Democracy Development Center mission

Democracy Development Center

What is our goal?

A democratic, just, prosperous, peaceful Ukraine, in which women and men can fully enjoy their human rights and develop their potential.

What are our objectives?

• Women participate in decision-making at all levels
• Women participate in conflict prevention and resolution and in post-conflict rebuilding
• Women’s needs and interests are included and taken into account in the legislation, national and local strategies, programs, action plans, services
• Decision-makers at all levels understand what women’s rights are and how they have to be considered and protected
• Women’s and youth CSOs have the knowledge, the tools, and expertise to protect women’s rights in different areas

What we do to achieve these objectives?

• Promote equal rights and opportunities for women and men
• Educate people about different tools used to provide equal rights and opportunities for women and men in various areas
• Educate women in different vulnerable groups about feminism, peacebuilding, and media literacy
• Educate people at all levels of decision-making – from the Parliament to local communities and women’s CSOs and initiatives – about the crucial role of women’s rights and women’s participation
• Work with various groups – like local officials, heads of hromadas, public servants, journalists, specialists in different industries to help them implement the measures to account for women’s needs and interests in their areas
• Advocate for women’s participation in decision-making and peacebuilding – including women that face numerous forms of discrimination
• Work to free women and girls from various forms of violence, including prostitution, pornography, and surrogacy
• Educate people about women’s contributions to different spheres of the economy and society
• Help women get proper recognition for their work and achievements in all spheres of the economy and society
• Educate women’s and youth initiatives about risks of online grooming and other dangers of Internet for young people
• Educate women’s and youth initiatives about risks of trafficking in humans and advocate for concrete measures to reduce women’s and youth’s vulnerability to traffickers

When was DDC established?

In 2003

Our activities

Overall, we work in advocacy, policy development, and conducting trainings on the following topics (for different audiences, from local initiative groups to Ministries): 

“Debate”, “Domestic Violence Prevention”, “Human Trafficking Prevention”, “Conflict Resolution”, “Leadership and Human Rights”, ‘Women’s Rights’, ‘Gender Equality’, ‘Gender-sensitive services’, ‘Gender-sensitive policies’, ‘Women, Peace, Security’, ‘Youth, Peace, Security’, ‘Advocacy for Women’s Rights’, ‘Feminism’, ‘Local women’s initiatives’, ‘Peacebuilding and women’s involvement in it’, ‘Men’s involvement in promoting Women’s rights’.  

Since 2003, our organization has been working on combating trafficking in human beings and violence against women, and following this work, we started fighting against sexual exploitation of women and girls in prostitution and pornography.

Since 2018, we have been working on promoting the Equality Model of state treatment of prostitution (exit programs for women in prostitution, punishment for pimps and punters).

Since 2020, we have been educating people about dangers of surrogacy as a form of reproductive exploitation of women. 

Since 2014,

Soon after the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2014, we began working on promoting UNSCR 1325 and the Women, Peace, Security agenda and participated in development of the first and the second National Action Plan 1325 as well as of updates of both NAPs and helped train oblast and local level officials and CSOs on localization of the Women, Peace, Security agenda. Within this area, we are also promoting the Youth, Peace, Security agenda and working with young women peacebuilders

Since the beginning the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, we expanded our awareness-raising and training work and joined the humanitarian effort on the ground.  We started to help create shelters for IDPs, improve living conditions for IDPs to live in, resettled them in private residences, organized the life and education of IDP children, created and conducted psychological counselling, consultations and classes for children and women.

We have been helping organize cooperation between local authorities, hosting communities and internally displaced persons and engaged foreign donor organizations to resolve the most pressing issues. 

How big is our team? 

7 persons of the core staff

Ella Lamakh, head of board <ellalamakh@gmail.com>

Maria Dmytriyeva, director of programs <mdmytrieva@ddc.org.ua>

Yulia Voronina , accountant <julls.voronina@gmail.com>

Vlad Mardanenko, logistics manager    <vlad.kievddc@gmail.com>

Anastasia Ostapchuk, program specialist <ana.ost307919@gmail.com>

Anna Hyrych,  program specialist <anna.girich1996@gmail.com>

Eugenia Semeniuk, communications officer <semenasquo@gmail.com>

Plus a network of specialists and volunteers in all oblasts that are engaged when necessary within specific projects.

Our website is http://ddc.org.ua/ 

Our twitter  https://twitter.com/j0Kq7ZdrkxdJcQd

Our Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/vgocdd

Our Youtube channel 

Who are our international partners?

Currently, our key international partner is Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), with whom we have been cooperating since 2017, specifically on WPS and YPS agenda in Ukraine. 

DDC’s experts have been conducting trainings for UN Women Ukraine, and a range of the institutions in the Ukrainian defense sector.  

The French feminist NGO ‘Women In War’ based in Paris is another one. Together with them, we organized an international scientific conference ‘Women in Wars, Revolutions, and Peacebuilding’ in 2016. 

Head of the organization,

Ella Lamakh