Outcome BIH_D_2.1

By 2025, people benefit from resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth ensured by the convergence of economic development and management of environment and cultural resources

P rogress has been made towards achieving the outcome of fostering resilient, inclusive, and sustainable growth in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Several key institutions and initiatives have demonstrated notable improvements in performance and coordination, reflecting a positive shift in both institutional behavio u r and policy development. At the national level, the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Policy successfully integrated family-friendly policies and gender-responsive workplace provisions within the Law on Social Services and the draft Labor Law with inputs from UN Women. . This legal reform marks a critical step in enhancing gender inclusivity and strengthening social protection systems, ensuring that gender equality is embedded in future workplace and policy reforms. The expected passage of this law will provide a solid foundation for more inclusive labo u r markets and gender-sensitive social protections. At the local level, significant strides were made in Canton Sarajevo, where the Map of rights and services for persons with disabilities and the elderly was successfully developed with the support of UN Women and piloted. This initiative improve s public awareness and accessibility to critical rights and services, particularly for marginalized groups. The successful implementation of this model provides a replicable framework for other regions to follow . The Municipality Center made substantial progress by enhancing parental leave policies, including introducing financial incentives for fathers. This policy shift reflects a broader cultural change toward shared caregiving responsibilities and gender equality at the local governance level, further promoting gender-inclusive policies in BiH. UN Women contributed to this resu l t through providing technical support for the revision of the policies. Overall, these efforts have contributed significantly to creating more inclusive, equitable, and gender-sensitive systems at both the national and local levels. With these foundational changes in place, BiH is poised to achieve more sustainable and resilient growth that aligns with both economic development and environmental management.

By 2025, people benefit from resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth ensured by the convergence of economic development and management of environment and cultural resources

The outcome was not achieved in 2021 and more effort is to be invested to secure that people benefit from resilient, inclusive, and sustainable growth ensured by the convergence of economic development and management of environment and cultural resources . However, throughout the year progress was made regarding achieving this Outcome as a result of multiple interventions on women’s economic empowerment, improvement of government policies, access to finance and improved resilience of women entrepreneurs. In this regard, capacities and skills of 80 women to participate in the economy have been increased, through participation in different activities intended to secure their economic autonomy, access to funds and building their resilience. Of this number, 27 women entrepreneurs received tailor-made support and are now fully capacitated to run their businesses and secure its sustainability. In addition, tailor-made support program developed for entrepreneurs is in the process of standardization with the aim to allow for this service to be available to women entrepreneurs in all areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the same high-quality standards. Knowledge gap related to economic position of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina is filled with two key studies that were developed: Women's Economic Empowerment in BiH and Resilience of women owned businesses. These studies are the backbone of evidence-based policy and programming in the field of women economic empowerment. In parallel, work with women and girls to benefit from networking and mentorship programs has proven to be very successful. Capacities of the 89 girls and women were raised through the organization of multiple online meetups and their knowledge increased on topics related to career development, ICT entrepreneurship, business leadership time management, social media, online violence, and CV and motivational letter development. In addition, through IT Girls Mentorship Programme 2021, 19 girls and young women are now encouraged to seek opportunities in the ICT sector and entrepreneurship and their professional connections are now strengthened making it easier for them to successfully build their careers in this sector. Additional efforts have been invested in improving the workplace standards through implementation of the Women’s Empowerment Principles. In this reporting period, additional five companies joined the WEPs initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Five WEPs Action Plans were designed and a round of meetings and workshops are organized to prepare companies for the integration phase to improve their HR and marketing practices, WEPs and GE, and health and security in the workplace. Based on the progress made to date, and the results that are to be achieved through the activities envisaged to be implemented in the coming period, the work of UNW BiH will significantly contribute to this Outcome that people benefit from resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth ensured by the convergence of economic development and management of environment and cultural resources. Taking into consideration the achievements made thus far, the theory of change for this Impact is still applicable. It is expected in the future period for significant investments to be made in the promotion of women's economic participation as the key to insuring sustainable economic growth of the country leading to fulfilling this Impact.

By 2025, people benefit from resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth ensured by the convergence of economic development and management of environment and cultural resources

The outcome was not achieved in 2022 and more effort is to be invested to secure that people benefit from resilient, inclusive, and sustainable growth ensured by the convergence of economic development and management of environment and cultural resources. However, throughout the year, progress was made regarding achieving this Outcome as a result of multiple interventions on women’s economic empowerment, improvement of government policies, access to finance and improved resilience of women entrepreneurs. In this regard, 250 women in tech-driven industries increased their capacities and skills through participation in different activities intended to secure their resilience through IT Girls and Enabling Women Artists Revenue through NFTs (EARN) projects. Of this number, 25 young women received mentorship in more than 20 different areas and are now fully capacitated to apply for internship/job opportunities in the tech sector. Additionally, 200 women artists raised their capacities in crypto-currencies and digital assets and are now capacitated to sell their arts into new, innovative and global digital market. As a result of the ‘business resilience development training program’ implemented during the reporting period, all 15 selected women business owners increased business performance by at least 50%. Over 66% of women entrepreneurs increased sales and 53% increased their revenue. These are the results reported at the time of completion of the program supporting women business owners by the implementing partner, Foundation 787. In addition, four women led businesses increased the number of employees compared to the baseline, while the remaining 11 kept the same level of employees or are planning to expand their team a few months after the end of the program. All 15 women business owners/ entrepreneurs improved their internal work and planning processes as well as gaining/increasing their knowledge in at least one business area either through online workshops or while working with consultants/mentors. All women increased their market visibility and brand recognition as all of them introduced or enhanced at least one brand component and/or improved their online positioning and brand storytelling through work with branding, copywriting and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts. In addition to the above, 13 out of 15 women entrepreneurs also saw an increase in media appearances (guest appearances on TV and radio shows, special articles and stories about their businesses etc.). UN Women continued its strategic partnerships with governmental institutions, financial institutions and private sector companies in assessing and building their capacities for more gender sensitive and gender inclusive policies and practices. 64 representatives from different government institutions improved their technical skills to diagnose, assess, and monitor the impact of economic growth, macroeconomic, and sector policies on women’s entrepreneurship and employment opportunities. In the longer-term, this will have a positive impact on the development of strategies, policies and/or action plans that will strengthen women`s economic empowerment. UN Women supported the development of a comprehensive gender equality assessment among financial institutions, based on which a capacity building plan for financial institutions was developed, which will shape the future tailor-made work with financial institutions. UN Women continued working on the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) agenda and developed anti-discrimination and harassment policies for private sector companies that are integrated into their strategic and operational functioning. This included developing a comprehensive list of GE financial and non-financial indicators proposed to illustrate outcomes of adopted WEPS actions plans and what changes could be expected once enabling indicator values are achieved, and also developed a introductory note on the methodological approach to the consumer needs and behavior assessment by gender, aiming to shed the light on the perspective benefits that companies could generate in case their services are tailored to the needs of their clients/consumers attributed by gender. Knowledge gap related to economic position of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina is filled with several key studies, such as a Baseline Study on the Care Economy, Feasibility Study on women-owned business access to finance, Assessment of strategic documents on women`s entrepreneurship and capacities for their implementation, and a gendered mapping of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in BiH. The focus on improving the capacities of governments to develop employment policies that enhance women's access to decent work and promote income security, on strengthening the capacities and resilience of women owned businesses and women entrepreneurs (which will in the upcoming period be focused on rural women) and on continuing to support the employment opportunities of women and girls in tech-driven industries remain valid in achieving the overall impact. Although still lacking verifiable data, there has been evidence that a sizeable number of rural women contribute to farming and agriculture through informal work. Further work on strengthening their capacities and economic agency, planned in 2023, will aim to address this issue. Similarly, supporting governments in piloting and defining more humane, gender-driven and inclusive care economy policies will contribute to formalizing care work and decreasing the time spent in unpaid care and domestic work.

By 2025, people benefit from resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth ensured by the convergence of economic development and management of environment and cultural resources

UN Women made significant progress towards achievement of the outcome in providing a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable economy through the implementation of a three-stream approach through improvement of national laws and policies in cooperation with different governmental levels, raising capacities of government institutions and women entrepreneurs, and piloting adequate measures to address identified barriers through UN Women’s knowledge generation, which contributed to the theory of change for this outcome area. National laws and policies were strengthened and new policies developed that address the unproportionate care burden in households and unpaid care work, and mechanisms were established to ensure gender-sensitive criteria mechanisms are in place in relevant governmental institutions. Under the UN Women and FAO Joint Programme "Women Driving Resilience in Agriculture and Rural areas", ten institutions participating in the Advisory Board for Women's Entrepreneurship in BiH increased their capacities in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of BiH and five governmental institutions increased their capacities in the area of care economy through UN Women's programming activities under the joint UN Women, UNDP and UNICEF SDG Rollout Joint Programme. As a result of UN Women’s support, women have increased knowledge and capacities to secure their livelihoods and jobs and further develop their businesses through investments which will result in higher returns on the investment rate, year turnover, and new job opportunities. Participation of women in the workforce, as well as in entrepreneurial activities, is very low in BiH and it is hindered by a number of challenges. These include limited business skills and opportunities to gain them, and limited access to finance, information, markets, and other needed resources. UN Women continued investing in the BizUp programme supporting 15 selected women entrepreneurs in the process of receiving tailor-made support in online education, individual mentoring support, designated expert support in (re)branding, copywriting, and/or SEO optimization, and receiving small grants. UN Women, with the support of implementing partner, Foundation 787, achieved this result via the BizUP programme. The programme builds the capacities and resilience of businesses based on a concrete business diagnostic process. Important progress was also made to connect women entrepreneurs with investment opportunities. UN Women in cooperation with F787 implemented the Business Angel Summit along with the Women Entrepreneurs Expo, which laid the ground for broader development of businesses in the country, with a particular emphasis on women-owned enterprises. These initiatives place a strong emphasis on engaging male and female investors, ensuring the creation of a more inclusive and diverse investment landscape in the future. As a result, 122 women have knowledge of alternative financing and how to approach investors when seeking investments or strategic partners to further develop their businesses. Governmental institutions and other relevant stakeholders have the required knowledge to pursue changes at a macro level in the area of women's entrepreneurship and provide relevant strategies and recommendations to further advance the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country. To create a fertile ground for broader women’s entrepreneurship development, it is also important to have a stronger approach to building an entrepreneurial ecosystem that drives economic growth by building a supportive environment for new and growing companies to thrive, and by challenging gender stereotypes. The entrepreneurial ecosystem includes people, initiatives, and organizations that enable and advance the growth of entrepreneurs in a cohesive, self-sustaining, and connected way. It implies an approach that helps move from supporting one business at a time to creating a system that moves the entire community forward. Taking this system-based approach showed to support leveling the playing field for women, creating more opportunities, and increasing the visibility of the success of female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses. Therefore, one of the UN Women’s Advisory Board for Women’s Entrepreneurship Development in developing strategies for applying a gender lens to the role they can play in the female entrepreneurial ecosystem, how to use the unique position of power to influence positive change and to capacitate existing ecosystem stakeholders to reach common goals jointly. The aim of the intervention is to facilitate the work of the Advisory Board to create a strategy for the ecosystem development in the area of women entrepreneurship in BiH by applying the thorough mapping of the existing knowledge, measures, and stakeholders, organizing meetings to foster the cooperation between identified stakeholders (domestic and abroad) to prepare proposals, advocacy and lobbying activities that will be captured in the strategy and implemented in partnership with Advisory Board members. This outcome represents the first condition for substantive equity identified in the office’s theory of change. The theory of change understands that, if 1) Governments have improved capacities to promote labour policies that enhance women's access to decent work and promote income security; 2) Women owned/women-led businesses and women entrepreneurs have strengthened capacities and resilience; then women will benefit from more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable growth. The results achieved under this outcome (more gender sensitive laws and policies, increased economic opportunities for women through skill development, business growth, and linkage with investors, knowledge production to advance the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country) reflect both capacity and performance improvements amongst governments, women owned/led businesses, and the entrepreneurial sector (thus, even going slightly beyond the ToC). This demonstrates changes outlined in the theory of change are occurring. We expect these changes to contribute to resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth, thus the theory of change is still relevant.