Continue to strengthen the capacity of local government representatives in the field of gender equality
The Center for Democracy and Human Rights – CEDEM held a two-day seminar “Gender Equality at the Local Level – Achieved Results, Key Achievements and Future Perspectives” aimed at improving Local Action Plans for Achieving Gender Equality and Greater Integration of Women at the Local Level.
The seminar was held at the Bianca Hotel in Kolasin, and was attended by representatives of local governments, primarily municipal secretariats, which are responsible for implementing activities in the field of gender equality. On the first day of the seminar, lectures were given by Dina Knežević, Advisor to the Ombudsman and Nada Drobnjak, President of the Gender Equality Committee in the Parliament of Montenegro.
In his introductory speech, Marko Pejović, CEDEM Program Manager, spoke about the results of research that confirm that the culture that makes women accept a dependent role in the family is still strongly present, even among young people, and that synergy of all actors in this process is necessary. . It is especially necessary to pay attention to local governments and start the process from the bottom up, because we are witnessing that the achievement of key indicators and desired conditions is observed only at the national level, but if we want these indicators and desired conditions to be achieved, we must turn to the local level. make additional efforts in this direction.
In the first lecture, Dina Knežević referred to the international framework of gender issues, and in that sense reminded of the most important international documents that focus primarily on human rights and freedoms, and then issues of gender equality. She also spoke about institutional mechanisms for achieving gender equality, emphasizing the importance of gender analysis at the local level and its methods. Nada Drobnjak emphasized the importance of integrating the gender perspective, and in this regard they talked about the most important principles of tooling, but also about gender-sensitive budgeting, and the need for greater involvement of women in the decision-making process. She reminded the participants of the principles of informing the local public about policies for the introduction of gender equality, and therefore the Law on Local Self-Government.
The second day of the seminar focused on the practical aspect of gender equality. Maja Raičević, Executive Director of the NGO Center for Women’s Rights, held two lectures aimed at explaining methods of gender mainstreaming and introducing participants to the necessary steps to integrate gender equality at the local level. She supported the lecture with many examples from the practice of European countries, which additionally inspired the participants to consider models for introducing similar measures in the action plans of Montenegrin municipalities, and further emphasized the importance of gender analysis in adopting strategic documents in this area.
