OSCE Mission to Montenegro supports a gender sensitive Parliament
In partnership with the parliamentary Gender Equality Committee, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro organized a capacity-building workshop on gender mainstreaming on 29 and 30 September 2021, to implement gender assessments in drafting and adopting legislation and policies.
Members of Parliament and parliamentary staff examined processes to assess gender sensitivity and mainstream gender in legislation. They also discussed gender responsible budgeting, as an example of gender sensitive fiscal policy of the state as well as gender sensitive statistics and mainstreaming gender in local policies.
Speaking about the significance of gender mainstreaming in the legislative process, expert Vesna Rajković said that public sector services must be consciously tailored to meet the needs of women and men.
Božena Jelušić, Chair of the Gender Equality Committee, said that gender knowledge is essential for drafting laws and policies that can effectively address inequalities. In anticipation of the next Law on Budget, this knowledge on gender will be inseparable from understanding the specific sectors to which funds should be allocated. It is crucial that both parliamentary staff as well as Members of Parliament who will vote on legal solutions and policies are fully versed in how to mainstream gender in all legislative initiatives,” said Jelušić.
Guest speaker, Olivera Komar, talked about gender mainstreaming in local policies. “Neglecting the female perspective in problems and solutions is often neither intentional nor malicious, but stems from the basic assumption that the male gender is the default. Therefore, a conscious effort is necessary to look at things from a different perspective. Very often, policy-making means simply raising public awareness that a particular topic has more than one dimension,” said Komar.
The Mission will organize two other workshops to discuss topics of gender perspective in the legislative process and gender responsive budgeting, contributing to enhancing gender sensitive approach within the Parliament.