On February 18, 2020 the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Dmytro Kuleba organized a meeting, where the heads of security and defence authorities and rectors of the respective educational institutions took part.

The meeting was organized to discuss issues of integrating gender component into the work of security and defence sector bodies and the need to establish a Gender Competence Formation Centre in this sector.

Representatives of the State Border Service of Ukraine Administration and Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National Academy of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine also participated in the workshop.

“Gender equality is not just about the number or rights of women, it is about equal opportunities for women and men. In security and defence sector, it is also about absolutely clear NATO standards,” said the Deputy Prime Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Tetiana Kovalchuk also noted that Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National Academy of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine together with Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and UN Women Ukraine were the first to develop the Concept of establishing the Gender Competence Formation Centre and in 2019 this project was presented to the Vice-Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration.

For the Office, as well as for the Government of the country, one of the priority directions of gender policy implementation today is a high-quality system of training of servicemen and improvement of their level of qualification taking into account gender component in educational process, therefore the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine supports the Government's initiative in integrating gender component into security and defence sectors.