Gender Programme

INTRODUCTION

The United Nations Development Programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNDP BiH) has initiated a regional cooperation project to attain gender equality in BiH, Serbia and Montenegro. The Project is based on positive experiences of the UNDP’s support to the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Law on Gender Equality implementation activities. Having initiated a rather broad activity, this initiative has, as its result, started a more intensive cooperation between governmental and non-governmental sectors on gender equality issues in the neighbouring countries.

Thanks to good results and practices, which were achieved in the implementation of this project in last two years, and working in partnership with Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), UNDP has expanded the existing project to the region, i.e. Serbia and Montenegro.

Regional Gender Project supports existing gender equality legislation and institutions. The project will also help the capacity building of existing government gender equality institutions in BiH, S and CG by ensuring their active role in the project’s Management, Advisory Committees, as well as in the Project implementation.

The following government ministries/government organizations were consulted and are supporting the project:

In addition, representatives of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees (MHRR) of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, AP Vojvodina Ministry of Labour, Social Care, Employment and Gender Equality, Government of Montenegro, together with senior representatives of the UNDP Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, are members of the Project Board, which is responsible for the strategy and monitoring of the Project implementation.

All Project activities are carried out with an unreserved support from civil society organisations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro in the planning and implementation of these activities.

This Project is trying to create a development process approach that is gender sensitive and takes into consideration the need for gender mainstreaming in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. The Project is fully in line with the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro, including Kosovo. More broadly speaking, the PRSPs for both BiH and SCG call for gender equality related discrimination to be addressed as well as new and existing gender equality legislation to be implemented in order to conform with UNDAF and EU standards. The Project will support the Poverty Reduction Strategy by providing basic gender equality training for selected government ministries and civil society organisations to help strengthen knowledge and understanding of gender equality and integrate gender equality into policies and strategies of these institutions, as well as strengthening the capacity of local gender equality mechanisms.

The Project is also in line with the Millennium Development Goal of promoting gender equality and empowering women, with following priorities:
1) increasing the participation of women as decision-makers in shaping the sustainable development of their societies, and
2) reducing inequalities between women and men in access to and control over the resources and benefits of development.

The UNDP has extensive experience in Gender Equality programming. For instance, the UNDP has included gender mainstreaming as an institutional and cultural transformation process that includes eliminating biases in national and international development frameworks and paradigms; incorporating gender awareness into policies, program and institutional reforms; involving men to end gender inequality; and developing gender sensitive tools to monitor progress and ensure accountability.

The Project is attempting to influence the creation of gender sensitive, responsive, accountable and competent national government and civil society institutions, which guarantee citizens’ safety while creating an enabling environment for social, economic and political development. It is of key importance to include gender equality as a basis for self-sustainability of Poverty Reduction Strategy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro; contribute to the creation of a critical mass of experts in the field of gender equality, as well as raising public awareness on gender equality, with the aim of strengthening dialogue with governments in the implementation of the existing or new legislation in the sphere of gender equality.

Long-term objective is to create a gender sensitive, responsive, accountable and competent national government/civil society for rule of law, health and education institutions, which guarantee their citizens’ safety and create an enabling environment for social, economic and political development.

Short-term objectives are:
1) the creation of a critical mass of gender sensitized professionals in targeted civil society organizations (including CIDA partners in BiH, S and CG) in the Balkans program key priority sectors: rule of law, health and education) and selected government ministries that have a basic understanding of gender equality and are able to effectively integrate gender equality into their policies/strategies/implementation plans;
2) strengthened capacity of newly established gender equality institutions; and
3) increased public awareness on gender equality and greater pressure on government to implement new and existing gender equality legislation.

The project is divided into three stages:
1) a comprehensive analysis on the level of awareness and professional understanding of gender equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro;
2) the development and implementation of training modules and training of trainers to key targeted groups; and
3) strategic awareness-building campaigns through the media that includes a series of politically visible events by taking advantage of the 10th Anniversary of the Beijing Platform of Action in 2005.

The Project is been lead by the BiH UNDP Country Office and all the activities are implemented by the United Nations Development Programme’s country offices in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Podgorica, in cooperation with the institutional mechanisms and civil sector in BiH, S and CG.

Since 1994, CIDA has invested over $ CAD 129 million in humanitarian aid, reconstruction and development in BiH and over $ CAD 171 million in SCG Including Kosovo). However, as highlighted in CIDA’s Balkans Program Development Framework while gender rights have generally been incorporated into recently enacted broad human rights legislation, the reality is that gender equality has had a de jure rather than de facto presence. This lack of enforcement stems from legal and political systems that have not sufficiently defined the acts of gender discrimination or built an effective legal framework to successfully prosecute offenders. On the education front for example, teaching materials reinforce gender stereotypes, which could lead to gender biases in the new generation. In the health sector, gender equality related challenges include maternal mortality rates that are 3 to 4 times higher than in the European Union. Since gender inequality can be linked with slower economic growth, weaker governance structures and a lower quality of life, it remains a salient issue in both BiH and SCG’s transition and eventual accession to the EU.

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