Outcome MKD_D_1.2

By 2025, people in North Macedonia benefit from improved rule of law, evidence- based, anticipatory and gender responsive policies, greater social cohesion and effective service delivery by transparent, accountable and responsive institutions (UNSDCF Outcome 4)

Although the outcome was not fully achieved in 2022, significant progress was made at normative level, through the adoption of key gender related laws and strategic documents by the Government of North Macedonia, engendered sectoral programmes, increased oversight, and strengthened alignment of the national strategic priorities with EU Gender Equality Acquis. Normative work and sectoral policies were strengthened. The overall policy and legislative frameworks relevant to advancing gender equality was strengthened. The Government adopted a new National Strategy on Gender Equality (GE) (2022-2027), which sets the strategic priorities for advancing gender equality. At the same time, as part of the ongoing Public Financial Management (PFM) reform, for the first-time gender equality has been considered as a key budgetary principle through the adoption of a New Organic Budget Law, while gender tagging of budget programmes has been introduced as a concept in the newly developed PFM Reform Programme for 2022-2025. These normative developments are expected to significantly strengthen the implementation of gender equality commitments, systematic application of Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and tracking of budget allocations for gender equality. Continued trend of sectoral application of GRB was evidenced, with 11 sectoral programmes at central and 67 at local level incorporating gender specific measures and budget allocations that address the needs of women and the most vulnerable, in line with the requirements set in the Ministry of Finance (MoF) Budget Circulars for central and local level. As a result, women and girls benefit from programmes and measures at central and local level focusing on improving their access to the labour market, socio-economic empowerment measures, social protection and care services and improved public healthcare. Additionally, 70 women agricultural producers benefited from an improved Rural and Agricultural Development Programme, which now stipulates gender sensitive criteria and substantive increase of the budget allocated for financial support for women in agriculture. As a result of these improvements, the amount for the financial subsidies for women small scale agricultural producers was doubled from 3.000 to 6.000 EUR directly influencing their livelihoods and reducing their vulnerability ( https://bit.ly/3wcB1z2 ). Gender mainstreaming ensured in EU integrative processes. Gender mainstreaming became highly prioritized in the work of the Secretariat for European Affairs and relevant Sector Working Groups, as a leading and coordinating entity in EU integrative processes and key mechanism in those processes, respectively. With the successful engendering of action documents in 10 thematic priorities from the EU accession process, gender equality and gender considerations are ensured as part of the bedrock of future thematic interventions. Additionally, the Draft Law on Administrative Servants and the Draft Law on Public Sector Employees, alongside the 5-year programme of the State Statistical Office were engendered, strengthening the overall gender equality in key reform legislation and ensuring systematic collection of data on the situation and needs of women and men, in line with the SDG gender indicators. This will result in more available data to inform policies and programmes to address the different needs of women and men and advance gender equality. Institutional capacity development on Gender Responsive Budgeting made more sustainable. The Government launched the first Resource Center on Gender Responsive Policy Making and Budgeting, ensuring sustainable and effective mechanism for continued capacity development, knowledge sharing and exchange of good practices ( https://bit.ly/3weHqcZ ). This result builds on longstanding efforts to strengthen institutional capacities for implementation of Gender responsive budgeting. The Resource Center is the only knowledge hub in North Macedonia, where public administration benefits from a comprehensive training programme on GE and GRB, and have access to a digital library of tools and resources. North Macedonia is a regional best practice on auditing gender equality. The first Performance Audit on Gender Equality was undertaken by the State Audit Office (SAO) of North Macedonia as an important step forward in ensuring an independent oversight of public spending and strengthening the accountability of the institutions to advance gender equality. Moreover, it was shared and acknowledged as a regional good practice for implementation of Gender Equality and Gender Responsive Budgeting commitments. ( http://bit.ly/3D0RJFj ). Women’s voice and agency in decision making were increased. Women from local communities have become active participants in the local decision-making processes and negotiated with municipalities for measures that address their needs and challenges. A total of 31 policy recommendations developed by women in local communities have been adopted and financed by the municipalities, with focus on engendering the local public infrastructure, establishment of public lighting in rural areas, public transportation, provision of services for elderly and childcare, and provision of counseling services for survivors of violence against women ( https://bit.ly/3Ym8SCx , https://bit.ly/3k2OZ3H ). These policy recommendations have been proposed by 583 women that were empowered to voice their needs and priorities to local authorities through outreach and empowerment actions implemented by 16 CSOs and local women’s grassroot organizations across municipalities in North Macedonia. UN Women contributed significantly to these results through the extensive capacity building and mentorship support provided to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Finance, Secretariat for European Affairs, State Statistical Office and State Audit Office to fulfill the country’s national and international commitments to gender equality. The Minister of Labour and Social Policy and the Auditor General recognized the role of UN Women in supporting the continuous systematic application of GRB and enhancing the oversight and accountability of the Government towards GE at a two separate regional level conferences ( http://bit.ly/3Xo7LBc ; http://bit.ly/3QSg3yN ). Furthermore, UN Women supported the SSO in enhancing the capacities on collection, use, presentation, and dissemination of gender statistics and monitoring of gender related SDG indicators. In addition, extensive support has been provided to local women’s grassroot organizations ensuring their active engagement in devising policy recommendations voiced by women in the communities. Considering the progress made to date, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is still applicable. However, the global socio-economic uncertainty and the continued setbacks of the ongoing reforms might slow down the progress in the implementation of GRB commitments and national alignment with the EU Gender Equality Acquis. Stronger focus should be put in supporting the government in advancing the normative work through multi-stakeholder engagement and strengthened ownership of interventions. If, as expected, this strategy is successful, then the results achieved will ensure that GRB is effectively applied at central and local level, and that the EU Gender Equality Acquis is effectively integrated throughout the Government’s EU accession agenda.

By 2025, people in North Macedonia benefit from improved rule of law, evidence- based, anticipatory and gender responsive policies, greater social cohesion and effective service delivery by transparent, accountable and responsive institutions (UNSDCF Outcome 4)

Although the outcome was not fully achieved in 2023, it is on track as significant progress was made to improve the legal and institutional frame on gender equality, enhance evidence-based policy making, strengthen accountability mechanisms, and create more effective and gender-responsive service provision. Improved policy frame and institutional capacities on gender equality In 2023, public administration made remarkable progress toward institutionalization of GRB and its sustainable and effective application. The Government adopted a decision for systematization of the first Resource Center of Gender Responsive Policy Making and Budgeting as a separate organizational unit embedded within the Department for Equal Opportunities at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, with a clearly defined set of competencies and human resources structure. In parallel, the Public Finance Management reform progressed with an active stance of the MoF to design the rules of procedure for systematic application of GRB. The ministry initiated a complex process of drafting secondary legislation and developing a specific bylaw that will regulate the enforcement of the provisions set in the first-ever gender-sensitive budget law, adopted the previous year. Central level budget users, including 13 line ministries and 8 state agencies engendered sectoral programmes through the application of GRB as an approach. Consequently, women benefitted from sector-specific measures designed to respond to challenges in the areas of public health, vocational education and training, access to property rights, media. At the local level, women and the most excluded groups benefited from 89 gender-responsive local programs, foreseeing measures that span from childcare, specialized services in response to GBV, assistance to children with disabilities, economic empowerment, infrastructure development. In parallel, 7 Local governments developed strategic documents to advance gender equality and integrate gender into local policy and budget planning cycle. EU Integration processes more effectively consider GE priorities. Government representatives, civil society organizations, researchers and academia can now access a comprehensive gender equality overview, which, for the first time, is available in North Macedonia. The analysis portrays the gender disparities in six thematic areas: governance and participation in public life, women’s economic participation, education and training of women and girls, women and health, violence against women and girls and women, peace and security, humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction. All key findings were encapsulated in the unique Country Gender Equality Profile (CGEP) ( https://bit.ly/3HCqhiY ) produced by UN Women. The Secretariat for EU affairs, as the leading institution in the EU integration process and coordination body for alignment of the EU acquis, now prioritizes the use of gender-disaggregated data and recommendations from the Gender Equality Profile to integrate a gender perspective in the legislative alignment processes. In addition, with UN Women contribution, the work of the State Statistical Office (SSO) on gender-disaggregated data significantly improved with the newly established Gender Data Platform ( https://rodovistatistiki.stat.gov.mk/ ). The Platform advanced the work on gender indicators and presentation of gender statistics, benefiting both SSO and the general public to find and use relevant data more efficiently. Strengthened Oversight and accountability towards gender equality commitments. In 2023, the State Audit Office of North Macedonia integrated gender equality priorities in its regular auditing of central and local institutions. This elevated the regular audits to also audit for gender equality. To achieve this, the State Audit Office adopted and applied specific methodological guidance for gender mainstreaming in audit practices. Furthermore, the State Audit Office led a groundbreaking regional cooperative audit on SDG 5 in cooperation with the Supreme Audit Institutions of Kosovo and Albania. This regional audit thematically focused on assessing government policies and measures for the inclusion of rural women in the labor market, tackling one of the most critical and persisting gender inequality areas in the country and the region ( https://bit.ly/46Dm4Hs). These initiatives for auditing gender equality position North Macedonia and the countries in the Western Balkan among the pioneers conducting gender audit and represent important milestones in ensuring efficient oversight of public spending and strengthening the accountability of the institutions to advance gender equality. UN Women contributed significantly to these results by nurturing existing strategic partnerships with the Government and Oversight Institutions. Substantive technical and expert support was provided to advance the normative work and improve policy and legislative framework, enhance the application of GRB, and improve the use of gender statistics, to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Finance, Secretariat for European Affairs, State Statistical Office, and State Audit Office. The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, through the Department for Equal Opportunities remained the key driver leading a number of strategic initiatives, and, through the partner agreement signed with UN Women, extended massive mentoring support to other state institutions on gender responsive budgeting. The partnership with the State Audit Office was expanded by renewing the MoU and expanding the scope of interventions, positioning the SAO as the lead institution upholding transparency and accountability towards gender equality. UN Women cooperated with other development partners, such as UNDP, NDI, as well as World Bank, to achieve better synergy of technical and expert support for the development of strategic and operational documents. Considering the progress made to date, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is still applicable. However, given the socio-economic and political context in the country, certain delays and setbacks could be expected in 2024, as well as delays in the implementation of activities at the central level during the parliamentary and presidential elections period. UN Women should continue expanding its interventions with a focus on strengthening technical level capacities, improving the oversight and accountability interventions, and increased engagement with civil society and gender advocates. If, as expected, this approach is successful, then the results achieved will ensure systematic capacity development of public administration, sustainable application of gender responsive budgeting at central and local level, and effective integration of gender equality priorities in the EU accession agenda. Important lessons can be drawn, which can foster scalability of the interventions and greater Government ownership, such as investing in models for sustainable capacity development of public administration on GRB such as the establishment of a Government-led Resource Center on GRB and developing guidance tools for mainstreaming gender in the EU accession processes.