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Home Newsroom News and press releases OSCE Mission to Montenegro to support the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in piloting of gender responsive budgeting in state budget
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OSCE Mission to Montenegro to support the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in piloting of gender responsive budgeting in state budget

26 November 2019
(l-r) Marija Risteska, expert in gender issues, Đuro Žugić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nada Drobnjak, Chairperson of the Gender Equality Committee, Bojan Paunović, Director General of the State Budget Directorate at the Ministry of Finance and Maryse Daviet, Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro announced Montenegrin Government’s intention to pilot gender responsive budgeting in the next cycle of the agro budget within the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Podgorica, 26 November 2019. (OSCE/Marina Živaljević) Photo details

At the initiative of the Parliamentary Committee on Gender Equality, the Montenegrin Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced the Government’s intention to pilot gender responsive budgeting in the next cycle of the agro budget within the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The initiative, supported by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, was presented at a press conference on 26 November 2019 in Podgorica.

Nada Drobnjak, Chairperson of the Gender Equality Committee, said that gender responsive budgeting is a powerful instrument of economic policy and a tool to transform society. It makes sense to pilot gender responsive budgeting within the agro budget. While 65 per cent of rural women work on farms, only 13 percent are landowners. “Women’s entrepreneurship must be supported and nurtured. Gender responsive budgeting will help break barriers and enable women to participate equally in agro-budget programmes,” said Drobnjak.

The Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, Maryse Daviet, said that the Mission has worked closely with the Parliament. The way budgets are constructed, in both politics and life, is at the core of most issues. “Today is an important day. Gender responsive budgeting is a tool to ensure that the needs of men and boys, women and girls are addressed fairly,” said Daviet.

Đuro Žugić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that accepting the OSCE’s recommendations and analysis is a deliberate step to focus budget allocations in order to improve the position of women in the countryside.

Bojan Paunović, Director General of the State Budget Directorate at the Ministry of Finance, said that the department started in early 2019 to implement the multi-annual budgetary framework and its further programme development. “Through this reform process, gender responsive budgeting is envisaged to be an integral part of the programme budget and its entire cycle,” said Paunović.

The OSCE-engaged expert in gender issues, Marija Risteska, said that the analysis showed that gender budgeting was a tool to evaluate how policies affect men and women.  Based on her assessment, she recommended to include a gender perspective into the Ministry's sectoral analysis and to take measures that would meet the needs of rural women.