Gender equality implies that women and men enjoy the same status and have equal opportunity to realize their full human rights and potential to contribute to national, political, economic, social and cultural development, and to benefit from the results.

Generally speaking, wrong perceptions of gender equality are common in everyday life: the topic of gender equality does not take up much space in public debate and media in Serbia, unless speaking of domestic violence. In most cases, the topic is inadequately addressed, mainly over sensitive issues such as feminism. Furthermore, the role of women in political and social life is wrongly interpreted.

Local authoritiesas a level of governance which are closest to citizens and probably the most influential in everyday life, are expected to be familiar with the principles of gender equality and to actively pursue policies that improve the overall situation in the field. The European Charter on Gender Equality signed by more than 1260 cities in Europe (4 of them in Serbia) is a document that gives a clear overview of all areas related to local government in which it is necessary to adopt a principle of equal opportunities.

The National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women and Promotion of Gender Equality and related action plan presumes a specific role for local government, but the most important document in Serbia is the Gender Equality Law (Official Gazette 104/2009), which assigns responsibility for a large share of concerned tasks to the local authorities.

In order to contribute to the promotion of gender equality at a local level and support local governments on this regard, our intention within this Program component is to achieve the following objectives:

• to strengthen the capacity of technical services of SCTM for creating and implementing measures to promote equality;

• to enhance the capacities of cities and municipalities in Serbia and local bodies for gender equality;

• to promote a concept of gender equality in public and raise the awareness in regard to this issue.

In addition to the analysis of the situation at the local level which will be prepared,our plan for next three years is to create and implement different training courses, launch initiatives and continue to promote the European Charter on Gender Equality at Local Level.

As a final result, we expect to significantly enhance the capacity of the technical services of SCTM and make a baseline study on the local level. During the second and third year of Program implementation, the main activities will be focused on capacity development of local gender equality mechanisms, as well as on assistance in developing action plans and their implementation.

Contact person: Rozeta Aleksov, component coordinator, rozeta.aleksov@skgo.org