Kyiv, 30 March 2026 — More than 100 participants — entrepreneurs, representatives of business associations, government bodies, and international partners — gathered in Kyiv for a foresight session and to discuss developing  a shared agenda for supporting women-led businesses in Ukraine.

The event was convened by the Women's Business Support Platform under the “Strengthening of SME Business Membership Organisations in Ukraine” project, which is being implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine with the support of Switzerland.

Women's entrepreneurship is playing an increasingly important role in fostering Ukraine's economic resilience. Today, women lead more than a third of newly registered companies and 32 percent of all registered businesses in the country – over 455,000 enterprises (Opendatabot, 2026). They contribute to job creation in communities, sustain local markets, and help maintain economic activity in wartime conditions. However, women entrepreneurs continue to face systemic barriers in accessing finance, advocating for their interests, building professional networks, and participating in decision-making.

The foresight session focused on identifying practical solutions to these challenges – in particular, how to move support for women entrepreneurs beyond short-term crisis response and make it a sustained part of a broader economic approach. The aim is to create conditions under which women-led businesses can not only survive, but grow throughout the recovery period.

Emphasising that support for women's entrepreneurship must become a core element of Ukraine's recovery, Maria Gutsman, Team Leader for the Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development Portfolio at UNDP in Ukraine, stated: "Women's entrepreneurship is already a critical component of Ukraine's economic resilience. The extent to which women have access to business development opportunities will directly affect community resilience, job creation, and the quality of economic recovery. That is precisely why support for women entrepreneurs must be systemic and integrated into the broader reconstruction agenda."

A dedicated segment of the event brought participants together for thematic group work across five tracks: access to finance, talent development and labour markets, advocacy and lobbying, mental health of women in business, and scaling, European integration, and digitalisation. These are the areas where the need for greater coordination among women's business communities and associations – to develop a shared agenda – is most clearly visible.

"Ukraine already has several strong women's entrepreneurship movements, and it is especially important now not to act in isolation, but to build coordination among them," said Nadiia Pidsudok, the founder of the Women's Business Support Platform. "Our platform is not about merging everyone into one large structure, but about coordinating equal partners: business associations, civic initiatives, and women's communities, with the aim of developing a systemic agenda for women's entrepreneurship. With UNDP's support, we have the opportunity to make the voice of small businesses and the voice of women in business stronger than they have been in recent years."

The foresight session marked a starting point for building a shared agenda – one that is systemic, coordinated, and oriented towards a long-term perspective. The next step is to translate the approaches developed into a concrete roadmap for women's entrepreneurship in Ukraine through 2030.

Media enquiries: 

Yuliia Samus, UNDP Ukraine Head of Communications and Advocacy; e-mail: yuliia.samus@undp.org