear safety, is the cornerstone, “Natalia Klos stressed.
“For us, today’s visit of such distinguished guests from the IAEA, especially its Head, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, is a great honor and at the same time a challenge to work even harder in those areas that are a priority for us. We are very grateful for the opportunity for such a level of dialogue and for the valuable advice we have received from Mr Grossi. Our team has energy and ambitious plans, as well as clear guidelines in which the IAEA’s activities are an indisputable authority and vector for us, “said WIN Ukraine President Margaryta Rayets.
The members of the IAEA delegation were greeted in the best Ukrainian traditions. WiN Ukraine expresses its special gratitude to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to international organizations in Vienna, in particular Oleh Verbovyi, for the unique opportunity to meet and communicate in person with Mr. Grossi.
We would also like to express our gratitude to our partners, the Swedish Radiation Safety Regulatory Authority (SSM), for their assistance and support in opening the WiN Ukraine office.
