Training on the topic “Integration of the gender perspective in local policies” was provided for representatives of the administration from the municipalities of the Skopje, Pelagonia, Polog and Southwest regions, who work on developing municipal programs and strategies. The training was organized in Mavrovo, in the period from October 2 to 4, 2023, and is part of the trainings mostly dedicated to promoting the principles of democratic governance at the local level. This activity has been implemented by ZELS in partnership with the OSCE Mission in Skopje for several years. The training was organized with the expert support of the UN Women Office in Skopje.
In order for the participants to better understand when and whether a certain policy is or is not gender sensitive, practical exercises were carried out through which the participants, using an appropriate methodology for gender integration, learned how to set gender indicators to enable gender equality in municipal activities. They find out that gender equality should and can be integrated into all local authorities, i.e. can be incorporated in the policies of all municipal programs. The attendees also discussed the importance of providing gender statistics at the local and national level in different segments (labour market, education, health and others) and their great importance in the creation of local policies. The public policies that regulate gender equality were also presented, then what are the 5 steps for creating gender policies and what tools and methods are used to develop programs and plans that include the gender perspective. Through the “case study” exercise, the attendees worked on program analysis, identified the goals of the program, especially in the area of gender sensitivity, the indicators that should be set, as well as the method of measuring the gender perspective when reporting on the realization of the programs.
The representative from ZELS spoke to the attendees about the “Methodology for integrating the gender perspective in local policies and budget”, which is an important tool for the needs of municipalities. Good practices from several municipalities were presented. Representatives from the Municipality of Kisela Voda, who were present at last year’s democratic management trainings, spoke about the inclusion of citizens through the “community forums” tool when creating the municipal strategy for gender equality. The development of the strategy is in progress and is being implemented with the support of the mentoring program of UN Women.
Representatives from the City of Skopje spoke about the way of building partnership relations with the civil sector when developing and implementing social protection programs. The Municipality of Bitola has many years of positive experience in including the gender perspective in the municipal programs for social protection, education, and sports even at the stage of applying calls for civil organizations or other legal entities for certain programs. The Municipality of Gjorce Petrov provides the collection of statistical data that is the starting point for the analysis of the creation of the programs.
At the end of the training, the participants agreed that gender sensitivity should be integrated into the construction of local policies in all development programs. In particular, they indicated the exceptional importance of providing adequate financial resources in the program budget (through the tool for gender-responsive budgeting) in order to be able to implement the activities, the effects of which should ensure gender equality at the local level.
