High-level roundtable “Budget choices in a time of pandemic: Advancing gender equality or holding it back?”

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, flexibility of the public finance management systems was put to test with abrupt increases in public spending and drops in revenues, including remittances which are critical in the Western Balkans. The shrinking fiscal space required urgency and left little space for decision making, especially with regards to addressing gender inequalities and women’s needs and rights.

Six months into the pandemic, UN Women, with the Ministries of Finance of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo[1], North Macedonia and Serbia conducted an analysis of the initial and differing impact of the crisis on gender equality. Countries subject to this study responded to the crisis through wage subsidies, liquidity support through sovereign guaranties, income support for individuals and households, and tax deferrals and financial stability measures.

The event will showcase the findings of the report by engaging high-level decision makers, international organizations, experts in public finance management and gender equality in an open discussion on the impact of budgetary decisions on the lives of women and men, boys and girls during pandemic in emergency situations.

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[1] All references to Kosovo should be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).