Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women

Various indicators confirm that gender inequalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) persist, despite certain progress. UNDPs Human Development Index value for BIH in 2021 is lower for females than for males (0.754 and 0.802, respectively); female participation in the labour force is only 32.26%; and the Gender Development Index that measures gender gaps in human development achievements by accounting for disparities between women and men in three basic dimensions of human development – health, knowledge and living standard, is at 0.940 which indicates a significant room for improvement. Life expectancy of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina is at 77.5 years, whereas that of men is 73.1 years. For women expected years of schooling are 14.1 years (13.5 years for men), mean years of schooling for women are at 9.8 years and 11.4 years for men. However, there is a major gender gap in income. Women have 10,709 USD GNI per capita and for men it is at 19,917 USD, with women making only 53.7% income of men.

Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women

UNDP places gender equality and the empowerment of women at the centre of its development approach. For this reason gender equality principles are at the core of the mandate of UNDP with being one of six signature solutions within current UNDPs Strategic Plan. Gender equality also represents an important accelerator for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the UNDP Country Office level gender equality work is being guided by its own Gender Equality Strategy and Action Plan (2021-2025) which provides a localised roadmap to reach the objectives of the corporate UNDP Gender Equality Strategy (2022-2025), and is an important tool for operationalising the gender actions in the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2021-2025) and Country Programme Document for BiH (2021-2025), and broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UNDP CO BiH Strategy and Gender Action Plan is guided by the following objectives:

  • Establish gender equality as a cross-cutting issue across CO programming and intensify efforts towards gender mainstreaming;
  • Increase programme development and fundraising efforts towards gender/empowerment of women specific programming efforts;
  • Ensure that gender analysis and planning are introduced into all strategic CO activities and initiatives at the outset at the design and concept stage;
  • Establish internal coordination for gender equality results, including by creating a multi-disciplinary gender focal team by gradual capacity development of staff in programming and mainstreaming gender in their thematic sectors;
  • Build and expand partnerships with government entities, UN agencies, civil society, private sector, grassroots women´s groups and other stakeholders for advocacy and broad ownership of UN goals;
  • Facilitate CO compliance with the Gender Seal process and ensure smooth implementation of the CO Improvement Plan, anchoring and interconnecting the two related streams of action. 

As stated above, UNDP Country Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina has enrolled in the global UNDPs Gender Equality Seal (2021-2023) initiative that generates incentives for solid work on gender equality and helps to improve organizational efficiency to deliver results and greater consistency of performance.