In reporting on employees’ rights and legal obligations towards them, we have seldom encountered the use of the term “Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB)”, which is not always found in balanced reports.
In principle, gender inequality has always prevailed in different sectors, although legal obligations to all employees should be equal. Such preoccupations in the workplace, disregard for GRB is a heavy burden, especially for women. Therefore, the latter being part of different activities, mobilizing together and being informed about the implementation of Gender Responsive Budgeting, can affect the gender equality that legally belongs to them.
Such moves would also bring answers to many questions such as: are programs easily accessible equally for men and women; do they meet the goals for which they are intended; the effects and impact of programs for men and women, taking into account other characteristics such as ethnicity, age, place of residence; what is the advancement of programs from the aspect of applying a gender perspective; what are the mechanisms through which GRB can be respected; etc.
Women and girls in different municipalities of Kosovo face a considerable number of these challenges. The very term “Gender Responsive Budgeting” is a challenge in itself for women as the difficulties in addressing it are mainly related to the fact of structural problems and worse, different mentality or stereotypes towards women, continue to penalize them.
Overcoming many prejudices, which can create barriers, should be done in order to facilitate women’s access to the labor market. In principle, although as a new term “Gender Responsive Budgeting”, it can facilitate the physical access of women in various sectors by focusing on women with economic difficulties, those who belong to non-majority communities, as they are prey of multiple levels of discrimination, based on the socio-economic situation, low level of education, improper access to institutional life, or the labor market in general, etc.
Thus, to combat discrimination against women in the job application process and those in the workplace, closer co-operation is required from authorities at both local and central levels to ensure that engagement is increased in relevant cases. in identifying and preventing discrimination against women.
So, although being considered as a relatively new concept in the country, it is expected that a lot of work will be done so that the implementation of GRB brings another positive reality, as this is seen at the same time as a challenge of the state in ensuring gender equality. In many countries, the gender perspective is integrated in public policies precisely as a result of the successful application of GRB for many years, so the same application should occur in Kosovo, by drafting pro-provincial policies, by implementing concrete actions.
However, gender equality means that women and men enjoy full and equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities, regardless of the sector, and that the principles of gender equality should apply not only to the public but also to the private sector.
GRP practice extends to almost all community-related programs, whether governmental or not, but does not exclude families, and is a term that includes gender relations, control over economic resources, gender mainstreaming, and many other aspects. other in the functioning of the development and consolidation of a society.
Imposing different situations, incompatibility with the approach of the responsible instances, lead to an aggravated and almost unbearable situation especially for women. While we still continue to see differences and different methods aimed at overcoming the crisis of different sectors, the application of GRB, in principle, would facilitate the professional life of women or girls and help to dispel the stereotypes which they continue to face.
Author: Nora Xhuzi