Evaluation of the National Action Plan for the Implementation of the Serbia National Strategy for Gender Equality

To measure progress in the field of gender equality, Serbia's national gender equality mechanism, the Coordination Body for Gender Equality, has commissioned the evaluation of the National Action Plan (NAP) for the Implementation of the Serbia National Strategy for Gender Equality 2016–2018. With the support of the UN Women Office in Serbia and financial assistance of the European Union, the evaluation, involving over 100 stakeholders, took stock of the following key criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability.

The evaluation shows that NAP implementation and monitoring mechanisms at the national level were more effective than in the previous Strategy for Gender Equality and NAP 2011-2015. However, the capacities of the new national mechanism for gender equality were limited and the implementation of NAP, as an overarching policy document, was not achieved to a satisfactory degree at the local level. Furthermore, systematic information on the implementation in local communities was missing due to insufficient coordination mechanisms between the national and local levels. Among three priority areas, NAP was most effectively implemented in the field of gender mainstreaming. It was less effective in terms of changing the culture of gender equality and promoting equal opportunities.