Starting points

1. Provincial Secretariat for Labor, Employment and Gender EqualityVojvodina (Serbia)Gender politics in Autonomous Province of VojvodinaAER, Valencia20.09.2010.

2. Starting points • Gender equality mechanisms established at provincial and local level • Adopted Decision on Gender Equality • Allocation of funds from the budget for the promotion of the status of women in specific fields • Strategic programs for the promotion of the status of women • The main objective of the PSLEGE is monitoring and improving gender equality in Vojvodina Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

3. Main programs and projects • Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina 2008-2010 • Special measures for economic empowerment of women • Afirmative actions and programs for vulnerable groups • Towards a comprehensive system to end violence against women in Vojvodina Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

4. Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina 2008-201Questions and goals • Gender analysis • Are our programs equally accessible to both women and men? • What are the benefits of our programs for women, and what are the benefits for men, how are funds from the budget distributed? • How do our programs affect gender equality? • How can we implement changes and make these changes sustainable? Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

5. What do we want to achieve? • Long-term goals: • Integration of gender equality into the planning, implementation, monitoring and budgeting of provincial policies • Regular practice of employees who possess necessary knowledge and skills in this field Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

6. How we organized our work? • Forming project team (cooperation with the Guarantee Fund, Development Fund, Roma Inclusion Office and Provincial Secretariat for Finance) – securing necessary information, involvement in activities, focus groups, recommendations for program modifications • Training for PSLEGE staff in gender analysis of programs • Development of methodology for implementation of analyses - of 7 selected provincial employment related programs Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

7. Achieving understanding and support • Who can contribute to the achievement of our goal? • Training for assistant secretaries and advisors in provincial secretariats and funds, • Training for MPs of the Assembly of Vojvodina, • Manual on GRB in the province, steps for application of methodology and implementation of gender analysis, analysis examples and translation of JamStod’s Gender Mainstreaming Manual into Serbian for employees of the provincial and local administration. Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

8. What we achieved so far? • Based on the analyses, recommendations were formulated for improving selected program from the aspect of gender equality and were submitted to the Executive Council of Vojvodina, • In August 2009, the Executive Council of Vojvodina considered and adopted the PSLEGE report on GRB as well as these conclusions: • 1) Integration of GE into all provincial strategies, programs, projects and other activities, 2) keeping gender disaggregated data on program beneficiaries, 3)PSLEGE to develop gender mainstreaming strategy of Vojvodina Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

9. What we achieved so far? • Increased capacities of PSLEGE to implement gender analysis of programs • Increased awareness of provincial MPs, managers and employees on the significance of GRB • Instruction of the Provincial Secretariat for Finance on the gender component of the provincial budget • GRB in Vojvodina has been promoted as best regional practice in gender responsive budgeting in South Eastern Europe Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

10. Concluding comments • Institutions are taking steps in order to achieve gender equality-growing awareness on the significance of gender equality for the activities they are implementing (only in form of women specific projects); • Complexity of factors causing existing gender inequalities in the labor market; • Necessity of consistent and systematic gender mainstreaming of all state policies and programs and use of GRB as a tool; Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

11. Current activites and next steps • Bringing other institutions onboard during the continuation of the project (PS for Education, PS for Social Policy and Demography, Fund for Refuges and IDPs) • Development of provincial gender mainstreaming strategy • VISION: • GRB is a regular activity of the provincial administration that has full political support and is performed by trained staff who implement gender-sensitive policies in all fields and evaluate their effectiveness. Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

12. Special measures for economic empowerment for women • Granting funds for the Self - employment and Unemployed Roma with special measures for Roma women • Granting guarantees for securing loans for women entrepreneurs and women in Vojvodina • Granting guarantees for loans intendent for financing START UP programs for inactive women in Vojvodina • Support for rural women’s NGO • Strategy for empowerment of Rural women • First research of Rural women position and living conditions in Vojvodina - 2008 Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

13. Towards a comprehensive system to end violence against women in Vojvodina • Implementation of Provincial Strategy for combating domestic and gender based violence 2009 -2011 in all 45 municipalities in Vojvodina • Financial support – UNTF • 3 main goals - Improvement of institutional capacities and procedures - Develop the methodology and software for keeping and sharing universal and standardized records on reported cases of violence - Raising public awareness and knowledge Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina

14. Contacts • Provincial Secretariat for Labor, Employment and Gender Equality • Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 16, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia • +381 21 487 4610, +381 21 557 001 (fax) • dragan.bozanic@vojvodina.gov.rs • www.psrzrp.vojvodina.gov.rs Towards Gender Budgeting in Vojvodina