On October 23, 2017, the Gender Equality Committee of the BiH Parliament’s House of Representatives held a thematic session on the topic of The Role of Research in Gender Equality Policy-Making. The thematic session was organized based on the initiative of the Gender Equality Agency of BiH within the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees BiH, with support of USAID/BiH MEASURE-BiH. The objective of the event was to present recent research relevant for gender equality in BiH and to stress the importance of empirical research and evidence in the process of gender policy development. More than 50 stakeholders, including members of the Gender Equality Committee, representatives of several State-level Ministries, international organizations, and CSOs participated in the session. The session was opened by Mirsad Isakovic, Chair of the Gender Equality Committee, Samra Filipovic-Hadziabdic, Director of the Gender Equality Agency of BiH, and Kent Larsson, Program Office Director in USAID/BiH. Naida
Carsimamovic Vukotic, MEASURE-BiH Chief of Party, presented the main findings
of MEASURE-BiH’s study on Difference in Development Priorities of Male
versus Female Politicians and Voters in BiH, available here. The Gender
Equality Agency of BiH held presentations on Role of Empirical Research in
Policy Decision-Making for Developing and Implementing the Gender Action Plan
of BiH and BiH and EU Gender Equality Index, while OSCE presented
its Research on Welfare and Safety of Women in Ten Countries of Western
Balkans. USAID/BiH’s new intervention Strengthening Capacities of
Institutions for Gender Equality in BiH to Address Gender-Based Violencewas also presented at the event by the implementer, the Gender Equality Agency
of BiH.
Session’s conclusions underlined that policy development, monitoring, and evaluation should be increasingly based on empirical evidence from continued data collection, research, and analyses. It was further concluded that high-quality research is the cornerstone of good policy-making and that it should be more present in policy-makers’ agendas and budgets. Finally, the decision-makers are encouraged to use research findings more.
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