Gender Equality and the Local Self-Government

The studies Gender Equality and the Local Self-Government
have emerged as a result of the concerted efforts of Akcija Zdruzhenska and the
activists from Bitola, Kumanovo, Veles, Sveti Nikole and Debar aimed at
providing a more comprehensive overview of the existing policies and practices
of the local authorities that treat gender inequality.

The aim of these studies is to raise the issue of gender
equality in the municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia in the context of
the process of decentralization (deconcentration, delegation, devolution) of
authority, responsibilities and assets of the local self-government units. It
entails several actions:

To review the manner, that is, the existing policies
and practices embedded in the approach to gender equality, with a
particular emphasis on the status and position of women in the
municipalities (political will, special bodies and commissions,
strategic documents, manners of information on the status and position
of women and men in all living spheres);

To analyze the new organizational and management
structures that respond to the transformations of local self-government,
initiated by the decentralization process, and

To present the existing strategic approaches to the
issue of gender equality elaborated in theories and by international
organizations, such as the United Nations or the European Union.

According to the above stated tasks, the issue of gender
equality in municipalities is to be raised in an entirely different manner so as
to reflect the newly emerging circumstances in the functioning of the local
authorities. Before the real application of the Local Self-Government Law, that
is, preceding the local elections in 2005, and after the establishment of the
local self-government units and bodies in accordance with the Law on Territorial
Organization of the Local Self-Government in the Republic of Macedonia, a number
of conferences, seminars and meetings were held and numerous so-called manuals
were published discussing decentralization, the new responsibilities and the
organizational posture of municipal management. It was the issue of gender
equality that was missing in the framework of all these events. With the
exception of certain traces of concern and the introduction of the plan of the
Section for Gender Equality in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the
issue of gender equality did not draw major attention.

The municipalities are facing the challenge to treat gender
equality in a fashion appropriate to the new role of local self-government. In
this context, these studies offer a sufficiently broad framework that will allow
the relevant actors, the responsible municipal authorities, the political
subjects, the non-governmental organizations and the citizens of the
municipalities to step out of the existing practice in order to:

Reinvestigate the assumptions and positions that
serve as the basis in the promotion of gender equality;

Reinvestigate the relations with the central
authorities in the framework of the actions they undertake in the sphere
of equality, and

Reorganize the structures for action, in line with the new
management processes.

The concept of the study is focused on several issues that
involve topics related to gender equality, including:

How to create a policy on gender equality, that is, a
policy on gender balanced development in the municipalities?

How to develop methodologies for gender analysis of the local
sector policies?

How to identify indicators for data collection,
analysis and processing relevant for gender analysis of the local
policies?

How to identify the needs and priorities for gender
balanced development of municipalities?

However, the studies are not prejudiced to provide a complete
answer to these questions; on the contrary, they are designed to help the
critical review of what has been done heretofore in the sphere of gender
equality, to offer elaboration of the strategic approaches to achieving gender
equality and to call for transformation of the management processes and
development of sector policies. The offered recommendations represent possible
guidance on this road.

The publications are available only on Macedonian.