OSCE Mission to Montenegro organizes training course on gender budgeting for 10 ministries

On 27 February, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro delivered advanced training course complimented with mentoring to participants coming from 10 ministries on how to implement the guidelines for gender-responsive budgeting and reporting, developed in 2022 with the Mission’s support.

Around 20 participants from the ministries of internal affairs, culture and media, economic development and tourism, ecology and spatial planning, justice, defence, education, labour and social welfare, public administration and agriculture, forestry and water management discussed how to conduct a gender analysis, and develop indicators specific for men or women and reporting.

Integrating a gender perspective into the preparation, implementation, and evaluation of public policies is a key strategy to promote women, decrease gender gaps and combat discrimination and inequalities.

The Mission-engaged consultant on gender responsive budgeting, Nataša Obradović, explained that this workshop emphasised the need to apply an integrated gender perspective in the entire budget cycle. “This approach requires planning be linked with budget execution. At the same time, budget users need to monitor and report on whether the programmes achieved the set goals, and whether the planned funds are spent efficiently and effectively in order to improve gender equality through the budget process,” said Obradović.

The Ministry of Finance launched a dialogue on gender responsive budgeting in 2021 with the support of the Mission and the Secretariat of the Competitiveness Council (SCC). The Mission assisted the Ministry to introduce gender indicators in the budget management information system within the budgeting reform programme. It will continue to support government institutions in developing their capacities to apply newly developed knowledge and use the guidelines on budget assessment and reporting.