Gender equality/mainstreaming priorities?

International Aid Management and State Aid Agencies: Policies and Practices towards Gender Mainstreaming in Bosnia and Herzegovina

BY:MARIA THERESA MAAN -  BEŠIĆ

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, 2010

 Script summary:

              The effectiveness of foreign aid differs in different times and places.  The aid in Bosnia and Herzegovina channeled through a variety of activities that bring a mix of money and ideas.  However, the timing of assistance is crucial in helping countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina to improve the policies and institutional reform process. Both bilateral and multilateral agencies must transform themselves and cooperate together, in order aid to become more effective. Development means improvement in the lives of hundreds of millions of people, more food on the table, healthier babies, and more children in school. These are things worth fighting for and properly managed foreign aid can make a big contribution.

The availability of grant based and bilateral donors assistance is in decline and it was recognized that government and donor agencies need to work closer together to increase the impact of their reducing contributions. Furthermore, this is very important issue in BiH government into growing maturity of the public administration, which is now able to define its own policy priorities and identify resources in order to achieve effective aid. In spite of the government initiatives and taken concrete steps in adopting a more proactive approach to aid coordination, evidence showed that gender related activities receive a smallest portion of the budget.  This is the indicator that gender equality is not the priority of the most donors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Call for redness is necessary to all donors and gender equality policy makers to re - think what kind of policy and priority agenda to be developed in the future. However, donors, government institutions must indicate each individual aid activity targeting gender equality as one of its policy objectives. Thus, the questions still remain in consideration to overall social context of the international organization in particular to the attitude and influence, were frequently choose to ignore the gender equality issue. As policy recommendation, the international donors and institutions must priority gender as strategic not just an additional and to boost the budget a bit for a small women focused initiative.

 The research evidence showed that the donors must incorporate a greater awareness of gender equality in all dimensions of community development program and initiatives. Programs that will focus on activities designed especially for women and need to incorporate gender analysis into their policy, project design, monitoring and evaluation process. Ensured collected data is always sex-disaggregated, were all the monitoring and evaluation plans must track gender related factors and gender disparate impacts.  On other hand, the donors must dedicate real resources to understand gender within different cultures and societies, to achieve and build solid foundations for gender equality.

 Furthermore, as comparison to other Balkans and transitional countries, women still suffered from large amounts of social exclusion in the areas of political participation, social protection, health care, and education.  Therefore, as an evidence, women's in Bosnia and Herzegovina also experience an enourmous levels of stigma and discrimination. Although, many international institutions continue to ignore the importance of gender equality and gender mainstreaming. The gender equality policy seems to be determined at least partly by the limited political will to introduce a holistic mainstreaming strategy. There has been no explicit refusal by policy makers to handle gender equality issue comprehensively but rather a general indifference towards the issue. Once gender equality reaches the agenda, it is framed in terms of general equal treatment and equal opportunity and not as a gender specific issue. It is conviction that building and maintaining peace and prosperity requires attention to gender roles and relations in the post conflict arena like Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It seems that even when a gender mainstreaming approach is considered, its interpretation is blurred, and the actions considered under its umbrella are nothing more than incidental targeted gender equality projects. When it comes to regional development and national policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is difficult to find any clear idea of what the inclusion of gender equality in this process would mean. The language is most of the time gender blind, with a few limited exceptions. Bosnia and Herzegovina is very far from realizing equal opportunities for women and men. The gender equality machinery, as revealed has limited resources and a weak voice, and lately its distinctiveness within the larger equal opportunity field seems to be weakening. The national policies were there felt an increasing need to relate the contexts based on the European arena. Both in relation to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s persistent way of making itself the best in the European Union, and in relation to dissenting voices that perceive the policies on gender equality produced by the European Union.  Most relevant in this context, that it is also quite evident that the new regional development policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where for example partnership as a form of organization is included and has been greatly influenced by the policies launched from the European Union. At the same time as national characteristics and political cultures still large extents that contribute to the form and content of this policy area.

 Furthermore, it is also appropriate that the effectiveness of the implementation of gender based budgeting will ensure women’s access to all services to achieve gender equality.  The non – governmental organizations must continuously work on the issue to ensure that women were included in all the decision making processes within commissions and delegations levels. The strong and effective implementation of developed countries, multilateral financial development, and security institutions accountability must demonstrate their standards and set for partner countries to instituting gender responsive budgeting.

 Therefore, women organizations derive much of their political legitimacy from their efforts to represent women’s interests in national, regional and international level. It stresses that these are critical role of women’s voice and collective action in driving change.  And it outlines areas for future research to build understanding of the reforms that are most effective in enabling gender responsive in order to apply the principles of good governance and mutual accountability agenda to achieve gender equality. Importantly, these must also be affirmed as top priority in the hierarchy of issues for all policy and decision makers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.