Promoting Gender Responsive Policies in South East Europe



Contract partner: UN WOMEN - United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women Country: Europa, regional/länderübergreifend Funding amount: € 1.104.080,00 Project start: 01.02.2017 End: 31.03.2019

Short Description:

Overall goal


The aim of the project is to strengthen the implementation of national laws and strategies on and international commitments to Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in line with national SDG priority targets in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia and Republic of Moldova. For this goal to be achieved, an increased financing for gender equality is required.


Expected results


(1) Governments in targeted countries - namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia and Republic of Moldova - promote gender responsive fiscal laws, policies and national action plans and enable specific budgetary allocations for gender equality.

(2) Gender advocates and members of parliament are empowered to demand accountability from national and local governments on policies and budgetary allocations for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.


Target group / Beneficiaries


At the national level direct beneficiaries of the project are 500 public officials and members of parliaments, 800 municipal staff and city councilors at the local level, 30 Civil Society Organisations representatives and experts, 420 students in universities and 7,000 women and men in target municipalities. At the regional level , the project targets the Network of Associations of Local Authorities in Southeast Europe and the Centre for Excellence in Finance.


Activities


Activities to achieve the foreseen results include capacity building programmes on Gender Responsive Budgeting for public officials at the national and the local levels, gender advocates, members of parliament and civil society organisations; technical support to strengthening policies and procedures to ensure Gender Responsive Budgeting implementation in administrative systems; and national and regional exchange of experiences. The project will be closely linked with ongoing initiatives of UN Women in the countries and in the region to strengthen synergies for greater impact.


Context


The proposed project implementation countries have introduced Gender Responsive Budgeting tools at different levels, as part of reforms towards programme based budgeting . However, progress towards applying Gender Responsive Budgeting has been slow, mainly due to relatively weak institutional capacities and expertise. With the onset of the economic crisis, government agendas have seen further weakening of the focus on gender equality. The proposed intervention countries face political instability, and democratic principles and the rule of law have been constantly challenged. Notwithstanding, governments of the four countries have repeatedly affirmed their commitment to gender equality, through adoption of new laws, policies and strategies, as well as specific empowerment measures.

project number 8181-00/2017
source of funding OEZA
sector Staatsführung & Zivilgesellschaft, allgemein
tied
modality Contributions to specific-purpose programmes and funds managed by international organisations (multilateral, INGO)
marker Gender: 2, Democracy: 2
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.