Klimentina Ilijevski is the Executive Director of the Association for Research, Communications and Development “Public,” an organisation that has been actively working in the field of social inclusion, social entrepreneurship, and social impact in North Macedonia for ten years.

Experts and practitioners from Western Balkans and Turkey attend a 3-day Training of Trainers on Gender Responsive Budgeting in Skopje, North Macedonia. The ToT aims to strengthen the pool of gender experts in the region by equipping them with advanced knowledge and resources on GRB, as well as innovative adult learning skills.

Under a new measure achieved through gender-responsive budgeting, 250 women farmers received financial support to expand their businesses.

Journalists and media professionals from North Macedonia benefited from space for conversations on the topics of gender equality and how their work can contribute to the fight to end violence against women in the long term. 

Municipality of Novaci in North Macedonia invests in childcare to improve the quality of life for women and children

Kalina Maleska is a writer from North Macedonia contributing to the Awake Not Sleeping: Fairy tales for a new generation initiative. Her works include three collections of short stories, two novels, a play, a children’s book, and a study of contemporary literature. Her stories, as well as articles on literary theory and criticism, have been published in various journals and anthologies in North Macedonia and abroad. Her story ‘A Different Kind of Weapon’ is part of the anthology Best European Fiction 2018. Maleska teaches English and American literature at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University – Skopje.

Bojana Jovanovska is a project coordinator at the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HCHR), one of the most active organizations in promoting the human rights of all vulnerable groups in North Macedonia. For the last five years, the organization has been a partner of the EU-UN Women regional programme “Ending violence against women in the Western Balkans and Turkey: Implementing Norms, Changing Minds”.

High school teachers and students across North Macedonia are empowered to reject harmful gender stereotypes and support women and girls who experience violence, thanks to the project “Creating a culture towards gender equality,” implemented by the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA) and the Association for psychology and psychotherapy Psihoterapika, within the UN Women regional programme on ending violence against women “Implementing Norms, Changing Minds,” funded by the European Union.

This Call for Proposals is launched under the regional programme “Implementing Norms, Changing Minds”, funded by the European Union, and implemented by UN Women in cooperation with civil society organizations in Western Balkans and Turkey.

The 2021 theme for International Women’s Day is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” On this occasion, the EU-funded UN Women programme on ending violence against women in the Western Balkans and Turkey “Implementing Norms, Changing Minds,” Phase II, is launching an interactive map to bring visibility to the leadership of women’s organizations in preventing and responding to violence against women even in the most challenging circumstances.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more women (35 percent) than men (23 percent) have been working from home. This has significantly increased their time spent on unpaid domestic activities and care for children, a recent UN Women assessment reveals.

Renowned artist and poetess Roza Mojsovska, 54, creates artwork with a brush in her mouth. She is an active member of the cultural scene in Strumica, a major city in the eastern region of North Macedonia.

With UN Women’s support, the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS) has developed an online course designed to boost the knowledge about gender equality amongst municipal government officials across South East Europe (SEE). Offered on the Network’s E-Academy, the course helps officials to integrate gender issues into policy and budget-making processes and, ultimately, to deliver on the local governments’ gender equality commitments.

UN Women and Sweden will aim to reform policies and financing actions in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia to accelerate the implementation of national and international gender equality commitments.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, rural women in North Macedonia already worked more hours every day than men, much of this time unpaid. Now, the health crisis has increased their workload and they are also struggling to access health services and other support.

A survey to assess the gendered impacts of COVID-19 on women’s and men’s lives and livelihoods in ten countries/territories across Europe and Central Asia has revealed dire findings.

As COVID-19 sweeps the world, municipalities in North Macedonia are applying gender-responsive budgeting to better understand the specific emergency needs of women and other vulnerable groups and make their budgets more effective for them.

Stefan Petrovski, 23, is a LGBTI activist and project coordinator at Subversive Front, an association for sexual and gender minorities in North Macedonia. He is also a peer-to-peer educator for comprehensive sexuality education. His field of study and research is focused on gender, sexuality, and ethnicity in literature and linguistics. Currently, Stefan Petrovski is acting as a youth ambassador within the EU-UN Women regional programme on ending violence against women in the Western Balkans and Turkey “Implementing Norms, Changing Minds,” and he spoke to UN Women about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on queer people.

Both globally and across Europe and Central Asia, home confinement and stress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated violence against women and girls. In most countries, women’s organizations, hotlines and front-liners have noted sharp increases in calls and reports from locked-down survivors afraid that they have nowhere to turn.

UN Women led the distribution of emergency packages, including food, vitamin supplements, hygiene products and protective equipment, in Strumica region as an immediate response to the specific needs of deinstitutionalized women and men with disabilities during the pandemic.