| Macedonian authorities will be among the first in the region to include a gender analysis as a central/transversal element in policies and programmes in the Department of Social Welfare, Labour and Finance. This fact and the organisation of a regional Conference on this subject in Skopje, mid-March 2010 for the countries of the region, together with Spain and Austria, are the basis for initiating a gender budgeting project and organising an awareness raising seminar. This project would be in line with the current activities of the Council of Europe and would constitute a concrete follow-up to the Conference on gender budgeting (Athens, 5-6 May 2009) and to the Action Plan adopted by the 7th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for equality between women and men (Baku, 24-25 May 2010). The host country of the seminar, when choosing gender budgeting as a priority for its Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, wants to pursue the practical implementation of commitments on gender equality as an integral part of human rights and a fundamental criterion of democracy, adopted at the 5th European Ministerial Conference on Equality between Women and Men (Skopje, 22-23 January 2003).
The awareness raising seminar that will be organised in Bitola on 4-5 November 2010, during the Macedonian Chairmanship, will be the starting point of a 3 year gender budgeting pilot project undertaken jointly with the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and the Council of Europe. It is a concrete follow-up to the Conference on gender budgeting (Athens, 5-6 May 2009) where the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie proposed to develop such a project in co-operation with the Council of Europe. Another country, Armenia, decided to participate in a 3 year pilot project to contribute to the achievement of real gender equality through a better use of public resources.
AIMS OF THE SEMINAR
During the seminar, the participants will exchange information on experiences and best practices to update existing knowledge on the practical implementation of gender budgeting and to build upon the conclusions of the Athens Conference; they will identify the obstacles to an efficient use of gender budgeting and elaborate on the steps to be taken to overcome these obstacles and successfully integrate a gender perspective at all stages of the budget preparation. Given that the participants at the seminar will be from different backgrounds (governmental agencies, parliaments, local authorities, international organisations (Council of Europe, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, UNIFEM), NGOs and experts/researchers) an interesting and fruitful discussion can be expected. The Seminar will be a good opportunity to use the guidelines of the “Handbook for the practical application of gender budgeting” , drafted by Ms Sheila Quinn, which was launched at the Conference in Athens last year.
As already underlined, the project should contribute to the achievement of real gender equality through a better use of public finances. Considering the global financial, social and economic crisis in European societies, an efficient use of public resources is more than ever necessary. Given the fact that gender approach is random, even in a number of programmes designed for women as a specific group, it would be important to consider what additional measures and mechanisms would be necessary for a greater consistency in the implementation of gender sensitive budgets and programmes. Here also, men and women may sometimes have different priorities and interests which are not always taken adequately into account and have deep implications on the social status of citizens. Consequently, the integration of a gender perspective in the setting-up and, implementation of policies and the gender impact assessment of their effects are primordial.
In the light of the above explanation and the relevance of this issue, the seminar (Bitola, 4-5 November 2010) will be devoted to the following theme:
GENDER BUDGETING: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
This theme should be examined with a human rights perspective. |