About the project

Problem analysis:

The policy making and budgeting processes in SEE and R. Moldova are closed, non-transparent and result with policies that do not respond equally to the needs of women and men. Moreover, public resources are not distributed in just and equal way between men and women. CSOs have limited capacities to contribute to gender assessment of the budget as a policy document and have seldom focused on the collection of revenue and distribution of expenditures by assessing them from the perspective of equity, fairness, and efficiency.

Overall objective:

To improve CSO participation in policy and budgeting processes in South East Europe and Republic of Moldova by using gender budget watchdog reporting and networking.

Specific Objectives:

SO1: To strengthen the capacity of CSOs to use GRB tools to evaluate the correspondence of policies and budgets with the needs of men and women;
SO2: To develop a network for effective policy advocacy, knowledge and information sharing and strengthened government accountability;
SO3: To engage citizens and contribute to policy change leading to gendered reform of public finances;

Target group:

Women’s organizations – organizations that work on women’s rights realization and advocacy as well as those that work with women as beneficiaries although they focus on other vulnerable groups as well i.e. rural, people with disabilities, poor, and etc.;
2. Think tanks – especially those working on relevant to EU accession reforms in education, aging, youth, public administration and etc.;
3. CSOs working on public finance (budget or procurement issues) – deal with public finance, budget monitoring, public procurement monitoring.

Beneficiaries:

Citizens;

Working packages:

WP 1: Capacity building and research:
The purpose of this working package is to map the current capacities of the civil society interested to use GRB in their work. The approach applied will be a bottom-up approach where first of all a call for applications for capacity building will be published followed by an online survey of training needs assessment which will inform the development of the training program. The project plans to offer the already available introductory training for CSOs on GRB; an advanced training for CSOs that have already have these skills and knowledge, as well as reach out to specific groups of organizations (think tanks and public finance organizations) and develop a tailor made training for them. The component encompasses training and mentoring session supported with sub-granting that will allow for the production of two types of products: gender budget policy appraisals and gender budget watchdog reports. The outputs are the following:
Output 1.1: CSO capacity for application of GRB tools assessed;
Output 1.2: CSO capacity for GRB built;
Output 1.3: CSOs produce gender budget policy appraisals and reports;

WP 2: Network development; The purpose of this working package is for the CSOs (from component 1), whose capacities in GRB will be built, to be networked in a regional network for effective policy advocacy, within which they will share GRB knowledge and information and work together to strengthen government accountability by using GRB methods. The approach applied will be bottom-up and that of lessons learnt from other best practices facilitated through two study tours and three networking meetings. The project plans to develop guidelines for communication, internal structure and coordination mechanisms to be applied and make the network sustainable. For the network to become a regional hub for GRB, one IT platform will be developed to be used for exchange of information, knowledge and joint advocacy. The outputs are the following:
Output 2.1: WB and Moldovan CSOs exchange experience and replicate best practices on GRB Networking;
Output 2.2: CSOs from the region are linked in a Gender budget network;
Output 2.3: The network becomes a hub for exchange of information, knowledge and joint advocacy;

WP 3: Policy advocacy for more gender responsive policies;
The purpose of the working package is to engage citizens to contribute to the creation of a tipping point for the recommendations on policy and budget change to be adopted on the central and/or local level. The tools used in this respect will be social media, traditional media and meetings with policy makers (participation in policy dialogues, direct meetings and parliamentary committee debates). In some countries the campaign will be directed towards gendered reform of public finances (Montenegro, Moldova and Macedonia). The outputs are the following:
Output 3.1: 42 CSOs advocacy campaigns for gender responsive budgets implemented

Expected Results:

84 CSOs use GRB tools; Institutional structure, communication and information sharing channels of GRB network developed; Gender budget initiatives appraised; Gendered policies and budgets adopted.

Budget:

EUR 554.254 (90% ADA funding, 10% co-financing)

Timeframe:

36 months

Implementing partners: