Regional Conference: Transformative Financing as an Accelerator for Gender Equality: Drawing from gender responsive budgeting experiences and lessons learned

This regional conference is a two-day in person and on-line event aiming to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience in the implementation of gender responsive budgeting, to learn from regional and global practices, and discuss financing for gender equality. The conference will contain seven thematic panel sessions followed by plenary discussions and will bring together high-level government officials and practitioners from Ministries of Finances, line ministries, national gender mechanisms, local government representatives, Supreme Audit Institutions, civil society organizations and media.

During the conference, participants will be introduced with two new initiatives rolled out by UN Women ECA to monitor progress on the implementation of SDG 5.c.1 indicator and the development of a GRB index which will enable Governments to identify progress and entry points for future interventions on GRB. 

The conference is organized by UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECA RO), under the regional program “Transformative Financing for Gender Equality towards more Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Western Balkans” with participation of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo^[1], North Macedonia and Serbia. The overall objective of the program is that Western Balkans systematically integrate gender equality and become more transparent at all stages of national and local policymaking and budgeting processes. Working in parallel at the central and local level, the program applies strategies focused on mainstreaming gender in Public Finance Management (PFM). On the other hand, the programme works with parliaments and Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) to increase oversight and accountability on budget allocations for advancing gender equality.

Concept note
Agenda

^{1 [All references to Kosovo should be understood to be in the context of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999). For the European Union, this designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.]}