Skip navigation

0Meta Navigation

× Close search

Navigation

Home Newsroom News and press releases OSCE Presence, Labour Ministry organize senior-level meeting on building up ‘gender equality employees’ in Albania
Newsroom

OSCE Presence, Labour Ministry organize senior-level meeting on building up ‘gender equality employees’ in Albania

2 May 2012
The Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth (c), addresses a senior-level meeting on building up ‘gender equality employees’ in Albania, together with Interior Minister Bujar Nishani (r) and Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Spiro Ksera (l), Tirana, 2 May 2012. (OSCE/Joana Karapataqi) Photo details

The OSCE Presence in Albania and the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities organized on 2 May 2012 a senior-level meeting on strengthening the institutional capacities of “gender equality employees” at the central and local level in Albania.

The roundtable event aimed at supporting efforts to increase the number of official gender equality employees at the central and local level.

The findings and recommendations of the Situational Analysis Report on the Gender Employees in Albania, which was supported by the OSCE Presence, were presented at the event. According to the report, the past years have shown some positive results while also allowing for the identification of remaining challenges, such as the institutionalization of the gender employees’ positions and increasing their numbers.

“Gender equality employees play a crucial role in supporting development of their institutions’ policies and programmes from a gender perspective,” said the Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth.

“Gender mainstreaming can only succeed if the Government, the National Council on Gender Equality, mayors and the gender equality employees are all fully on board. Now it is time to finalize the appointment process of gender employees, and to strengthen the link between them, the Ministries, the National Council and the mayors.”

The 2008 Gender Equality Law called for the establishment and empowerment of full-time gender equality employees, as well as envisaged the creation of a National Council on Gender Equality as the State’s main monitoring and advisory body on gender equality issues and policies. The law is a part of efforts that have been made in Albania in recent years to mainstream gender in all spheres of public life.

The meeting was also addressed by Labour Minister Spiro Ksera and Interior Minister Bujar Nishani. In attendance were also the Deputy Ministers of Defence, Labour, Interior, European Integration, Education, Finance, as well as the Commissioner for the Protection from Discrimination.