The first Resource Center on gender responsive policymaking and budgeting in the region opened in Skopje, North Macedonia

As part of the UN Women project “Promoting Gender Responsive Policies and Budgets: Towards Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Republic of North Macedonia”, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of North Macedonia launched the first Resource Centre on gender responsive budgeting in the region.

With a high-level kick-off event which took place on 3 March, the premises of the centre were revealed for the media and the public. The aim of the event was to introduce the Resource Centre as a model for continuous capacity development of public administration on gender responsive policymaking, to introduce the web platform with content and resources in the area of gender equality and GRB and to promote the strategic commitments of the MLSP and the Sector for Equal Opportunities for advancing gender equality through a systematic application of gender responsive budgeting.

Jovanka Trenchevska, Minister of Labour and Social Policy in the Republic of North Macedonia, Blerta Cela, UN Women Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, H.E. Kristin Forsgren Bengtsson, Ambassador of Sweden to North Macedonia, H. E. Véronique Hulmann Marti, Ambassador of Switzerland to North Macedonia, and Rossana Dudziak, UN Resident Coordinator in North Macedonia joined the event as keynote speakers.

 

“Gender responsive budgets are key for creating equal opportunities for women and men. The only way to demonstrate that our commitment to gender equality is true, and not only declarative, is precisely by ensuring that budgets are gender responsive or gender sensitive.”, emphasised Minister Trenchevska during the launching event.

As also emphasized by H. E. Véronique Hulmann Marti, Ambassador of Switzerland to North Macedonia, this centre is a result of a longer process which started almost 10 years ago when the first gender budgeting efforts in the country were made. North Macedonia has been “a pioneer in gender responsive budgeting”, as shared by the Ambassador, and has already gained a lot of practical experience that can be built upon.

Ambassador of Sweden to North Macedonia H.E. Kristin Forsgren Bengtsson and UN Women Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia Blerta Cela expressed their enthusiasm to see this first-ever GRB resource centre in the region work full-steam to the benefit of all citizens of North Macedonia, to share and stimulate knowledge and experience across the Western Balkans, across the region and beyond. UN Resident Coordinator in North Macedonia Rossana Dudziak stated that the centre will be an important knowledge hub that will support the sustainability of the Government.

The Centre will operate both in the premises of the MLSP located in the centre of Skopje, but resources and activities will be made available through its web platform to respond both to the growing needs and habits for digitalization, and to make activities and resources available to the wider public. The venue is already used for capacity development of civil servants on various topics related to gender-responsive budgeting and policymaking.



More info: https://bit.ly/3MWmHB2  

The UN Women project “Promoting Gender Responsive Policies and Budgets: Towards Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Republic of North Macedonia” is funded by Switzerland and Sweden.