{"id":3339100,"date":"2019-01-31T17:13:01","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T17:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/?p=3339100"},"modified":"2019-01-31T17:13:01","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T17:13:01","slug":"new-action-seeks-to-empower-womens-participation-in-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/new-action-seeks-to-empower-womens-participation-in-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"New Action Seeks to Empower Women\u2019s Participation in Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

On\u00a0Jan.\u00a024,\u00a0the\u00a0Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN),\u00a0Organisation\u00a0of Persons with Muscular Dystrophy of Kosovo<\/a>\u00a0(OPMDK),\u00a0Ruka Ruci<\/a>\u00a0(RR)\u00a0and the\u00a0European Women Lawyers Association<\/a>\u00a0(EWLA) officially launched their new joint action, \u201cStrengthening Women\u2019s Participation in Politics\u201d,\u00a0in the amount of\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u20ac600,500, with \u20ac540,000\u00a0supported\u00a0by the\u00a0European Union\u00a0(EU)\u00a0Office in Kosovo<\/a>\u00a0and \u20ac60,500\u00a0from other contributions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From now\u00a0through\u00a0Dec. 2022,\u00a0they will work together\u00a0towards\u00a0increasing\u00a0women\u2019s participation in politics and decision-making at\u00a0both\u00a0local and central levels. This\u00a0initiative\u00a0will contribute to achieving\u00a0KWN\u2019s\u00a0Strategy<\/a>\u00a0for 2019-2022,\u00a0recently\u00a0adopted by\u00a0KWN\u00a0members in Dec.\u00a02018.\u00a0More\u00a0specifically,\u00a0this Action seeks to improve\u00a0the\u00a0capacities, inclusiveness, solidarity, representativeness and political engagement of women\u2019s networks, so they may engage\u00a0more\u00a0in Kosovo\u2019s\u00a0EU\u00a0accession\u00a0process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to supporting KWN, the initiative will strengthen the\u00a0Kosovo Lobby for Gender Equality (KLGE), which brings together\u00a0women in\u00a0politics and\u00a0civil society, as well as men supporters, at the municipal level to advocate for actions towards gender equality locally. The initiative also will support the\u00a0Coalition for Equality (CfE), a newly formed coalition in 2018, which unites diverse women from politics and civil society at both national and municipal levels in advocating together for important reforms towards gender equality.\u00a0 Designed in close consultation with KWN, KLGE and\u00a0CfE\u00a0members, this action seeks to address the greatest challenges faced by women in politics today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Law on Gender Equality<\/a>\u00a0(LGE) defines equal representation as 50% participation of women and men at all levels. However,\u00a0electoral laws are not aligned and\u00a0sanctions for not implementing the LGE are rare.\u00a0Moreover,\u00a0representation\u00a0requirements set by the LGE are not met by most central and municipal level institutions.\u00a0Following 2017 municipal and central elections, women comprise only 33% of municipal assembly members, 32% of parliamentarians, 10% of ministers, 5% of deputy ministers and 0% of mayors. Women with disabilities, as well as\u00a0Roma,\u00a0Ashkali, Egyptian and\u00a0Gorani\u00a0women are not represented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWomen with disabilities are seldom mentioned and discriminated\u00a0against\u00a0not only in relation to men, but also ignored by the society in general\u201d,\u00a0said\u00a0Resmija\u00a0Rahmani from OPMDK.\u00a0\u201cI know that we won\u2019t be able to eradicate the problem completely. However, I believe that one step at a time, we can really push for changes.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As stated in the\u00a0Kosovo Gender Analysis<\/a>,\u00a0compiled by KWN, obstacles\u00a0to\u00a0women\u2019s participation in politics include socialized gender stereotypes suggesting that women are not sufficiently qualified or capable of being political leaders;\u00a0political parties\u2019\u00a0resistance to\u00a0involving women;\u00a0low financing;\u00a0minimal media coverage of women politicians; women\u2019s time constraints due to care responsibilities at home;\u00a0and weak connections with constituents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to address these challenges,\u00a0the\u00a0new initiative will work closely with women politicians at all levels and women interested in entering politics towards enhancing\u00a0their\u00a0capacities.\u00a0Moreover, considering their significant underrepresentation to date, the initiative aspires to engage women with disabilities and women from minority ethnic groups more in the aforementioned networks, as well as in politics and decision-making.\u00a0Inclusiveness and solidarity are fundamental values in this initiative to expand the women\u2019s movement in Kosovo.\u00a0More meetings between women politicians and citizens, organized\u00a0in municipalities\u00a0throughout Kosovo, will seek to\u00a0engage women citizens, particularly those\u00a0previously\u00a0marginalized, in political and decision-making processes.\u00a0They will have opportunities to bring their concerns directly to decision-makers.\u00a0Grants to women\u2019s rights groups\u00a0amounting to a \u20ac105,000\u00a0over four years\u00a0will support joint advocacy efforts, together with women politicians, towards gender equality at the local level.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All networks will benefit from the expertise from European lawyers,\u00a0related to Kosovo\u2019s EU Accession process and reforms needed to align Kosovo law with the EU Gender Equality Acquis.\u00a0Meanwhile, new philanthropic initiatives and a strengthened Volunteer Program will seek to secure resources to better sustain\u00a0the\u00a0women\u2019s\u00a0movement\u00a0in the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This initiative builds on\u00a0the successes of\u00a0several\u00a0previous\u00a0KWN\u00a0initiatives,\u00a0achievements made in the last\u00a0KWN\u00a0Strategy for 2015-2018<\/a>, existing collaboration with KLGE and\u00a0CfE\u00a0and\u00a0the inspirational work of\u00a0OPMDK<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0RR<\/a>\u00a0in engaging previously marginalized women in advocacy initiatives, supported by the\u00a0KWN\u00a0Kosovo Women\u2019s Fund.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe network selected you specifically\u00a0thanks to\u00a0the work and results you have achieved through small grants,\u201d said\u00a0Igballe\u00a0Rogova, KWN Executive Director, during the partners\u2019 first joint meeting.\u00a0\u201cWe need an active voice\u00a0for\u00a0women with\u00a0disabilities and women from minorities\u00a0as part of the feminist movement and political decision-making processes.\u201d\u00a0KWN also will seek to actively engage its other member organisations in different dimensions of this initiative.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Representatives\u00a0from\u00a0OPMDK and RR expressed their willingness and enthusiasm for this initiative.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis project comes with many responsibilities and challenges,\u201d said\u00a0Nevenka\u00a0Rikalo, RR Executive Director, \u201cbut I am sure that together we will do even better than\u00a0we have\u00a0initially\u00a0planned.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All partners agreed that only through genuine cooperation can\u00a0we work towards advancing and empowering women to participate in politics and decision-making, especially increasing the number of marginalized women\u00a0engaged in political\u00a0processes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On\u00a0Jan.\u00a024,\u00a0the\u00a0Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN),\u00a0Organisation\u00a0of Persons with Muscular Dystrophy of Kosovo\u00a0(OPMDK),\u00a0Ruka Ruci\u00a0(RR)\u00a0and the\u00a0European Women Lawyers Association\u00a0(EWLA) officially launched their new joint action, \u201cStrengthening Women\u2019s Participation in Politics\u201d,\u00a0in the amount of\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u20ac600,500, with \u20ac540,000\u00a0supported\u00a0by the\u00a0European Union\u00a0(EU)\u00a0Office in Kosovo\u00a0and \u20ac60,500\u00a0from other contributions.\u00a0 From now\u00a0through\u00a0Dec. 2022,\u00a0they will work together\u00a0towards\u00a0increasing\u00a0women\u2019s participation in politics and decision-making at\u00a0both\u00a0local and central levels. This\u00a0initiative\u00a0will contribute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3339097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3339100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3339100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3339101,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339100\/revisions\/3339101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3339097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3339100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3339100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3339100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}