Today in Skopje, we marked the conclusion of a regional project aimed at enhancing the accountability and gender-sensitive crisis responses of local authorities in North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.
Over the course of 18 months, three civil society organizations—members of the Gender Budget Watchdog Network—led the implementation of this initiative: the Women’s Association Priroda (Bratunac, Bosnia and Herzegovina), the Bečej Youth Association (Bečej, Serbia), and Journalists for Human Rights (Skopje, North Macedonia). Together, they worked across 24 municipalities (eight per country), supporting the development of inclusive and gender-responsive local policies.
Key Research Findings
A comprehensive analysis was conducted in all participating municipalities to assess the impact of crises on gender equality. The findings revealed a common set of challenges:
- Lack of trust and limited citizen engagement in public decision-making processes.
- Insufficient transparency in budget planning and spending.
- Underdeveloped mechanisms for promoting gender equality.
- Limited support for women, youth, and other vulnerable groups.
- Scarce economic opportunities and inadequate programs for the empowerment of women from marginalized communities.
- Low awareness and understanding of gender issues in general.
These challenges are further exacerbated in times of crisis due to:
- Inadequate health infrastructure and social services.
- High unemployment, rising poverty, and growing economic inequality.
- Increased vulnerability of women and older people.
The report concludes that these systemic issues hinder local governments from providing accountable and gender-sensitive responses to crises, as well as from implementing gender-responsive budgeting.
Key Recommendations
To address these challenges, the project offers the following recommendations:
- Increase citizen participation, especially women’s involvement in decision-making.
- Enhance transparency in budgetary processes and improve public awareness.
- Allocate targeted funding to support vulnerable and marginalized groups.
- Invest in infrastructure, particularly health and social services, with a gender-sensitive crisis management approach.
- Promote economic empowerment programs for women, especially in rural areas.
- Integrate gender perspectives into all aspects of municipal planning and budgeting.
- Adopt gender-responsive criteria for budget allocations and sensitize municipal budgets accordingly.
- Launch information and education campaigns to raise awareness of gender-responsive budgeting.
- Ensure transparent municipal governance, including the promotion of public hearings and citizen engagement mechanisms.
- Strengthen partnerships between municipalities and local CSOs to address community needs more effectively.
- Revise local policies to reflect the needs of both women and men in each community.
- Advocate for marginalized groups, including youth, the elderly, people with disabilities, the unemployed, and the socially vulnerable.
- Improve the effectiveness and transparency of public institutions such as health centers, social work centers, and employment offices.
This project was part of the Gender Budget Watchdog Network initiative in the Western Balkans and Moldova, led by the Center for Research and Policy Making and supported by the Austrian Development Agency and Sida – the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
