Nine representatives from civil society organizations had the opportunity to be briefed and also to discuss gender concepts and practical methodology of integrating a Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB), during a workshop hosted by Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) on February 14.

During the first part of this workshop participants discussed gender concepts, the most common misconceptions about what GRB is, and the stages of GRB practice as well.

Nerina Guri, Researcher and Project Coordinator, KWN, talked about the legal framework in place, according to which GRB is mandatory for all budgetary organizations in Kosovo.

“According to Law on Gender Equality (LGE), all Kosovo institutions are obliged to involve the GRB in all areas, as a necessary tool toward guaranteeing the gender equality principle is being respected in the collection and reallocation of public resources.” Guri said.

Thanks to KWN previous experience on this field, different examples of conducting GRB, locally and nationally, were shared with the participants.

Whereas, the second part of the workshop consisted with participants practically exercising the integration of GRB and gender perspectives analysis of different economic categories, such as; salary and per diem, subsidies and transfers, capital spending and also in policies. Examples of practical work were based on KWN’s experience of integrating GRB into sectors such as; agriculture, environment, trade and industry, diaspora, education system and social welfare.

The participating organizations were selected during the open call for capacity building in GRB, as part of the ADA-funded regional initiative on overseeing budgets from a gender perspective.

As a result of this opportunity, a total of 11 organizations from Kosovo, along with other organizations from seven Western Balkan (WB) countries and Moldova, will participate in basic, advanced and public procurement workshops on GRB in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

In addition to other things, these organizations also had the chance to be informed of the opportunity to apply for grants under this initiative, while at the same time they can use the knowledge gained to ensure that public resources are being used while respecting gender mainstreaming.

This meeting was supported by Austrian Development Agency (ADA).