About the Programme
Background info
Montenegrin society, despite rapid developments in the process of EU accession, remains highly patriarchal. Even though Constitution, national legislation and internal obligations guarantee women in Montenegro the full enjoyment of their social, economic and political rights, traditional gender stereotypes, progress towards gender equality has been slow because of poor implementation of existing policies and commitments and lack of financial support to responsible institutions and agencies. A combination of structural gender inequality and cultural factors result in multiple forms of discrimination and continuously deprive women of their rights.
Since the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women is central to the mandate of UNDP and intrinsic to its development approach, UNDP is leading strategic process in order to advance gender equality agenda in line with international frameworks (EU & UN) and development priorities of the country, while led by the most positive experiences of Nordic countries.
Our key institutional partner in gender equality are the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights-Department for Gender Equality, but we also cherish strong cross-institutional partnerships and cooperation with CSOs, as well as the Parliament and its Committee for Gender Equality. Recent partnership surveys showed that our gender partners in particular value our work on awareness raising and on strengthening cooperation and communication between the public authorities and women's organizations.
What do we do?
In March 2011, we started implementing Gender IPA Programme, which continued in 2016 through the next phase of IPA funds, through the Programme ''Support to Anti-Discrimination and Gender Equality Policies''. Main goals have been defined in accordance with the National Action Plan for Gender Equality:
- Fight against violence in family
- Economic empowerment of women
- Empowerment of women in politics and decision making
In parallel to that, we are also focusing on two broader cross-cutting issues, namely
- Raising awareness of the general population on human rights of marginalized groups, as well as raising the level of information among the discriminated about their rights in order to achieve decreased level of discrimination in Montenegro
- Contributing to capacity building of the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights to increase knowledge and skills, improve coordination related to anti-discrimination and gender equality with other relevant national and local institutions
How do we work?
Our approach is three-fold, and consists of:
1. Changing attitudes and perceptions through awareness raising work;
2. Strengthening the governance and accountability for human rights and gender equality through improved strategic and policy frameworks;
3. Developing human capital for the gender equality through tailored training programs.
More detailed information about specific programme components are provided under the designated categories.