Partnership and Coordination

Coordination and partnerships are central to UN Women mandate in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Given the complexity of the country with three central governments and large international presence, UN Women undertakes systematic approach to coordination and collaboration.  At the heart of coordination are 4 primary areas of partnership, support, influence and shared strategic interest through collaboration with gender equality mechanisms, supporting women’s rights CSOs, influencing the international community to prioritize gender equality and UN coordination. Gender mainstreaming is ensured with constant engagement on gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) issues, commitment through joint normative priorities and advocacy on international standards.

Strategic partnerships derive from shared normative objectives. Relationships are nurtured and deepened with strategic gender equality development partners, empowering them to advocate for GE through shared work on programming, communications, and advocacy, leveraging mutual expertise to focus coordinated efforts on GEWE.

Our Results

• UN Women played an important role in the design of the UNDCCF 2021-2025 ensuring all relevant GEWE indicators are reflected in the Framework and that GE is mainstreamed across the work of all UNCT task forces.
• CO composite mandate and coordination of international development partners and local stakeholders was crucial in providing support to continuous specialized service delivery in the pandemic.
• Strategic coordination efforts of UN Women and engagement of increasing number of partners in support to GEWE was central in embedding the gender perspective in the socio-economic impact assessment and response offer.
• Coordination and convening powers with international community, government and civil society was key to improve the effectiveness of response to supporting women in the face of the crisis.

Ongoing Coordination

UN Coordination

To ensure gender mainstreaming throughout the UN system in BiH, Gender Theme Group (GTG) chaired by UN Women and co-chaired by UNFPA, includes gender focal points from all UN Agencies and Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO) and supports enhancing inter-agency coordination, strengthens mutual capacity building and allows for system wide assessment of progress in gender mainstreaming.  With quarterly meetings, GTG contributes to the formulation and implementation of joint programs on gender equality, assists in developing and overseeing implementation of gender mainstreaming action plans and provides coordinated UNCT support to government on key international normative commitments.

Coordination with international community

International Working Group on Gender Equality (IWGE), co-chaired by Agency for Gender Equality and UN Women, and the IWGE Core Group, provides a vehicle for practically engaging all the international community and is central in UN Women’s efforts to ensure gender mainstreaming across a span of international partners. Thematic quarterly meetings allow for space to discuss efforts on tackling violence, joint normative priorities, as well as to incorporate the GE perspective in the programming of international partners.

Coordination with gender mechanisms

Coordination with institutional gender mechanisms to ensure a strategic direction for cooperation is conducted through regular quarterly meetings with both entity and state gender institutional mechanisms. UN Women’s main objective is to support institutional gender mechanisms in their responsibility for monitoring and implementation of international norms and standards – influencing gender mainstreaming in the policy of line ministries across the three governments and supporting implementation of normative standards in practice at all levels.

Coordination with civil society

Ensuring coordination with civil society to set the direction of UN Women approach in the country has been crucial to the protection and promotion of women’s human rights. Women’s rights CSOs were essential to establishing specialized services to support survivors of violence, and UN Women seeks to support their capacities, influence, and internal coordination with the aim of supporting CSOs organizational capacity and functional link with government, increasing their engagement and influence on normative, policy and practice.