Party Innovation Hub – Women: what it was like

Opening of the Hub began with presentations of Uliana Poltavets, Programme Director of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies, Oleksandr Yakymenko, Program Coordinator in Ukraine of The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), and Olena Lytvynenko, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe office in Ukraine.

Maryna Bardina, Co-chairman of Equal Opportunities IFG, is sure that Ukraine needs changes, first of all at the legislative level. In particular, Ms. Bardina considers electoral quotas to be one of the incentive tools. Now the MP is working to ensure that these changes are implemented.

There is an opinion in society that only a woman in a family should be burdened with household or raising of children. Because of this, female professionals are often discriminated against – they are not appointed to senior positions or are even paid lower wages.

It is necessary to destroy the stereotypical thinking that has been ingrained in Ukrainians for centuries through education and enlightenment. Changing values is the most important step. Inna Sovsun, Co-chairman of IFG Equal Opportunities, stated this during the Party Innovations Hub.

Ulana Suprun, Acting Minister of Healthcare in 2016-2019, shared her recommendations with the Hub participants:

• be able to say “no” to proposals if they contradict values of a leader

• identify “red lines” for yourself and do not cross them, be principled and honest, first of all, to yourself;
• have a vision, a development strategy – “to be not a firefighter, but an architect” (not to solve problems separately but to build the future);
• be a guide for your team, distribute responsibilities and go together to the goal.

Yevhen Radchenko, Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission (2018-2019), spoke about terms, stages, and nuances of a local election campaign.

Yevhen emphasized for women politicians that local elections are limited in time – the campaign is short, so they need to prepare for a tough fight for votes.

In addition, it is important to know what techniques your opponent can use and build your own election campaign as effectively as possible. Campaign manager and USPS alumnus Andriy Prokopenko shared with the Hub participants the secrets of winning in elections:

• in local elections, face-to-face meetings with voters are the most effective;

• proper use of social media is the key to success. A candidate in elections must become a personal media machine;
• one should think through a campaign in detail: determine the content of messages and one’s target audience, work out a step-by-step plan with a certain budget, and then stick to that plan.

Women politicians spoke about a theoretical part of political processes with Anatoliy Romanyuk, Professor of the Department of political science at the Ivan Franko Lviv National University.

In particular, Mr. Romanyuk told the participants how modern political parties function and what ideologies they rely on.

The first day of intensive work on the issue of politics ended with an inspiring speech by Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze, MP and Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine in 2016-2019.

According to the speaker, women leaders are able to meet the needs of sustainable development. After all, they consider more different opinions and factors, their decisions are balanced and have a long-term effect. In the world as a whole, there is a growing demand for a “female type” of leadership.

This does not mean that men are worse managers. The point is that gender balance and cooperation between women and men, including in the political sphere, can produce sustainable and positive results.

Gender equality is what we should strive for in Ukraine. Independently and with the help of the state.

The second day of the Party Innovation Hub – Women, was dedicated to specific tools for building an image and for encouraging electorate.

Yaroslav Vedmid, Founder and head of the Postmen digital agency, told the participants about an effective communication campaign.

According to the expert, individual politicians and parties, in general, should take into account needs of their audience. And voters are in smartphones now. The future is here. Yaroslav thinks that bloggers will become politicians or politicians will have to become bloggers in order to have contact with voters.

Activity in social networks is a must for a politician today. Olha Sytnyk, Director of new business at Postmen, shared her knowledge on how to do that. Business is already actively using these tools, and politicians should also pay attention to them. After all, everything will be digital.

Oleksandr Yakymenko, Programme Coordinator of the International Institute for Democracy & Electoral Assistance in Ukraine (International IDEA Ukraine), conducted another training session for the women.

Mr. Yakymenko explained what tools a politician can use to secure support of electorate. In particular, according to him, current tools include now: microtargeting, direct mailing, television advertising, and involvement of campaigners.

Olha Aivazovska, Chair of the management board and coordinator of electoral and political programmes of the Civil network OPORA, opened the third day of the Hub.

With Ms. Aivazovska, the women-politicians discussed violations during election campaigns and punishments for them, as well as the new Electoral code, which should leave in the past the “eternal attributes” of Ukrainian elections – buckwheat, black PR, and nameless billboards.

At the same time, there are some crimes against which penalties do not yet apply. These are fakes. The only way to resist them is to be aware of the problem and think critically.

Roman Horbyk, senior lecturer at Södertern University in Stockholm and postdoc in Media and Communication Studies at Umeå University, told us all about how fakes are created, why they attract our attention, and how to recognize them in the information space.

The expert noted: it is important to remember that fake news imitates real news and is created according to the narrative standards of journalism. Besides, a fake is based on a deep story, which can resemble the plot of famous fairy tales with heroes, villains, and dramatic twists and turns. Fakes are always emotionally rich and provocative, they attract by an entertaining element, such as humour or surprise.

Both successful promotion of fake news by opponents and their own shortcomings can be a blow to reputation of a politician. To prevent negative consequences, you should learn anti-crisis communication.

Oleksandr Bondarenko, head of Special Projects at RMA digital agency, and Svitlana Chepurenko, RMA Communication manager, shared tips on political communications with the Hub participants.

In particular, the experts recommended: to react quickly to mistakes; to admit them; to treat the situation with humour; to find a “guilty” and punish (if, for example, someone from the team made a mistake); to ignore – but only in extreme cases and if a mistake did not cause significant reputational damage.