From 23 to 25 May, Åsa Regnér, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, and Alia El-Yassir, Director of the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, paid their first official visit to Georgia. The purpose of the visit was to become acquainted with and deepen the long-term cooperation that connects UN Women with the country’s legislative and executive branches in a variety of directions.

Well implemented gender-responsive budgeting means women, men, girls and boys are able to enjoy equal rights, services and opportunities. This is achieved through committed and systematic consideration of different and evolving needs and priorities of individuals in society. UN Women Turkey delivered a two-day seminar in Bolu, north-western Turkey, on gender-responsive planning and budgeting to senior members of the Ministry of Family and Social Services, as well as the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey Presidency of Strategy and Budgeting, aiming to build the knowledge and skills of senior government officials in this area.

The challenges of making budgets respond equally to the needs of women and men were debated at a pane l, supported by UN Women in Kosovo and organized by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on 16 March. Under the title “Accountability in Local Governance: Citizens' Priorities Addressed through Gender Responsive Budgets,” the panel brought together high-level representatives from local governments.

UN Women, in cooperation with the Ombudsperson Institution in Kosovo1, launched the Informal Advocacy Task Force on Gender-Sensitive Standards for Occupational Safety, Health and Decent Work on 25 October 2021.

To ensure that governments allocate spending to meet the needs of both women and men – also known as gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) – 15 high-level representatives gathered for a two-day workshop supported by UN Women in Kosovo in October, 2021.

Professionals from institutions that deal with violence against women in the Autonomous province of Vojvodina in Serbia are now more sensitized to work with women survivors of violence, especially those from marginalized groups. Their knowledge, education and awareness have also increased as a result of a fruitful partnership between UN Women Serbia and the Provincial Secretariat for Social Policy, Demography and Gender Equality. Predrag Vuletić, Provincial Secretary for Social Policy, Demography and Gender Equality spoke to UN Women about the visible effects of the "Integrated Response to Violence against Women and Girls in Serbia, Phase 2" project for institutions at the local and provincial level. He also introduced the initiatives in Phase 3, which started in October 2021 and will last until September 2022.

More than 100 department heads from 25 line ministries, central public institutions and organizations participated in a series of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) seminars hosted by UN Women and the Ministry of Family and Social Services (MoFSS) in Ankara during the first two weeks of October 2021. The aim was to raise awareness on gender-responsive planning and budgeting and to develop practices accordingly.

Predrag Fred Matić is a member of the European Parliament and also part of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality of the European Parliament (FEMM). In the summer of 2021, his team celebrated a major victory – when the European Parliament, with 378 votes, adopted the report on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Matić shared with UN Women how they achieved this win; what the report means for the Western Balkans; the role of international organizations; and what’s next for his team.

UN Women Turkey conducted a two-day workshop with the members of parliament (MPs) of the Turkey Grand National Assembly (TGNA) Equal Opportunities Commission between 23–24 October 2021. The workshop provided fruitful discussions on advancing women’s empowerment in Turkey through gender responsive policy, legislation, and budgeting

UN Women reveals findings of a recent assessment of the capacities, experience, and needs of local government representatives in applying a gender lens to their budgeting processes. The assessment found that largely women officials apply a gender lens to their budgeting processes even though more men contribute to preparing budgets.

Aleksandar Macura is the co-founder and programme director of the RES Foundation, engaged in policy making in energy and climate change, primarily in Serbia, the Western Balkans and Southeast Europe. He spoke to UN Women about the impact of energy poverty on women in Serbia based on the findings from a survey on the gender perspective in the field of energy poverty. The survey was conducted by the RES Foundation with the support of UN Women and the Coordination Body for Gender Equality of the Government of Serbia.

Jelena Brankov-Čerevicki is the Head of Human Resources and Coordinator for Gender Equality of the Municipality of Bečej, a multi-ethnic community in northern Serbia. Under UN Women’s EU-funded project, the Municipality received a small grant to help enhance the position of rural women and generated both State and donor investments worth five times the initial amount. Brankov-Čerevicki is the woman behind this successful endeavour.

On World Statistics Day, Anisa Ruseti, the Deputy Mayor at the Municipality of Tirana, Albania talks about the importance of using gender data.

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.

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.

After the March 2019 local elections in Turkey, UN Women organized ‘Experience Sharing’ workshops for the women candidates who ran for elections. More than 100 women from different political parties and provinces, as well as representatives of civil society organizations, who also attended the Local Politics Workshops, organized before the elections, came together to discuss negotiation techniques and build solidarity network.

The Women’s Caucus held an extraordinary parliamentary session with young women, aiming to encourage and inspire them to join politics on July 5, 2019. The event was preceded by an exhibition in the city center of Pristina featuring portraits of Women’s Caucus Members with inspirational messages, as part of the celebration of the Women’s Caucus’ 14th anniversary.

They are determined and know that they can influence the political life in their hometowns or the villages where they live. We’re speaking about four participants in the Civic and Political Capacity Building Program for women with disabilities who decided to run in local elections in 2019.

A delegation of public officials from the Republic of North Macedonia, headed by the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Mila Carovska, attended a 3-day study programme in Rabat, Morocco to explore the country’s internationally recognized Centre of Excellence on gender-responsive budgeting (GRB).