Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, in cooperation with the Coordination Body for Gender Equality of the Republic of Serbia and the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights of Montenegro, supported by the Regional School for Public Administration, organized on December 1 a regional conference entitled: “Measuring Gender Equality in the Western Balkans”

Gender equality is one of the priority areas in countries of the Western Balkans, all facing challenges in achieving gender equality. Hence, the conference was aimed at facilitating the exchange of experience in data collection and measuring gender equality, as well as the use of data in policymaking among civil servants involved in gender issues from the Western Balkans countries, experts from the region and from the European Union member-states, representatives of the non-governmental and international organizations.

One of the conference topics was the Gender Equality Index, a measuring instrument developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality for measuring the gap between men and women in six domains: money, work, time, power, health, knowledge and in two sub-domains – intersecting inequalities and violence.  Gender Equality Index is an important instrument for designing policies based on gender equality data. For this reason, the exchange of experience and challenges faced by the countries of the region in implementing the Gender Equality Index in their countries is of great importance. Representatives from Serbia, as the first country outside the European Union to calculate its Gender Equality Index, provided insight into the process of introducing the Index and presented the results of the Gender Equality Index in the Republic of Serbia. The conference participants expressed their interest in cooperation with the Regional School for Public Administration in furthering the use of the Index as a policymaking tool in the domain of gender equality.

The conference participants also had the opportunity to hear the preliminary findings of the regional research on gender equality in public administration, supported by the European Commission, to be released to the public soon.