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Gender Equality in Serbia EVA LUATION OF THE NATIONAL ACTION PLAN FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SERBIA NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR GENDER EQUALITY – FINAL REPORT 2 Evaluation of the NAP for Gender Equality 2016–2018 SeConS Evaluation Team Anamaria Golemac Powell, Team Leader Dženita Hrelja Hasečić, International Gender Expert Marija Babović, National Gender Expert Tomislav Novović, Quality Assurance Expert Olivera Vuković, Researcher Jovana Obradović, Researcher Dragana Petrović, Researcher Evaluation Management Group Gordana Gavrilović, Special Adviser, Coordination Body for Gender Equality of the Republic of Serbia Suzana Stojadinović, Senior Adviser, Republic Secretariat for Public Policies Milana Rikanović, Gender Specialist, UN Women Serbia Jelena Sekulić Nedeljković, Project Officer, UN Women Serbia Isabel Suarez, Regional Evaluation Specialist for ECA, UN Women Independent Evaluation Service. Evaluation Reference Group Jelena Tadžić, Programme Officer, UNDP Milan Marković, Human Rights Programme Offices, OHCHR Zorana Antonijević, National Programme Officer, OSCE Jovana Đinđić, Gender Equality and Human Rights Coordinator, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Republic of Serbia Biljana Stepanov, Gender Expert, SOS Network Vojvodina, Women’s Platform for Development of Serbia Biljana Maletin, Gender Expert, independent expert, Women’s Platform for the Development of Serbia Design Ivana Zoranović, Dosije studio This publication was produced in the framework of the project “Support to Priority Actions for Gender Equality in Serbia” implemented by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and Coordination Body for Gender Equality with funding from the European Union. The views and analysis contained in the publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of UN Women, the United Nations or any of its affiliated organizations. Evaluation of the NAP for Gender Equality 2016–2018 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AP Autonomous Province CBGE Coordination Body for Gender Equality of the Government of Serbia CEDAW The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women CSO Civil Society Organizations EC European Commission EIGE European Institute for Gender Equality EMG Evaluation Management Group ERG Evaluation Reference Group EU European Union ET Evaluation team FRA European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights GDP Gross Domestic Product MICS Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys MP A member of parliament MoLEVSA The Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs Republic of Serbia Plan of Action for the Implementation of the National NAP Strategy for Improving and Promoting Gender Equality 2016–2020 NGO A non-governmental organization OECD The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe PSSPDGE Provincial Secretariat for Social Policy, Demography and Gender Equality RSPP Republic Secretariat for Public Policies SDGs The Sustainable Development Goals SILC Statistics on Income and Living Condition SIPRU Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit SORS Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia ToC Theory of Change ToR Terms of Reference UFE Utilization-Focused Evaluation UN United Nations UNEG United Nations Evaluation Group UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women Evaluation of the NAP for Gender Equality 2016–2018 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 3 6 RECOMMENDATIONS 115 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 6.1 Process related recommendations 115 6.2 Thematic recommendations 118 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 7 REFERENCES 123 1 INTRODUCTION 17 8 ANNEXES 127 1.1 Background and Purpose of the Evaluation 17 Annex 1 127 1.2 Objectives and Scope Annex 2 130 of the Evaluation 18 Annex 3 142 1.3 NAP Design and the context of its implementation 18 1.4 Context for NAP implementation 23 2 EVALUATION METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH 36 2.1 Evaluation Design 36 2.2 Data collection process 46 3 EVALUATION FINDINGS 50 3.1 Relevance 50 3.2 Effectiveness 56 3.3 Efficiency 81 3.4 Impact 86 3.5 Sustainability 94 3.6 NAP contribution to SDGs 98 4 CONCLUSIONS 105 5 LESSONS LEARNED AND BEST PRACTICES 111 6 Evaluation of the NAP for Gender Equality 2016–2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background and purpose information on which is based the assessment of the evaluation presented in this report. The Strategy for Gender Equality 2016–2020 with The Republic of Serbia has adopted National the National Action Plan for the period 2016–2018 Strategy for Gender Equality for period 2016– were adopted at a turning point when changes 2020 (henceforth Strategy) with action plan occurred in the institutional mechanisms for gender for period 2016–2018 (henceforth NAP) as equality, as well as broad political changes that overarching policy document that defines were marked with frequent elections and changes key priorities in the area of gender equality. of priorities in different policies significant for Coordination Body for Gender Equality of the gender equality, together with social and economic Republic of Serbia (henceforth CBGE), has conditions marked with recovery from the effects commissioned the evaluation of the NAP with of the economic crisis that hit Serbia in 2008, the support of UN Women Office in Serbia. and whose effects lasted longer than in some The independent evaluation was conducted by developed countries of the EU which recovered SeConS – Development Initiative Group, with much faster. The Strategy and the NAP were the aim to provide systematic insights in the composed and adopted in a very short period of implementation process and achieved results time, which affected certain solutions in the design and to provide recommendations for second and limited possibilities for broad consultations phase of the implementation of the Strategy. that had been implemented during preparation The evaluation was conducted in line with UN of the previous strategy. The assessment that it Women evaluation standards, with evaluation was important to rapidly and efficiently secure management group and evaluation reference a new strategic framework at the expense of a group supporting the evaluation team and high level of stakeholder participation is justified, with large participation of various relevant especially when compared to the processes of stakeholders. Evaluation applied OECD DAC1 the NAP preparation for the application of the UN evaluation criteria and is aligned with United Resolution 1325, which was actually characterized Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and by a high level of stakeholder participation and Standards for evaluation. The evaluation was long-lasting process of preparation, but afterwards conducted through 4 phases: inception phase, with the absence of implementation. data collection and analysis, validation and reporting. The process of evaluation included large number of stakeholders. Over 100 of Evaluat ion findings representatives of gender equality mechanisms, line ministries, public institutions, international Evaluation findings are presented with reference organizations, women’s, feminist and other CSOs to key evaluation criteria: relevance, effectiveness, engaged in gender equality issues, and experts efficiency, impact, and sustainability. In a separate were included in the process providing valuable chapter the NAP is assessed against the SDGs. 1 http://www.oecd.org/dac/evaluation/ daccriteriaforevaluatingdevelopmentassistance.htm Evaluation of the NAP for Gender Equality 2016–2018 7 Relevance 'K>^ Z>sE ŚĂŶŐĞĚŐĞŶĚĞƌƉĂƩĞƌŶƐĂŶĚŝŵƉƌŽǀĞĚŐĞŶĚĞƌĞƋƵĂůŝƚLJƐƚƌƵĐƚƵƌĞ /ŶĐƌĞĂƐĞĚĞƋƵĂůŝƚLJŽĨŵĞŶĂŶĚǁŽŵĞŶďLJŝŵƉůĞŵĞŶƟŶŐĞƋƵĂůŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƟĞƐ ƉŽůŝĐLJĂŶĚŵĞĂƐƵƌĞƐ ^LJƐƚĞŵͲǁŝĚĞŐĞŶĚĞƌŵĂŝŶƐƚƌĞĂŵŝŶŐŝŶƚŚĞƉŽůŝĐLJĂĚŽƉƟŽŶ͕ŝŵƉůĞŵĞŶƚĂƟŽŶĂŶĚ ŵŽŶŝƚŽƌŝŶŐƉƌŽĐĞƐƐĞƐ ,ĂǀŝŶŐůŝƩůĞ /ƚĐĂŶŶŽƚ EŽƌĞůĞǀĂŶĐĞ /ƚŝƐǀĞƌLJƌĞůĞǀĂŶƚ ďĞĞǀĂůƵĂƚĞĚ ƌĞůĞǀĂŶĐĞ Finding 1: Persistance of patriarchy stages of life, and yet is absent from the NAP in Serbia, and in the Balkan region in intervention logic and the NAP itself general, is still an obstacle for Gender Equality and thus issues under NAP are Finding 3: Majority of key stakeholders deemed to have a continuous relevance percieve NAP as relevant, but the often do not recognize their role in Relevance of NAP goals and objectives is NAP implementation and therefore unequivocal, as they have been targeting key often do not earmark financial and HR areas and problems of gender inequalities in resources for NAP related activities. Serbia. Some are even more relevant today than when the plan was designed, such as “improving Although majority of stakeholders recognize the gender equality competences of the public relevance of NAP goals, objectives, measures administration” because of the introduction of and activities, they do not recognize their role new mechanisms for planning and implementing in its implementation. Therefore, activities of policies, gender mainstreaming and gender different stakeholders, primarily ministries, responsive budgeting. The goals are particularly related to the improvement of gender equality relevant for the implementation of local gender are not sufficiently related to the NAP priorities, equality policies since there has been a low level measures and activities. of activity in their implementation. Finding 2: ToC for the GE Strategy Effectiveness and GE NAP is currently missing and without a comprehensive framework The analysis around the criteria of effectiveness to support coherent programming shows usually the
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