Gender responsive budgeting focus of OSCE-supported workshop for parliamentary staff

Recognizing the importance of introducing gender-responsive budgeting through Parliament and government as an important step in achieving equality and removing barriers to public services, the Mission organized a workshop for staff of parliamentary committees and parliamentary units on this approach on 9 October in Podgorica.

Eleven participants received a hands-on support from the expert, brought in by the Mission, on how to implement the methodology for categorizing budget programmes and activities according to their impact on gender equality, monitoring and reporting, helping them understand the essence of gender-responsive budgeting.

Through practical examples, participants strengthened their understanding of how the needs of women and men could be equally reflected in budget, starting by developing a gender-responsive analysis and identifying gender inequality, defining gender-responsive goals, gender responsive indicators, and target values.

Opening the workshop, Bernd Burwitz, the Mission's Democratization Programme Manager, said that gender-responsive budgeting is essential both for gender justice and for socio-economic progress and welfare to society. "It increases the transparency of public finances and involves analysing government budgets for their effect on genders and the norms and roles associated with them," said Burwitz.

Since 2018, the Mission has been advocating for the introduction of gender-responsive budgeting as an effective strategy in reducing inequalities between women and men, and will continue to support the implementation thereof as a mechanism that contributes to enhancing the level of overall equality and social justice.