Today, December 9, the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), launched a campaign to raise awareness about gender responsive family policies.

This campaign aims to inform citizens about the EU Directive on Work-Life Balance, and the reasons why it should be adapted in Kosovo and introduced in the Labor Law, as well as the benefits that employees gain from it.

The campaign will present a total of 10 online posts in all three languages (Albanian, English and Serbian), a video animation showing and giving concrete examples of how the EU Work-Life Balance Directive can be applied. In the end, two pamphlets addressed to employees and employers will be distributed.

The report “Expanding choices through Family-Friendly Policies” informs the public about this directive and the benefits that everyone has from its application, as well as compares the laws of Kosovo with EU laws. The report’s findings help to better understand this directive and how Kosovo needs to improve its legal framework in order to be in line with EU law.

Recognizing the importance of implementing this directive, KWN encourages the Government of Kosovo to harmonize laws and policies with the EU Work-Life Balance Directive and all employers to apply this Directive in the workplace for the common good, and improve the gender perspective in the labour market.

We also recall that the Agency for Gender Equality program “Kosovo Program for Gender Equality 2020-2024” provides that the increase of employment of women and girls occurs when discrimination in employment is addressed, through the amendment of the Labor Law, to guarantee parental leave, maternity leave and paternity leave, in accordance with this Directive. Also, KWN’s strategy for Empowering Women Economically 2019-2022, shows that only 20% of women are registered as active participants in the labor market, while this figure for men is 65.7%.

This campaign is part of the “Expanding Choices: Gender Responsive Family Policy for the Private Sector in the Western Balkans and Moldova” initiative, and is supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the operational unit of the Austrian Cooperation Agency.

For more information, statements or interviews about the campaign, contact us at: media@womensnetwork.org