Region:Asia Pacific
Current UN Women Plan Period Afghanisthan:2018-2022
World Bank Income Classification:Low Income
The World Bank classifies economies for analytical purposes into four income groups: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income. For this purpose it uses gross national income (GNI) per capita data in U.S. dollars, converted from local currency using the World Bank Atlas method, which is applied to smooth exchange rate fluctuations.
Least Developed Country:Yes
Since 1971, the United Nations has recognized LDCs as a category of States that are deemed highly disadvantaged in their development process, for structural, historical and also geographical reasons. Three criteria are used: per capita income, human assets, and economic vulnerability.
Gender Inequality Index:0.575
GII is a composite metric of gender inequality using three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. A low GII value indicates low inequality between women and men, and vice-versa.
Gender Development Index:0.723
GDI measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health, education, and command over economic resources.
Population:209,497,025
Source of population data: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects: The 2022 Revision
Male:19,976,265 (9.5%)
Female:189,520,760 (90.5%)
outcome XM-DAC-41146-BIH_D_1.1
By 2025, people contribute to, and benefit from more accountable and transparent governance systems that deliver quality public services, and ensure rule of law
Throughout the year progress was made in regard to achieving this outcome as a result of multiple interventions in the area of gender responsive programming and budgeting, implementation of national and international normative commitments, and the country’s path to EU accession, while utilizing coordination mandate and promoting accountability for the implementation of gender equality commitments. Government institutions made progress in implementing gender-responsive policy making, budgeting and integration of EU gender equality and women’s empowerment commitments, notable from continuous annual budget allocations to gender equality in BiH (1.45% at the level of BiH institutions; 5.79% in FBiH; and 6.39% in RS); increased development and use of gender statistics, notable from development of key statistical resources (Women and Men in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2021 and Moving towards the Gender Equality Index Bosnia and Herzegovina 2022); and contribution to more meaningful and systematic approach to implementation of international and national normative commitments on gender equality, notable from development of a framework monitoring tool to implement CEDAW, UNSCR 1325, BiH Gender Action Plan. UN Women contributed to these changes through intensive advocacy and advisory work in the area of gender responsive governance in BiH. This included regional programs and exchanges, strategic guidance and gender analyses, local and regional trainings, and advocating with key ministries and institutions to effectively contribute to these changes. UNDP and the key government institutions in BiH, including gender institutional mechanisms, ministries of finance and supreme audit institutions, partnered with UN Women to achieve these results.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-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
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.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-BIH_D_3.3
By 2025, people have access to better quality and inclusive health and social protection systems
Throughout the year progress was made in regard to achieving this outcome as a result of multiple interventions towards the standardization of institutional and civil society response to cases of violence against women and driving local communities' solutions towards prevention. Entity Gender Centers are providing s standardized and quality service trainings for members of multisectoral teams in order to develop/revise local protocols in accordance with the international standards in 25 municipalities in BiH. The Federal Ministry of Interior has access to the tools for standardization of the police response to violence against women and domestic violence cases and recommended these for use to the cantonal ministries. Gender Centre of Republika Srpska developed the General Protocol on handling cases of domestic violence in the Republika Srpska with UN Women’s technical support which) is the first step; it must be adopted and implemented in practice .General protocol was signed by six Ministries (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Health and Social Protection, Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry of Administration and Local Self-Government, Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports). . Action plans will be developed for each ministry to apply the guidelines in practice. For example, centers for social work will adopt special regulations for dealing with victims of sexual violence. Civil society organizations strengthened their capacities in research-based advocacy for enhancement of legislative framework for protection from sexual violence focused on the standardization of judiciary response to cases of sexual violence with the support of BiH High Judiciary and Prosecutorial Council and Entities’ Training Centers for judges and prosecutors and UN Women. Initial national efforts for developing an evidence-based approach and systematic response to cases of sexual violence have been supported through a consortium of seven women’s CSOs- member of the Safe Network. With the support of UN Women, the capacities of professional staff in the 8 safe houses that work with victims of sexual violence strengthened their capacity through the improvement of knowledge and expertise for providing help and support to victims of sexual violence. Additionally, standards have been improved for safe house records on the specialized support services provided for victims of domestic violence through the creation of a software database that is currently in the test phase and will be installed in eight organizations that run safe houses in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In terms of VAW prevention, UN Women supported national women and youth CSOs in implementation of the comprehensive methodologies for prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) including sexual harassment in public spaces. Six local communities apply “Communities that Care” approach involving youth, men and boys, community and non-traditional leaders in preventive activities. Banja Luka City applies in collaboration with the Foundation United Women Banja Luka the global UN Women Safe Cities Safe Public Spaces program focused on combating sexual harassment in public space. A 16 days campaign on raising awareness on sexual violence has been conducted in five cities across BiH and via social media talking harmful attitudes around consent, marital rape and sexual harassment. Over 2,000 people across BiH directly participated and over 216,000 reached social media. Furthermore, under the same campaign UN Women facilitated thematic discussions with 20 experts in VAW and representatives of institutions and CSOs. The discussions resulted in a set of recommendations for enhancement of two entity criminal codes to ensure protection of survivors in line with the Istanbul Convention for entity governments, ministries of justice and wider expert community. As a result of the multiple interventions and UN Women support in 2023 the l egislators and institutions have enhanced capacities to incorporate the highest level of international standards on EVAW in legislation and policies , local communities including w omen, girls, men and boys are able to mobilize resources to create an environment for zero tolerance to violence; and service providers have capacities to deliver quality, accessible and survivor-centered services , t hus far the original strategy and ToC for this outcome is largely still applicable.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-BIH_O_1
Enhanced coordination, coherence and accountability of the UN system for commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment
Four UNSDCF Results Groups core policy documents, key messages and outlined priorities gender mainstreamed. GEWE embedded in Socio-Economic Reform processes with the government. UNCT Resource mobilization plan gender sensitive. Joint Work Plan 2023-2025 revised to contain increased number of gender sensitive indicators. SWAP scorecard assessment finalized with strong GTG leadership, endorsed by UNCT, PMT, OMT. Total of 3 quarterly meetings held with completed 2022 GMAP actions, presented SWAP assessment results and action planning 2023. GTG joined International Working Group on Gender Equality in pre-elections campaign on women’s political participation. Knowledge management tools and products shared. GTG capacitated on Gender Equality Marker.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-BIH_O_2
Increased engagement of partners in support of UN Women's mandate
Closing with Q4 of 2022 (31 December 2022), the overall number of social media followers on UN Women social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) was the highest since 2019. Through effective planning of content and creative content creation, the number of social media followers of UN Women has been on a steady yearly rise. For the whole year of 2022, the number of page likes / followers has increased (compared to 2021) by 827(7.9%) for Facebook;427(18.3%) for Twitter; and 698 (22.5%) for Instagram. The cumulative value of social media followers across all three social media platforms is 17.826, thereby demonstrating significant progress in the rise of social media followers. Closing with 31 December 2022, the overall number of tracked media articles that mention UN Women was 617 - the highest since the beginning of the Strategic Note. Apart from engaging on social media, and through traditional media, UN Women CO BiH has also engaged with other partners in communicating about GEWE, mostly through their engagement in different campaigns, such as Generation Equality and 16 Days of Activism. These partners include: UN Resident Coordinator, UN agencies (such as UNFPA and UNHCR), CSOs (partner CSOs such as Bolja buducnost, Udružene žene, Foundation Lara), as well as the international community, that was particularly engaged in the campaign that highlighted UN Women donors through partnership weeks (including Italy, Germany, EU, UK, Sweden, Japan, China, etc.). 2022 saw an increase of these types of collaborations across both traditional and new media platforms.Showing 1 - 5 of 7
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References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).