SARAJEVO, April 4 (FENA) - Representatives of UN Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 12 municipalities and cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina signed a Memorandum of Understanding today to promote gender-responsive management of public finances and resources, and improve capacities and responsibilities in that area.
The memorandums were signed with the municipalities and cities of Banja Luka, Bosanska Krupa, Centar Sarajevo, East Ilidža, Lukavac, Mostar, Prijedor, Prnjavor, Srbac, Tešanj, Travnik and Trebinje.
The resident coordinator of UN Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ingrid Macdonald, said that the signatories have taken a commitment, a leadership position, to give priority to women and gender issues within their budgeting, thereby improving the entire society.
She stated that allocations for gender equality in BiH are at a fairly low level - only 1.5 percent in BiH, 5.79 percent in the FBiH, and 6.39 percent in the RS.
In support of that claim, she stated that in the last elections, only five women were elected to the post of mayor, and at the BiH level, only 18 percent of women have been appointed delegates.
"Hence the extreme importance of gender budgeting and focus on empowering women, which improves society. There are practical areas where improvements are possible," Macdonald pointed out.
The program is implemented in cooperation between the UN Agency for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment - UN Women - and the Agency for Gender Equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Responsible budgeting at the local level, according to the director of the BiH Agency for Gender Equality, Samra Filipović-Hadžiabdić, lags behind both at the entity level and at the level of BiH compared to European countries.
BiH is lagging behind in terms of introducing program budgeting, she said, and that is one of the conditions for having more successful gender-responsive budgeting.
But, she added, a lot of work has been done at the level of BiH and the entities, and she expressed hope that program budgeting will soon be introduced as one of the conditions of the public administration reform so that they will have the opportunity to introduce more efficient gender-responsive budgeting.
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(FENA) S. R.