Gender-responsive budgeting focus of OSCE-supported activities in Montenegrin institutions

On 14 October, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, in co-operation with the Parliamentary Committee on Gender Equality, organized a workshop for 15 parliamentary staff from eight committees and the Bureau of Financial Affairs. The workshop focused on gender mainstreaming in budget planning, in policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, with special emphasis on gender analysis.  

Maria Risteska, a lead expert and trainer at the workshop, said that by using gender-responsive budgeting as a tool, the gap between policy formulation and implementation can be closed. “The Parliament has an important role in reviewing and adopting policies and legal documents. Conducting gender analysis and assessing if gender perspective is included in policy and legal acts, as well as measuring the impact such documents have on gender relations between women and men, will lead to better use of resources, better governance and improved democracy,” said Risteska.

In order to ensure support and an adequate follow-up of the process, on 15 October the expert Risteska, together with Nada Drobnjak, President of the Parliamentary Committee for Gender Equality and Ana Krušić, Mission’s Senior Programme Assistant, met with the President of the Senate of the State Audit Institution Milan Dabović, where further actions were discussed and the parties agreed to continue to work together to support the introduction of gender analysis in performance auditing.

Gender-responsive budgeting is a recognized tool to enhance transparency, accountability, and the effectiveness and efficiency of public expenditures. It also creates a more equitable distribution of public finances between men and women. The Mission will continue to work with the Montenegrin state institutions to support developing approaches to implementing gender-responsive budgeting.