The tool entitled “statistics, posted on the e-platform for gender-responsive budgeting of ZELS www.rob.zels.org.mk has been put into operation after its form has been advanced from a user (administrator) and visualization aspect. In order to explain in more detail the possibilities and ways of using the tool by the municipalities, for the needs for which it was created, ZELS organized training on June 7, 2023, at the ZELS Training Center, intended for the responsible servants who will work on the platform and for the coordinators for equal opportunities for women and men.
The training was divided into two parts. In the first part, the content of the e-platform was presented. There was also an explanation about what is its purpose, how municipal users can use it when they need to log in on it and how the municipalities can fill in and use the “statistics” section. These data, which will be separated by gender and category, will serve when analyzing the needs of the municipality from a gender aspect and will be further transformed into measures and activities that will improve/overcome a certain challenge or problem of the residents of the municipality. Gender-disaggregated data are important when creating municipal programs and budgets, and with this tool, they will be visually displayed on the platform, for each municipality separately. The training on the way to use the platform was prepared by the company “Inteligenta”, which developed this platform and maintains it over the years. It also created a User Guide for the needs of the users of the municipalities, which was sent to the nominated servants for this purpose. The platform advanced in this way should allow the municipalities to collect and enter data in a unique way, which will be further visually displayed in the form of pie charts or graphs and which are separated by gender and category for each municipality separately. The expert from the company “Inteligenta” presented practically to the participants of the training, using the statistical data of the Municipality of Aerodrom on how to log in, enter data or make changes using the capabilities of the “statistics” tool, which is part of the platform. The attendees at the training gave additional suggestions for improving the terminology of the terms that will be used to fill in and read the data, as well as entering subcategories. The platform will be supplemented with these proposals and it will be available to all municipalities, which through the process of entering data and using the platform, will have the support of IT employees in ZELS, who are also responsible for creating a username and password for each municipality, i.e. for the nominated servant.
The second part of the training was intended to present the novelties of the supplemented and improved version of the European Charter for Gender Equality, prepared by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions – CEMR. In addition to the presentation of the new 9 articles of the Charter, the coordinator for gender equality from ZELS also referred to the importance of this document for raising gender equality on the political agenda of the mayors, and thus greater awareness among them, but also among all managers and employees in the municipalities horizontally and vertically. It would lead to a positive change of attitudes regarding the importance of gender equality and its integration through all responsibilities at the local level.
With the correct creation of measures according to the needs of women and men and a balanced approach, the municipalities become responsible and transparent among citizens. By signing the European Charter for Gender Equality, the municipality becomes part of the European network of municipalities that work dedicatedly to advancing gender equality and can exchange practices at the European level. The new signatories of the European Charter are committed to all 39 articles, as well as that within 2 years they will create an action plan in accordance with the commitments of the 39 articles, and the implementation of the plan will be monitored in order to determine how many of the activities and policies have been put into practice and what changes have they made in the local community. The signatories before 2022 remain valid and in force, but they just need to make an action plan to which the new 9 articles of the revised version of the Charter will be added. During the training, the role of ZELS in promoting and advancing gender equality in municipalities in general over the years, independently and through projects, was highlighted. The new version of the European Charter has been sent to all municipalities with a reminder of the importance of the European Charter and its implementation by those municipalities that have not yet signed it.
