GENDER BRIEF FOR SERBIA

2ND ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2014 – FEBRUARY 2015

PREPARED BY UN GENDER THEME GROUP IN SERBIA 1G E N D E R

BRIEF FOR SER-BIA 1ST ISSUE:

JANUARY – AUGUST 2014 PREPARED BY UN GENDER THEME GROUP IN SERBIA

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

On October 31, 2014, the Government of Serbia es-tablished a new institution, Coordination Body on Gen-der Equality, under the Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Ms. Zorana Mihajlovic. The institution is responsible for the coordination of Government actions in the area of gender equality, and includes as its mem-bers also the Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, the Minister for EU Integration and the General Secretary of the Government. The legal and sustainable positioning of the Coordination Body in the Government remains to be defined.

The 2014 Progress Report for Serbia, issued in Oc-tober 2014, assessed that administrative capacity on gender equality issues remains weak and adequate resources and better coordination of the national ma-chinery for promotion of gender equality need to be ensured. The report noted that legislation with regard to the dismissal of pregnant women and women on maternity leave, sexual harassment and inequality in promotion and salaries needs to be systematical-ly enforced. It also stated that despite ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on fighting violence against women, the number of women killed by their partners increased in 2014; emergency protection orders are not issued promptly, there is no national women’s helpline in place and the number of shelters is insufficient.

TO CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2015,

THE UN GTG IS LAUNCHING A FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN

DEDICATED TO FEATURING SELECTED AREAS OF THE

BEIJING DECLARATION AND PLATFORM FOR ACTION, IN

LINE WITH THE MARKING OF ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY

IN 2015. THESE ARE ALSO FEATURED HERE:

GENDER BRIEF FOR SERBIA 2ND ISSUE:

SEPTEMBER 2014 – FEBRUARY 2015 PREPARED BY UN GENDER THEME GROUP IN SERBIA

WOMEN AND MEN IN SERBIA:

AT A GLANCE THE BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION TURNS 20

GENDER BRIEF FOR SERBIA

2ND ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2014 – FEBRUARY 2015

PREPARED BY UN GENDER THEME GROUP IN SERBIA 2

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

The conference “Women’s Platform for the Develop-ment of Serbia – Palic 2014” was held on October 30- November 2, 2014 and gathered more than 100 women from different sectors, vocations, generations and be-liefs, who agreed on the “lowest common denominator” in defining a common vision for Serbia’s development. The initiative ended with agreed goals in various areas of social life aimed at improving the quality of daily life for women and men in Serbia in the period 2014-2020. The “Women` Platform for Development” document has been signed by more than 100 women, men and organisations and it continues its evolvement.

In December, 2014, the Statistical Office of the Re-public of Serbia, issued 4th edition of the publication “Women and Men in the Republic of Serbia, 2014”. It contains data in nine areas: households, health, edu-cation, social protection, judiciary, employment, earn-ings and pensions, time use and decision-making. The data has been collected from different institutions, in addition to the Statistical Office, such as: the Institute of Public Health of Serbia, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, National Employment Service, etc.

On December 27, 2014, the Provincial Assembly adopt-ed the new Program on the Protection of Women from Do-mestic and Intimate Partner violence and Other Forms of Gender Based Violence in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina for the period 2015-2020. The program has one long-term and four short term goals, respectively: 1) in-creased public awareness of unacceptability of violence against women, including sensitization on the needs of women from marginalized groups; 2) developed and ad-vanced system of general and specialized services for protection of women survivors of violence; 3) advanced system of collecting evidence and documenting domes-tic violence against women; and 4) increased financial means from the state budget and human capacities for implementation of all planned measures.

The Republic Protector of Citizens, through its Gen-der Equality Advisory Council, initiated development of a new model of Gender Equality Law aimed at addressing deficiencies observed in the current Law (2009). The Model Law on Gender Equality includes new Articles, proposes new approaches and aims to improve the practical application and enforcement of the princi-ples set forth in the law. The first working version was presented in front of the National Assembly on Decem-ber 10, 2014, as well as in front of the Assembly of Vo-jvodina and the Standing Conference of Towns and Mu-nicipalities in February 2015. It was open for comments and inputs by the public. A second working version has been prepared in response to comments received.

WOMEN IN POWER AND DECISION MAKING

Equal representation of women in politics and decision making processes is a matter of justice and democracy. Women have to be included in decision making – in politics, economy, parliament, courts, police, army, trade unions, professional associations, universities – all spheres of life. Women in Serbia are under-represented in decision making positions, in public, political and economic sectors.

GENDER BRIEF FOR SERBIA

2ND ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2014 – FEBRUARY 2015

PREPARED BY UN GENDER THEME GROUP IN SERBIA 3

HIGHLIGHTS OF UN WORK IN SERBIA

EU SUPPORT TO ROMA EMPLOYMENT PROJECT

The Project will provide innovative em-ployment solutions for the unemployed Roma in Belgrade, who are among the most vulnerable groups on the labour market, and their full enjoyment of citizenship rights. To achieve this, the Project uses self-employ-ment grants, on-the-job training and work activation. This approach should result in employment and self-employment of at least 100 Roma men and women. The Project is supported by the European Union with 1.1 million Euros.

THE KEY RESULTS TO DATE:• The dedicated work of the Project team in

the field resulted in 211 applications for self-employment grants, out of which 95 were from women. As the final output of the selection process, there are 110 can-didates who are undergoing trainings on how to run the business, out of whom 50 are women. After the completion of the training, 50 candidates with the best business plans will get the equipment for work worth up to 3,400 Euros in July-Au-gust 2015.

• One of the partner agencies is UN Wom-en, and it continuously provides advisory support to the Project in the integration of gender perspective in different activities, and in ensuring that the Project interven-tions fully benefit Roma women in line with their specific needs and positions. In that sense, the UN Women developed the following documents:• Recommendations for Improving Gender

Equality in the Framework of Awarding Self-employment Grants to Unemployed Roma which includes considerations and suggestions on how particular stag-es of the self-employment grants pro-gramme can be gender mainstreamed;

• Gender Log to capture general and spe-cific activities aimed at gender equali-ty and to serve as a tool for monitoring and tracking progress in gender main-streaming through all phases of the Self Employment Grant Scheme implemen-tation;

• Gender Aspects of All Project Activities with indicators for each activity and specific objective, tools and means of verification.

WOMEN IN POWER AND DECISION MAKING

51% of Serbian population are women, while the share of women in the National Assembly is 34%.

4 ministries of the Serbian Government are run by women.

5% of municipalities in Serbia have female presidents or mayors.

Representation of women in companies’ executive boards is less than 27%.

Less than 5% of professional soldiers in Serbian Army are women.

9% of women are participating in Serbian peace forces.

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GENDER BRIEF FOR SERBIA

2ND ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2014 – FEBRUARY 2015

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LIVELIHOOD ENHANCEMENT FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE ROMA FAMILIES IN BELGRADE PROJECT

With the support of the European Union in the amount of 3.6 million Euros, in part-nership with the City of Belgrade and OHCHR, UNOPS in Serbia is providing durable housing solutions for 170 Roma families who used to live in informal settlements in Belgrade. The overall objective of the project is to contrib-ute to improvement of the living conditions for refugee and internally displaced fami-lies (IDP). The consultations about possible models of durable housing solutions were done with full participation of men, women, elderly, children and those with disabilities, to allow all project beneficiaries (170 fam-ilies with 722 persons/365 female) a well informed decision making. This process in-cluded assessment of social housing loca-tions as well as presentations and discus-sion of the proposed design of the units that the project beneficiaries will live in.

Throughout activities, gender was the cross cutting issue interwoven into all proj-ect elements. All methodologies developed, and implemented activities, took into ac-count different gender needs and helped to boost gender equality in the beneficiary communities. Every produced document is written in gender sensitive language. Fur-thermore, in order to contribute to actions against stereotyping of Roma women, the Project team prepared six human touch sto-ries for its website, with three focussing on women.

THE KEY RESULTS TO DATE: • Women are co-owners of 29 out of 39

purchased village houses, while for nine they are the sole owners (a single-parent household). The ownership of property is one of the first prerequisites for poverty re-duction and for the protection of women’s rights. In this sense women were always included in the decision making process-es, such as the selection of the income generation grant for family, for example.

• Women’s perspectives have been taken into account when discussing the proximi-ty of schools, convenient stores, health and other services that are related to women’s and children’s everyday life. Particular at-tention was paid to the safety of each loca-tion, especially as seen through women’s eyes – i.e. public lights, proximity of police, access to shelter for victims of domestic violence, counselling services and similar.

• When the social housing model and the architectural design of the housing units was presented and discussed with the beneficiaries, 80 families with 107 family members were present. There were 56 fe-males compared to 51 men with the very proactive role in the questions concerning the shaping of their closest surrounding.

• The beneficiary women have also been encouraged to take an active part in the consultation process. As a result, out of 100 people who attended the presenta-tion of the new call for the purchase of village houses, 51 were women.

EUROPEAN PROGRES PROGRAMME

Under the European PROGRES Pro-gramme, financially supported by the Euro-pean Union, Government of Switzerland and Government of Serbia, UNOPS will continue the implementation of activities in the field of gender equality through grant awarding for support to women entrepreneurship and to local gender equality mechanisms in 34 municipalities in the South East and South West Serbia. Through realisation of a series of activities, European PROGRES will also significantly strengthen capacities of 34 lo-cal self-governments to tackle issues in this area in addition to contributing to the im-provement of status of women.

HIGHLIGHTS OF UN WORK IN SERBIA

WOMEN’S HEALTH

Women’s health encompasses emotional, social and physical wellbeing and is conditioned by social, political and economic context in which women are living, as well as biological determinants.

GENDER BRIEF FOR SERBIA

1ST ISSUE: JANUARY – AUGUST 2014

PREPARED BY UN GENDER THEME GROUP IN SERBIA 5

GENDER RESPONSIVE BUDGETING

As a part of the budget reform process, in 2015, the Serbian Government switched from the line item budgeting system to pro-gramme budgeting for all budget users at the central, provincial and local level. This represents a unique opportunity for intro-ducing gender responsive budgeting, i.e. mainstreaming of gender perspective in the budgetary process and ensuring that poli-cies and their accompanied budgets contrib-ute to greater equality for women, men, girls and boys. In recognition of this, UN Women initiated cooperation with the Ministry of Fi-nance and the Provincial Secretariat for Econ-omy, Employment and Gender Equality with the goal of integrating gender perspective in the new programme budgeting process and methodology. UN Women supported capacity development of the Ministry of Fi-nance and Provincial Secretariat of Finance on gender responsive budgeting, which in-cluded dedicated training sessions, study visit for national and provincial government representatives to the Republic of Austria in November 2014, and provision of technical advice by international expert. As a result of this work in 2014: 1) National 2015 Budget Instructions and projections for 2016 -2017, issued by the Ministry of Finance in Decem-ber 2014 contain references to gender bud-geting and encourage budget users to use gender sensitive indicators, for the first time in the country; 2) 2015 Vojvodina Budget in-

corporates gender sensitive indicators and requests budget users to assess the effects of budget allocations on women and men; 3) Gender Equality Annex to 2015 Vojvodina Budget was produced on the initiative of the Provincial Secretariat of Finance which con-tains all women specific and gender sensi-tive indicators developed by sectoral Secre-tariats.

In January and February 2015, UN Wom-en organized two series of training sessions on gender responsive budgeting for repre-sentatives of Provincial Secretariat of Fi-nance and all other Secretariats, and for the Budget Sector of the Ministry of Finance. The sessions concluded with further agreements on how to strengthen gender equality con-siderations in the budgetary process, such as amending the Budget System Law and including stronger requirements for gender responsive budget preparations in the 2015 Budget Instructions. UN Women is continu-ing the provision of technical support in this area to Line Ministries and Provincial Secre-tariats in the course of 2015.

In order to enhance systematic and ade-quate attention to gender equality in devel-opment aid, and in particular the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), UN Wom-en entered into partnership with the Serbian European Integration Office. Cooperation is focused on enhancing capacities of IPA pro-gramming and implementation units in line

ministries to integrate gender perspective in the sector planning documents and conse-quent funding allocations, and in the overall planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting under IPA.

UN Women, under the framework of EU PROGRES Programme, started development of methodology for participatory and gender sensitive consultations on budget priorities in 7 municipalities in South and South West Serbia.

HIGHLIGHTS OF UN WORK IN SERBIA

EVERY DAY AT LEAST ONE WOMEN in Serbia DIES from cervical cancer, while four women are diagnosed with this disease.

42% of women in Serbia are not using any form of contraception.

More than 98% of women give birth in healthcare institutions in Serbia, while approximately 30% of them are having caesarian section.

Unofficial statistics show that up to 200000 abortions are performed in Serbia per year. High prevalence of abortion in combination with insufficiently developed family planning services and widespread prejudices represent a precondition for numerous problems related to reproductive health in later life.

WOMEN’S HEALTH

42%>98%

200000

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1ST ISSUE: JANUARY – AUGUST 2014 6

STRENGTHENING GENDER EQUALITY INSTITUTIONAL AND STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK IN SERBIA

In February 2015, UN Women initiated co-operation with the Coordination Body on Gen-der Equality, a new national gender equality mechanism, established in October 2014. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed, providing a broad framework of cooperation aimed at development of the institutional and operational capacity of the Coordina-tion Body, supporting main strategic goals in the area of gender equality, and ensuring participatory dialogue with key stakehold-ers, including civil society organizations and members of Parliament. In March, 2015, UN Women is supporting participation of a Ser-

bian delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minis-ter and Head of the Coordination Body, Ms. Zorana Mihajlovic, to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 59th session where progress and gaps in implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action will be discussed.

Under the framework of the EUROPEAN PROGRES project, UN Women initiated as-sessment of the capacities of local gender equality mechanisms (GEMs) in 34 munici-palities in Serbia, using a uniform methodol-ogy (GEM Benchmarking Tool). The assess-ment will serve as a basis for future efforts

in developing their capacities to fulfil their mandates and in providing tailored made support to selected local GEMs (such as men-toring, collection of data on women`s posi-tion in specific municipality and/or sector, networking opportunities, etc.). In addition, municipalities in South and South-West Ser-bia are supported to initiate the consultative process on key priorities for their new Local Action Plans on Gender Equality to be devel-oped with a goal to ensure women and girls` needs are addressed in line with standards pertaining to women`s rights.

WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY

The first educational material for the new anti-discriminatory mechanism, “persons of trust”, established in the security sector with UN Women support, was finalized in partnership with the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality. Following final peer review, 500 copies of the “Persons of Trust” handbook were published and distributed to security sector institutions. The “persons of trust” mechanism was established in line with the National Action Plan on Implementa-tion of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security for the period 2010-2015. It provides, for the first time, a means for redress in cases of gender based discrimination experienced by persons em-ployed in the security sector.

UN Women Serbia Office supported par-ticipation of representatives of Serbian non-governmental organizations at a “Bal-kan CSO Regional Consultations” for the Glob-al Study on the Implementation of SCR 1325, held in Tirana in February, 2015. The aim of the Study is to review the achievement of the objectives set out in SCR 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions, and presents an opportunity to consult directly with wom-en affected by conflict to bring their experi-ences to light, review impacts achieved, and set an agenda for policy and implementation going forward. The Balkan regional consulta-tions will feed into the Global Study, which is expected to be finalized later in 2015.

UN Women also supported the presen-tation of the 2014 Civil Society Monitoring Country Report for the Republic of Serbia on the Implementation of SCR 1325 by the women’s NGO Dea Dia at the meeting of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders and international stakeholders in New York in Oc-tober, 2014.

HIGHLIGHTS OF UN WORK IN SERBIAPREPARED BY UN GENDER THEME GROUP IN SERBIA

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Life free from violence is a precondition of humane and sustainable development. In order for women to take equal part in economic, social, political and cultural life, they have to feel safe and secure both at home and in the public.

GENDER BRIEF FOR SERBIA

2ND ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2014 – FEBRUARY 2015

PREPARED BY UN GENDER THEME GROUP IN SERBIA 7

GENDER ANALYSIS OF THE MICS

UN Women and UNICEF initiated the de-velopment of an in-depth gender analysis of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014 (MICS 4). The analytical framework and study are designed in accordance with the “life-cy-cle approach”, starting from the assumption that gender specific situations, problems, needs, gaps and manifestation of gender disparities and inequalities are strongly re-lated to the age and life cycles. Therefore, the study will contain four main chapters, each dedicated to specific phase in the life-cycle: early childhood (0-4), childhood (5-14), ado-lescence (15-17), adult women (18-49). The gender analysis is using original MICS indica-tors and new indicators and will be complet-ed in May, 2015.

GBV

As part of its activities in the field of gen-der equality and GBV, UNFPA CO conducted an Analysis on current situation on health sector response to GBV which included reference to reproductive health to the extent possible. This analysis is expected to inform future UNFPA support in this field, most notably in strength-ening the health sector response to improve the awareness of GBV by: improving knowledge and skills, changing attitudes and improving re-ferral competences of health care professionals to adequately and efficiently response to GBV.

UNFPA raised awareness among youth about sexual and reproductive health, gender based violence and other sensitive issues using focus groups and theatre based edu-cation shows. Using an easy to understand youth friendly language, youth, with special focus on marginalized youth, acquired knowl-edge on how to protect themselves and how to recognize GBV. Total of 700 young people were reached through these activities.

ENGAGING MEN AND BOYS

UNFPA works with men and boys around the world to advance gender equality – with benefits for all. These programmes are en-couraging men and boys to abandon harmful stereotypes, embrace respectful, healthy rela-tionships, and support the human rights of all people, everywhere. Today, it is widely recog-nized that improving women’s status and ad-vancing their rights yields benefits for whole societies, not just women and girls. It is also widely recognized that gender equality can-not be achieved without the involvement of men and boys. With this in mind and within the framework of the “Be a man (Budi musko)” campaign, UNFPA supports peer education pro-grammes, trainings of school staff, forum and creative workshops on the topics of masculini-ty, gender stereotypes, gender equality etc.

OLDER WOMEN

In November 2014, UNFPA Serbia CO in co-operation with the Protector of citizens orga-nized an Expert Meting on the Promotion of International Practices on the Rights of Older Persons for government officials and repre-sentatives of other relevant stakeholders in Serbia. Among many issues discussed around the burning issue of ageing in the context of Serbia as a country experiencing a trend of de-mographic ageing, gender equality was also referred to as one of the growing concerns.

Participants agreed that widespread dis-crimination of older women is a continuing concern in Serbia. Violation of human rights of older persons belonging to ethnic minorities was also mentioned with acknowledgement that they suffer from a triple discrimination on the basis of their age, gender and ethnicity.

HIGHLIGHTS OF UN WORK IN SERBIA

Prevalence of domestic violence against women

in Central Serbia in 2010 was 37.5%, while total

prevalence (during lifetime) was 54.2%.

The most common form of violence is psychological

(31.8% during the last 12 months and 48.7% during lifetime),

followed by physical (10.1% and 21.6%) and

economic (11.4% and 15.8%), while sexual violence

is least represented (1.2% and 3.8%).

According to data from judiciary system, 95% of persons

convicted for domestic violence in 2013 were men.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AFFECTS OTHER HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN WHO ARE OFTEN EXPOSED TO VIOLENCE AS WITNESSES/ VICTIMS – IN 40% OF CASES WHEN WOMAN WAS VICTIM OF VIOLENCE A CHILD/CHILDREN WERE PRESENT, WHILE 10% OF CHILDREN WERE INJURED.

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2ND ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2014 – FEBRUARY 2015

PREPARED BY UN GENDER THEME GROUP IN SERBIA 8

WOMEN AND HEALTH

UNFPA initiated the development of the National Programme on Family Planning in Serbia. The comprehensive process in-cludes conducting a comprehensive situa-tion analysis regarding reproductive health in Serbia, including relevant information on Family Planning, Maternal Health, HIV/ AIDS, STIs etc; Drafting the outline for the National Programmme on Family Planning; Conduct-ing the national consultations process and Coordinating Working Group for trainings on FP. The process is done in close collaboration with UNFPA Country Office and Ministry of Health / Institute of Public Health Batut.

Market Segmentation Research in Serbia was conducted in 2014, and as a result the most vulnerable groups of women were iden-tified in order assist the Ministry of Health to provide comprehensive reproductive ser-vices including modern contraceptives to those most in need. As result of findings, recommendations were required regarding program management, data management, quality assurance and quality improvement, evaluation, partnerships, and professional development

Curricula for Continuous Medical Educa-tion (CME) aimed at raising awareness and educating health care providers on women’s health, sexual and reproductive health in-cluding family planning developed and imple-mented. Three accredited national curricula for doctors with accreditations received the National Medical Council’s accreditation and contribute each with 11 and 6 points for lec-turers and attendees respectively towards doctor’s yearly-required total of 25 points for

renewal of their medical licenses. A curric-ulum was offered to doctors and associates from the regional and local health facilities in South West Serbia covering the following top-ics: Guidelines for safe termination of pregnan-cy – guiding principles; Clinical guidelines on modern contraception; Training of health care workers and associates for implementation of the special health care protocol for protection of children from abuse and neglect. Total 300 medical workers and doctors participated in continual medical education.

In 2014, UNFPA worked on enabling en-vironment for Serbian MPs fostered to con-tribute to increasing the awareness among Serbian MPs on the need to advocate for the enforcement of laws and policies to re-spect and protect the sexual and reproduc-tive health and rights and increased devel-opment assistance budgets for population assistance, through re-establishing Parlia-mentary group for Sustainable Development in Serbian Parliament, that is informed about and dedicated to and Sexual and reproduc-tive Health and Rights (SRHR) policies and is-sues, as well as about global trends in SRHR.

GENDER AND POPULATION DYNAMICS

In 2014, UNFPA initiated the development of the Population Situation Analysis (PSA), a study that provides the basis for an integrated appraisal of the population and reproductive health dynamics and their impacts on pover-ty, inequality and development. By integrating a micro- and macro-analytical approach, the PSA clarifies the interactions between individ-

ual behavior and demographic dynamics. The PSA responds to demand by countries that international cooperation should promote na-tional capacity-building and recognize nation-al ownership and leadership as prerequisites for development, in accordance with the prin-ciples agreed at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Millennium Declaration. PSA explores vari-ety of issues relevant for evidence based poli-cy making in Serbia, including gender equality and its implications for the population issues in the country.

GENDER AND YOUTH

In cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, UNFPA conducted an Evaluation of the National Youth Strategy and accompa-nying Action Plan. The purpose of the exercise was to assess the level of implementation of the National Youth Strategy and of the Action Plan, the achievements of the results, the factors that facilitated/hindered the achieve-ments, and to provide recommendations for the development of the new National Youth Strategy for the next period.

Among other issues, the Evaluation ex-plored the gender-responsiveness of the document, i.e. enabling specific actions to promote gender equality, ensure young women are equal partners to young men, and to address gender-based disparities in all settings, from political to socio-economic and cultural. As it stands, relatively few spe-cific activities were carried out on this com-plex of themes and social challenge.

HIGHLIGHTS OF UN WORK IN SERBIA

EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR WOMEN

Only 9% of girls from poorest families attend preschool education, compared to 76% of girls from wealthiest families.

Only 15% of girls from Roma settlements attend secondary school, compared to 89% of youth from general population.

43% of girls aged 15-19 from Roma settlements are already married, while this is the case with approximately 4% of their peers from general population.

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Investment in education and improvement of position of girls has a significant impact on development of the entire society. Education level of mothers is directly related to education and health outcomes of their children. Unfortunately, there are still big differences between statuses of girls from different vulnerable groups:

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2ND ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2014 – FEBRUARY 2015

PREPARED BY UN GENDER THEME GROUP IN SERBIA 9

Through the Joint Project “Integrated Re-sponse to Violence against Women in Serbia” (December 2012 - May 2015), the UN in Serbia has supported a holistic approach to preven-tion (primary, secondary and tertiary) and protection from violence against women. The interventions resulted in raised public aware-ness through numerous public campaigns realized, in created platforms for knowledge exchange about violence against women con-taining body of research, information, data and knowledge made available to professionals and interested public (web-one-stop-shop-in-fo-center www.sigurnakuca.net), in strength-ened capacities of professionals and service providers to better understand gender based violence and respond more adequately to the needs of the women survivors of violence, in mainstreamed gender into national program “Schools without violence” and its implemen-tation in 50 schools and official recognition by the education system (48/50 schools in-volved in the GBV programme integrated pre-vention of GBV into their annual Programmes for protection of pupils from violence, abuse and neglect), in introduced the first pro-gramme for the perpetrators of violence in the country in 8 centers for social work, as well as in increased capacities of journalists and ed-itors to deconstruct sensationalist reporting on the issue of VaW.

The data from the research on attitudes and prevalence of GBV among school stu-dents done in partnership with Ministry of Ed-ucation, Science and Technical Development (MOESTD), Institute of Psychology and Cen-ter for Gender Studies was widely shared. The most striking data identified that 86� boys and 77� of girls in primary and 60� in secondary

schools approve at least one form of GBV. High tolerance to GBV among children and youth has alarmed the public as well as MOESTD. It called for prioritization of gender when final-izing Law on textbooks and by-law on recog-nizing discrimination in the education insti-tutions. Co-ordinators for violence prevention in all 18 regional school administration units were trained on gender and GBV as well as support team of 60 “School without violence” mentors. Manual for GBV prevention and in-tervention for teachers, pupils and parents will be available until mid 2015 for all schools which intend to strengthen their capacities in violence prevention and protection. Web-page on SWV is used for information sharing and horizontal exchange between schools.

The work with youth ‘as agents of change’ for their peers has been supported in 10 local-ities. Working jointly with Autonomous Wom-en Centre and Centre E8 tens of thousands of boys and girls were sensitised to gender, gen-der inequality and GBV, and empowered to rec-ognise and report on it through app. 60 face to face and continuous social media activities. Special work with boys resulted in establish-ment of “be male” clubs that actively worked on deconstructing gender stereotypes linked to masculinity. Through this process 36 train-ers of peer educators were trained as well as 427 young people of which 172 (73 girls and 99 boys) remained active as peer educators. Significant changes are recorded in their at-titudes. Disagreement with the statements: “Men who cry are weaklings” went from 39.3 to 65� of those who strongly disagree. “It’s OK for young men to ‘grope’ girls, it’s all joke and part of growing up”, from 38.7 to 58.5�. “Its girl’s fault if she wears short skirt and tight

shirt and someone attacks her” changed from 23 to 40.7�. “Man who is in love with other man should be beaten” went from 19 to 40� of those who strongly disagree.

Through the JP, the UN in Serbia improved the system of protection of women from vio-lence by strengthening the response of gen-eral and specialist services, with a special focus on the specialist service of telephone SOS helpline for women survivors of violence and on establishing an integrated response to the violence against women based on functional multisectoral cooperation. UN in Serbia developed its support in three parallel courses of action that resulted in:

1. Strengthened sectoral systems to recog-nize different forms of violence and to improve institutional response to violence against women (centres for social work, police, pub-lic prosecutors, schools) through specialized training programmes for professionals. During 2014 more than 400 judges and prosecutors, 250 police officers, 40 psychotherapists in counseling units of centers for social work have benefited of these specialized trainings.

2. Created conditions for an “integrat-ed response” to violence against women by establishing mechanisms for multisectoral cooperation in 10 municipalities in Central Serbia and 20 municipalities in AP Vojvodina. Over 600 professionals took part in trainings for multisectoral teams at the local level. Based on the information gathered through the research on the consequences that vio-lence against women has to children and the extent of the problem in Serbia special atten-tion and sessions were held on the mecha-nisms for protection of women and their mi-nor children from violence.

Empowered lives. Resilient nations.

Integrated Response to Violenceagainst Women in Serbia

EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR WOMEN

PARENTS RAISE GIRLS TO TAKE CARE OF THE FAMILY, WHILE BOYS ARE RAISED TO BE INDEPENDENT AND STRONG. ONE IN THREE GIRLS FROM SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL EXPERIENCED PHYSICAL OR SEXUAL HARASSMENT. FOR 44% OF BOYS THIS IS ACCEPTABLE.

HIGHLIGHTS OF UN WORK IN SERBIA

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3. Strengthened capacities of women’s NGOs to lobby for their institutional recogni-tion as specialist service providers, with the focus on SOS helpline specialist support ser-vice. During 2014, JP supported 11 specialist women’s NGOs to provide SOS helpline service and more than 5000 women survivors ben-efited of this service, while over 20.000 per-sons benefited from their community actions.

The JP supported the Provincial Secre-tariat for Economy, Employment and Gender Equality (PSEEGE) to develop the new Pro-gram on the Protection of Women from Do-mestic and Intimate Partner violence and Other Forms of Gender Based Violence in in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina for the period 2015-2010, which was adopted in December 2014 by the AP Vojvodina As-sembly. The JP supported a participatory and quality-assured process of program de-velopment. The program was developed by a Working Group consisting of experts and government representatives and on the ba-sis of a wide consultation process that in-cluded more than 400 people. It is based on an evaluation of achievements and lessons learned from a similar program for the pre-vious period and it is also aligned with the Istanbul Convention and responds to the CE-DAW Committee Concluding Observations to Serbia. The program includes and draws upon two analytical products developed: a policy paper on economic empowerment of women survivors and tailor-made outreach program for women belonging to minority and margin-alized communities. The Provincial Govern-ment has allocated a budget for implementa-tion of the 2015 Action Plan of the Program.

A qualitative study on family care practic-es and risk and protective factors affecting early childhood care and development as-sessing both general and socially deprived Roma communities was done by UNICEF in 2014. The study confirmed burden of un-equal distribution of family obligations being too heavy for mothers. Although the accept-ed norm of up-bring children of both sex in the same way was prevailing, the Roma par-ents, parents from rural and traditional set-tlements expressed stereotypical beliefs on gender roles more readily, with fathers more inclined to stereotype. These gender norms are also transferred to child disciplining. In addition the study revealed that mothers and other family members are unaware of baby blues, which is consequently highly stigma-tized. The child development stimulation is relying on mothers’ intuition, not knowing how to meet the child’s cognitive needs. Op-portunities for mothers’ and parental edu-cation are very weak. Once again the study showed tremendous importance of support-ing Roma women and Rome families in gen-eral. The study recommend, among other issues, to continue working on recognizing gender discrimination in broader social con-text, particularly in empowering girls’ to op-pose discrimination, and in greater involve-ment of fathers in raising children from the earliest age.

Community level work with Roma women with young children was heavily supported by MoH and UNICEF through strengthening pri-mary health system response. Paediatricians and visiting nurses from 10 selected prima-ry health care centers have been sensitised on the rights of the most vulnerable women

and children, understanding discrimination and deconstructing own prejudices and ste-reotypes. On the demand side, UNICEF has also supported the most vulnerable rights holders to claim their rights – to health, ed-ucation and social welfare. In partnerships with Ombudsman’s Office and Office for Com-missioner for Equality, under the coordina-tion of Roma women NGO Bibija, 9 grass-root NGOs, representatives of the Roma women network, are supported to work directly with the Roma community, primarily Roma moth-ers and familiarise them with their rights and with the mechanisms they can use to claim the violation of rights and discrimination. Me-ticulously trained 20 activists from the Roma NGOs are reaching out to app. 40 non-hygien-ic settlements holding interactive workshops with more than 4000 parents of young chil-dren, mostly women. An expanded and well-equipped network of outreach workers has been ensuring better access to information, services and individualised support for the cases of discrimination and rights violation. Through group and individual sessions, more than 700 Roma (525 female and 189 male) have already been thought on their children’s right/entitlements within each of the men-tioned system, on parental roles and obliga-tions in support to child proper growth and development, on how to recognise discrimi-natory acts and violations of women’s rights and their children’s rights to education, social welfare and healthcare, and how to submit individual complaints to relevant and inde-pendent institutions. In 2014, 38 complaints were made to the relevant institutions.

WOMEN AND ECONOMY

Without equal participation of women in all economic activities there is no sustainable development of any society. Today, women are successful entrepreneurs, farmers, company directors, factory workers, scientists and perform successfully numerous tasks that were once unavailable to them. However, there is still a gap in labor, employment, wages, promotion in companies, property status.

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GENDER EQUALITY IN THE MILITARY IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

The UNDP SEESAC - implemented project continued contributing to regional cooper-ation on gender equality in defence and se-curity; strengthening capacities of the Min-istries of Defence (MoDs) and Armed Forces (AFs) to mainstream gender in policy plan-ning and implementation; as well as increas-ing gender awareness in the militaries in the Western Balkans (WB).

RAISING GENDER AWARENESS IN MILITARY

SEESAC continued providing support to the Regional Network of Gender Trainers which was created in 2014 as part of the project, after 16 representatives from Western Balkan Min-istries of Defence and Armed Forces success-fully passed the first Gender Training-of-Train-ers course. The course was organized by SEESAC in partnership with the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations and with the four MoDs and AFs participating in the proj-ect. The regional network ensures that mili-tary personnel are able to support each other across borders in efforts to integrate the gen-der perspective in training and education ac-tivities in the militaries and help raise gender awareness in the military.

The project enables networking among Gender Trainers, and information exchange and knowledge sharing through regional meetings. The 2nd Regional Meeting of the Net-work was organized on 6 November 2014 in Belgrade, Serbia. Participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the for-mer Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia learned from each other’s experiences on increasing gender awareness in the military. Trainers also discussed lessons learned and challenges en-countered in implementing gender awareness activities, and similarly analyzed each other’s results and best practices.

In February 2015, the Network was ex-panded by additional 17 new Gender Trainers who successfully passed the second Gender Training-of-Trainers course. The course was hosted by the Peacekeeping Operations Cen-tre of the Serbian Armed Forces in Belgrade

from 28 January to 5 February 2015. Six rep-resentatives of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia and the Serbian Armed Forces (SAF) attended the course.

In 2014, the Gender Trainers from Serbia initiated the development of a Gender Training Manual. They also organized a one-day gender awareness seminar for 15 of their colleagues in the MoD and SAF on 18 December 2014. This functioned as a pilot seminar, before rolling out a series of gender awareness seminars for a wider audience of MoD and SAF staff at different levels throughout Serbia in 2015.

The Commanding Officer Seminar on Gen-der in Military Operations was organized for officers as part of the General Staff Course at the National Defence School of the Military Academy of Republic of Serbia. Commander Jan Dunmurray and Major Linda Johansson from the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations delivered the seminar – attended by 35 participants. The seminar introduced the gender perspective in military operations, practical aspects related to operational plan-ning, lessons learnt from the Swedish Armed Forces, as well as the importance of leader-ship for the integration and implementation of a gender perspective at all levels. The Gen-eral Staff Course represents the third level of post-graduation professional development for officers in the MoD and SAF. Its goal is to enable officers to perform the highest-level duties at the MoD and General Staff, to com-mand operational formations, and other du-ties within the framework of the missions and tasks of the SAF.

WOMEN AND ECONOMY

42% of women and 58% of men are employed in Serbia.

Women comprise 25% of all entrepreneurs in Serbia.

In only 18% of cases when households are owning the land, part of that land is registered to a woman.

In only 15% of cases apartments are owned by women.

Only 13% of family cars are registered to a woman.

Women in Serbia earn 11% less than man for jobs of equal value.

Women in Serbia spend almost 2 hours more than man on unpaid, domestic work.

61% of employed women experience discrimination when looking for job or at the working place.

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INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT OF GENDER EQUALITY MECHANISMS

The 6th Regional Meeting of Gender Equal-ity Mechanisms in the Ministries of Defence and Armed Forces in the Western Balkans was organized on 26 and 27 November 2014 in Skopje, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The regional meetings enable regular and continuous discussion on the practical as-pects of mainstreaming gender equality into the militaries in the region and have thus be-come an important capacity-building mech-anism for the MoDs and AFs. During the 6th Regional Meeting, among other things, rep-resentatives of the MoDs and AFs reported on progress achieved in the implementation of recommendations of the The Study on the Position of Women in the Armed Forces, which was developed as part of the project. Most progress was achieved in raising gen-der awareness through training, as a direct

result of the work done by the Regional Net-work of Gender Trainers.

In addition to the regional meeting, SEE-SAC organized a study visit to the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (DDPS), and the Swiss Armed Forces from 11 – 14 November 2014. The purpose of the study visit was to enable the GFPs and the representatives of Human Resources De-partments in the Western Balkan MoDs and AFs to learn from the experience of the DDPS and Swiss Armed Forces with regards to hu-man resources management, as well as the implementation of equal opportunity poli-cies, and how these policies influence the recruitment and retention of women in the MoDs and AFs. Four representatives of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia took part in the study visit.

IMPROVING HUMAN RESOURCES POLICES AND PRACTICES TO ENSURE BETTER RECRUIMTENT AND RETENTION OF WOMEN IN THE MILITARY

On 14 October 2014, SEESAC in partner-ship with the Ministry of Defence of the Re-public of Serbia organized a presentation of the study The Position of Women in the Armed Forces in the Western Balkans. The aim of the presentation was to inform some 100 senior and middle management staff in the Serbian Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces of the study recommendations, and to present re-sults achieved in the implementation of these recommendations – in particular those related to human resources policies and practices. In addition to officials from the MoD and SAF, rep-resentatives of independent oversight bodies took part, as well as cadets of the Serbian Mil-itary Academy, students of the Military High School, international organizations, and civil society organizations.

UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women praised the number of positive steps taken by Serbia in its concluding observations for 2013, including the adoption of legislative measures aimed at eliminating discrimination, the National Strategy for Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Women in the Family and in Intimate Partner Relationships (2011-2015) and few other measures. The Committee called for further actions in different areas, like eliminating violence against women, strengthening women’s participation in public life and solving issues related to exclusion of vulnerable groups of women and girls, like lesbians, Roma, women with disabilities, women with HIV/AIDS and others:

WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS

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MAINSTREAMING GENDER IN MILITARY EDUCATION SYSTEM

The Regional Meeting on the Inclusion of the Gender Perspective in Military Training and Education Curricula was held on 9 Octo-ber 2014 in Belgrade. The MoDs and AFs nom-inated 13 gender experts, as well as experts tasked with developing military training and education curricula for the meeting. Partici-pants shared information and learned from each other’s experiences, including challeng-es encountered as well as good practices. Participants identified a set of proposals for activities that would contribute to more suc-cessful mainstreaming of gender equality throughout military education and training.

ENHANCING GENDER EQUALITY IN PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS

SEESAC supported the organization of a regional roundtable: Enhancing the Partic-ipation of the Western Balkans Countries in UN Peacekeeping Operations, which took place on 20 – 21 October 2014 in Belgrade. Spearheaded by the International Peace In-stitute and the UN Department of Peacekeep-ing Operations, the Belgrade meeting forms a part of a series of roundtables on peacekeep-ing, and was organized in co-operation with the Government of Serbia, the UN Office in Belgrade, and SEESAC. This high-level meet-ing encouraged increased national contribu-tions to UN peacekeeping operations as well as fostered regional cooperation within the Western Balkans to carry out joint deploy-ments to these operations.

SEESAC sponsored a panel which focused on gender and peacekeeping, aiming to in-crease Western Balkan decision-makers’ un-derstanding of the importance of women’s participation in peace operations. The panel emphasized the importance of gender-re-sponsive human resource policies and prac-tices in the military as a precondition for the increased participation of women.

ABOUT THE GENDER EQUALITY IN THE MILITARY PROJECT

SEESAC’s Gender Equality in the Military: Strengthening of Regional Cooperation on Gender Mainstreaming in Security Sector Re-form in the Western Balkans project aims to create a more conducive environment for the advancement of women in the military in the Western Balkans. With this as its goal, SEE-SAC is supporting the Ministries of Defense in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugo-slav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia in their efforts to ensure better inte-gration, retention and professional develop-ment for women in the armed forces as well as stronger participation of women in deci-sion-making and gender sensitive change in their organizational cultures.

WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS

Women comprise 51.3% of Serbian population.

Almost 10% of women living in urban areas are without primary education.

There is 16% less employed women compared to man (42% compared to 58%).

61% of employed women experience discrimination when looking for job or at the working place.

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WORKSHOP ON THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN PRISONERS IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE

15-16 December 2014, Vienna: UNODC held a Regional Workshop on Promoting the Inter-national Standards on the Treatment of Women Prisoners in South Eastern Europe. The Work-shop was convened under the umbrella of the gender component of the UNODC Regional Pro-gramme for South Eastern Europe. The dele-gations of the countries of the region included senior-level experts from the prison adminis-tration and other relevant national authorities together with prison governors and officers in charge of prison staff training and gender-re-lated matters, i.e. gender focal points. Further-more, representatives of the Council of Europe (Council for Penological Co-operation) and UN Women took part in the Workshop.

In the course of the Workshop, relevant International and European normative frame-works for the treatment of women prisoners were presented and discussed. The format of the Workshop was interactive, with presenta-tions by each delegation as well as five dis-cussion groups on topics related to women in prisons. Presentations by the delegations from South Eastern Europe included an over-view of treatment of female prisoners includ-ing such topics as national standards and practices, national legislation and application of International and European legal instru-ments, national achievements and challeng-es, national programmes for reintegration/rehabilitation for women in prisons and oth-ers. In the subsequent sessions, discussion groups on national and regional practices re-viewed the following topics:

• General issues of treatment of women in prisons, including admission and regis-tration in prisons;

• Specific health related issues with regard to women in prisons;

• Children in prisons accompanying female prisoners;

• Special groups of female prisoners (i.e. foreign women, women from ethnic mi-norities, elderly women and others) and

• Female prison staff.

Discussion groups were led by the nation-al delegations with support of UNODC. In the wrap-up session, possible recommendations were discussed. It was noted that the Work-shop was very useful and hands-on, and that more such events should be undertaken in the future.

PAPER ON “HOW COSTLY ARE LABOR GENDER GAPS? ESTIMATES FOR THE BALKANS AND TURKEY”

• The World Bank has prepared a study on: “How Costly Are Labor Gender Gaps? Estimates for the Balkans and Turkey”. The study looks at economic losses due to gender inequality in labour markets. In this paper we use survey data to doc-ument the presence of gender gaps in self- employment, employment and labor force participation in seven Balkan coun-tries (including Serbia) and Turkey.

STEP SKILLS SURVEY:

• As part of the ongoing EC Trust Fund on Em-ployment and Social Inclusion in the West-ern Balkans and Promoting Gender Equality Western Balkans the World Bank is in pro-cess of preparing a Step skills survey. The survey will consist of: a) household survey that is expected to collect information on individuals’ cognitive, non-cognitive, and workplace skills, as well as background in-formation on their family structure, general health, education and employment; b) and an employer survey. The analysis of the employer survey will provide insights into the workplace relevance and skill compe-tencies of training imparted to different groups by schools and tertiary education institutions, the presence or absence of skill gaps and skill mismatches, and how the demand for skills might vary across employers by size, sector and geographic region.

• The purpose of this work is to determine how different skill sets affect individuals labor market opportunities. The study is expected to fill critical knowledge gaps on the role and demand for different types of skills sets in the labor market and assist in the design of tailored education and training policies to boost employability and productivity.

8 WORLD BANK GROUP VISUAL IDENTITY GUIDE

THE LOGO

Main Version (Horizontal)

Alternate Version (Vertical)

Position, size, and colors, along with the spatial and proportional relationships of the logo elements, are predetermined and should not be altered.

The globe can be laid out as a graphic symbol separately. The logotype, however, should always be used with the globe. To ensure consistent representation of our visual identity, always use high-quality vendors and reproduction methods.

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PART II: BASIC ELEMENTS

HIGHLIGHTS OF UN WORK IN SERBIA

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PUBLICATIONS/BLOGS IN THE PERIOD SEPTEMBER 2014 – FEBRUARY 2015

• Web-one-stop-shop-info-center on Vio-lence against Women in Serbia

• Blog by Vesna Jaric: On violence: A new approach in Serbia with the New School

• UNFPA and MoYS. Evaluation of the Nation-al Youth Strategy (2008) in the Republic of Serbia and Action Plan 2009 – 2014.

• Monitoring the situation of children and women: Serbia Multiple Indicator Clus-ter Survey 2014 and Serbia Roma Settle-ments Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014, Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia and UNICEF

• Tanja Ignjatovic. Consequences of Inti-mate Partner Violence against Women on Children and the Response of Public Services (SRB and ENG), Autonomous Women’s Center 2015, supported by the Integrated Response to Violence against Women in Serbia Project

• Zorica Skakun. Persons of Trust, Hand-book for Employees in the Security Sec-tor in the Republic of Serbia, UN Women Serbia 2014

PUBLIC CAMPAIGNS

• Video documentary produced by Karl Bostic on the international campaign “16 days of activism against VaW” in 2014 (25th November – 10th December)

FORTHCOMING EVENTS: MARCH-AUGUST 2015

• Facebook campaign celebrating Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action turn-ing 20, on the occasion of International Women’s Day March 8th

• March: Committee on the Status of Wom-en 59th session in NYC, with participation of Serbian delegation

• (UNOPS) The European PROGRES Pro-gramme will provide support to women’s entrepreneurship by means of approval of grants for at least 40 women for the pur-pose of starting up their own businesses. The support will include identifying and preparation of potential women entrepre-neurs for submission of project propos-als, followed by the announcement of the public call. In the period between 26 March and 8 April 2015 the European PRO-GRES Programme will hold seven informa-tion sessions on the process of awarding start-up grants for women-owned busi-nesses. The first information session will be held in Vranje for participants from the Pčinja district, followed by six more infor-mation sessions in the following munic-ipalities and cities: Niš, Leskovac, Blace, Ivanjica, Nova Varoš and Novi Pazar. The public call for submission of project pro-posals will be announced by mid June 2015, whereby European PROGRES will consult relevant national institutions, lo-cal association of women entrepreneurs and other relevant women’s associations and organisations for the purpose of drafting of criteria for selection of project proposals. Grants will be awarded to the selected most successful women entre-preneurs by September 2015.

• (UNOPS) 1 March 2015: Call for Project Proposals for Roma NGOs will be issued under the project EU Support to Roma Em-ployment, including one specific lot for Roma women’s NGO

• Calendar of events, trainings and semi-nars within UNCT joint project “Integrated Response to VaW in Serbia”

• (UNFPA) 31 March 2015: Consultative Meeting on Minimum Initial Service Pack-age (MISP) for Integrated Reproductive Health Services in Emergencies

• (UN Women) 25-29 May 2015: Training sessions for Line ministries and other national level budget users on gender re-sponsive budgeting.

• (UN Women) June: In cooperation with the Coordination Body for Gender Equality, UN WOMEN will issue a call for women’s NGOs for actions on economic empowerment of rural women

• (UN Women) 22-26 June: Training ses-sions for Provincial Secretariats and oth-er provincial budget users on gender re-sponsive budgeting

HIGHLIGHTS OF UN WORK IN SERBIA