OSCE Mission’s comprehensive approach in supporting equality between men and women and gender mainstreaming in Montenegro's public administration work

Supporting equality between men and women through mainstreaming gender into government strategic approaches, and in line with the Law on Gender Equality, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) recommendations - is a process that the OSCE Mission to Montenegro initiated with national institutions in 2020.

After supporting the drafting of the National Strategy for Gender Equality 2021-2025, the Mission reviewed national strategies which revealed that only eight per cent of them were gender mainstreamed. As a result, an instrument to introduce a gender perspective was created and, in co-operation with the General Secretariat of the Government, was embedded into the Methodology for developing policies, drafting and monitoring the implementation of strategic documents.

This methodology must be used in developing any national strategy. From 2023, it was instrumental in supporting ministries in mainstreaming gender in their strategic documents. In parallel, the Mission supported development of an educational curriculum for civil servants in applying this methodology. As a result, almost 50 per cent national strategies were gender mainstreamed in 2023.

Ranko Andrijašević, Head of the Department for the Development of Strategic Planning Systems in the government's General Secretariat, said that all these steps have created the basis for the continuous strengthening of personnel capacities in state institutions for understanding and integrating the gender perspective into strategic and planning documents. "On the basis of the mentioned methodological changes, the formal criteria of the General Secretariat in the process of issuing opinions on the quality of strategic documents were also innovated, which now include gender aspects and enable their comprehensive assessment from the aspect of the benefits they can have on men and women," said Andrijašević.

Once ministries had taken into account the necessity to support equality in their respective strategies, the Mission used this to create a link between clearly defined gender responsive measures in national strategies and developing gender-responsive budgeting.

Working with the Ministry of Finance, the Mission produced a training manual on gender responsive budgeting, which was included in its Budget Management Information System (BMIS).

The Mission assisted in drafting guidelines for reporting on the execution of the gender-responsive budget and a methodology for assessing the impact of the budget on equality between men and women, which was approved by the Ministry of Finance and included in BMIS. In 2023, the Mission provided mentoring to the Ministry of Finance in preparing the State budget based on gender analysis.

"Compared to 2021, when the gender-responsive budgeting was unknown, today we have a wide range of supporters who understand how it is instrumental in achieving social fairness and justice," said Nataša Obradović, Mission-engaged consultant who provides support to the Montenegrin institutions in these processes. She explained that the Ministry of Finance will complete the process of introducing gender-responsive budgeting by establishing a normative framework through amendments to the Law on Budget and Fiscal Responsibility.

"In the last three years, budget expenditures for activities where gender sensitivity is indicated, the realization of which encourages gender equality, ranged from three per cent of the budget in 2022 to 10 per cent in 2024," explained Obradović.

In 2024, the Mission assisted the Ministry of Finance to implement recommendations made by the State Audit Institution and develop a "State Plan for Introduction of Gender Responsive Budgeting." Applying gender analyses through using data classified by sex and designing gender-transformative goals will ensure a fairer distribution of money and the development of programmes that will reduce existing gender gaps.

One lesson learned from this process is that introducing gender responsive budgeting cannot be handled only by employees in finance. It is crucial to include strategic planning staff that can analyze a situation through a gender lens, develop meaningful gender responsive programme goals and indicators to measure the gap between men and women.

Next steps for the Mission, in co-operation with the General Secretariat of the Government, will be to gather relevant actors to agree on the formal linking of strategic planning and programme budgeting with the existing information system for budget management. The Mission will also work on supporting the development of a methodology for preparing the government's medium-term work programme and connect it to its budget framework.

Parallel to the work with the government, the Mission has worked with Parliament - MPs and staff - on gender-responsive budgeting and gender mainstreaming in legislative process. In January 2022, the parliamentary Committee for Gender Equality adopted the Action Plan for a Gender-responsive Parliament 2022-2024. The Action Plan included creation of a practical tool to differentiate the effects that legislation had on women and men. Through workshops provided by the Mission, parliamentary staff were equipped with the skills necessary to utilize these tools and incorporate a gender responsive approach into budget circulars, ahead of reviewing the Law on Budget every year. In 2022 and 2023, MPs of the previous and the current convocation received a welcome booklet that introduced gender equality principles.

As the CEDAW report puts emphasis on eradication of gender stereotypes as a root cause of inequality in Montenegro, since 2023 the Mission, together with UNICEF, has supported the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation in analysing curricula and programmes from elementary schools, in order to detect and eradicate gender stereotypes. The findings of this research will be incorporated into the education reform strategy.

Considering the importance of the local level, which is the closest to the citizens, the Mission started to support the municipality of Berane in including gender perspective in its policies, plans, programmes and projects, as well as throughout its legislative and executive power. It assists the municipality to create services in accordance to the needs of men and women and close gender gaps in the administrative units closest to the citizens. With the Mission's support, Berane adopted good practices which will be replicated in other municipalities of Montenegro.

As noted in 2021 in the National Strategy for Gender Equality, Montenegro has established a legislative framework to implement gender equality, creating a basis to promote and protect women's rights. In three years, improvements are visible through institutions' approach - better co-operation and multi-sector coordination, while statistics show that the number of strategies containing a gender component is 30 percent higher than planned.

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