Since 2016, in cooperation with the Gender Centres of the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS), UN Women CO BiH has been supporting the formation of new and the work of existing multisectoral teams for domestic violence prevention across the country. These teams, commonly comprising different stakeholders such as social welfare centres, police, health centres, municipalities and educational institutions, are indeed a testament that the response to domestic violence must be systemic and organised. We discussed the extent of the impact of cooperation and high-quality joint work for violence prevention and the protection of survivors with Indira Mehić Čejvan, director of the Social Welfare Centre in Jajce, a small town in the central part of BiH. Here the cooperation of various institutions had brought visible results. Mehić Čejvan, who is also the president of the Association of Social Workers of Central Bosnia Canton, explains the background of establishing a multisectoral team in Jajce, what makes it successful and why it is important for the local community. When was the multisectoral team for the prevention of domestic violence in Jajce set up and which institutions are represented in this team? Jajce was among the first local communities in FBiH to sign the Protocol on Interventions in Domestic Violence Cases in December 2012. As the next step, the Social Welfare Centre signed an agreement with non-governmental organisations on the introduction of 1265 helpline, which is still in use today. All local institutions of relevance had signed the Protocol. The most important for us was that the mayor of the Jajce Municipality, the Police Department and the Jajce police station, the Municipal Court and the Health Centre were involved in all activities, in addition to the Social Welfare Centre. Then, in 2018, we revised the Protocol in accordance with the new Law on Domestic Violence Prevention. Today, our multisectoral team comprises 12 members. Apart from previously mentioned institutions, it also includes representatives of primary and secondary schools, as well as the Mental Health Centre. Which activities of the multisectoral team would you single out as the most significant? We had a number of activities carried out, and initially, it was essential to raise awareness of the local community about the actual existence of domestic violence. During that time, our multisectoral team had awareness raising activities for the population in local communities. At first with a modest turnout of only 10 or 15 participants, but later it grew to become an enormous response. In those days, we educated several thousand residents on domestic violence and the rights of victims. Also, Jajce, as a small local community, does not have a safe house and social workers from the Social Welfare Centre pointed out this problem, which needed to be addressed more adequately. An initiative was filed with the Jajce Municipality, seeking a housing unit to accommodate domestic violence victims and the response was positive. We also received a donation from the Embassy of Germany to equip the housing unit. We named it Reception Centre for Victims of Violence and Victims of Human Trafficking. To what extent are other institutions, apart from the Social Welfare Centre, interested in participating in the multisectoral team and committed to the fight against domestic violence and gender-based violence? By the nature of its work, the Social Welfare Centre is the driver and initiator of activities. But we never had any obstacles – directors of institutions, as well as representatives of governmental and non-governmental sectors, responded to our every invitation and meeting, not only on domestic violence, but also other problems. This in itself is a testament of good cooperation. For example, if a judge from the Municipal Court or another professional from another institution that is a signatory to the Protocol notices a problem related to violence, especially violence against children, then the multisectoral team schedules a meeting and tries to find a solution to the problem or possibly introduce certain preventive measures at the local level. Also, the multisectoral team holds trainings in schools for teachers and students on the topic of combating domestic violence and peer violence. How much did the support and supervision of the Gender Centre FBiH with facilitation of UN Women contribute in strengthening the multisectoral team, how significant was it to you as practitioners? Talking about the support of the FBiH Gender Centre in strengthening the work of the multisectoral team in the local community, the fact is that without their support, both financial and professional, there would not have been a more serious approach and work on the topic of combating domestic violence. The key to solving many issues is in regular meetings of the team members, as well as in joint action aimed at preventing the occurrence of violence. Also, the exchange of experiences and knowledge from all sectors additionally resulted in a faster response on the ground. The FBiH Gender Centre also supported the education of professionals from all sectors. Have you noticed changes that illustrate positive progress in combating domestic violence in your community, and if so, what is the role of the multisectoral team in this? Following the adoption of the new Law on Protection Against Domestic Violence and thanks to the work of the multisectoral team in our municipality, 66 protective measures were ordered from 2014 to today, and we were recognisable in FBiH for that. It is certainly not only owing to the Social Welfare Centre, but because of the work of the multisectoral team. Also, this was achieved especially thanks to the judge working on domestic violence cases in the Jajce Municipal Court. In cooperation with all other members of the team, this judge decided to impose protective measures – its implementation was later monitored by other institutions. This shows that the work of the multisectoral team certainly had an impact. Let me note that in Jajce we have 28 local communities, and representatives from all 28 attended trainings on domestic violence. We thus demonstrated that the work of the team on the grassroot level is highly beneficial. We in the Social Welfare Centres are in trenches. Or in other words, we are first responders in reaching out to citizens who are in a state of social need. It’s very difficult to work in a local community where you don’t have an understanding of basic things – for example, to provide professionals with adequate working conditions and financing. If there is no such thing, I assume that people are not even motivated to give their best in certain areas. In the Central Bosnia Canton, all 12 local communities have signed intervention protocols in cases of domestic violence, and this is the success of the Association of Social Workers. Needless to say, success in these communities is dependent on support at the local level, but it is clear that certain activities aimed at combating domestic violence are carried out in all communities.

The action is supporting women entrepreneurs, young people and other vulnerable workers. With this support, the textile companies managed to grow and create jobs even during the pandemic. Textile companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina were facing numerous challenges during the pandemic. Orders and sales significantly dropped, and supply chains were disrupted, making the purchase of raw materials too difficult from early February 2020. The industry estimates that that every third job lost during the pandemic in the country occurred in the textile sector.

The European Union-funded project EU4Business Recovery provides financial and technical support to the textile industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina mitigating the impact of the pandemic on sales and jobs. ILO is one of the implementing agencies supporting 29 local companies in the textile business including clothing, leather and footwear production. Project support includes purchasing new equipment and raw materials, productivity training based on the ILO SCORE training package , and access to new markets. At a recently organized fashion show in Banja Luka ILO met with some of the companies that benefitted from the EU4Business Recovery Program.

CatWalk achieved more than planned

Established in 2012, CatWalk from Sarajevo has specialized in women’s clothing and runs a retail store in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“The project has significantly improved our business and helped us overcome the negative effects of the years spent in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Ema Burdžović, CEO of CatWalk. Crucial contributions from the project were support in starting to export to the European Union, opening a web-shop, as well as a new retail store in the region. “We are launching our new product line – swimsuits - and have improved our production processes by purchasing software for clothes design,” Ema continues listing the company’s accomplishments. Originally, the management planned to create five new jobs with the project support. Ema proudly points out that that aim was not only achieved but eventually exceeded. “With the support we received from the ILO, we doubled the number of our workers, from 12 to 24”. Ten new jobs for Sana Linea

Another company supported by the project is Sana Linea, a textile company with a long history from Kostajnica, northern BiH. Established in 1947, the company currently employs 74 workers and is an entirely women-led business. They have 13 retail stores across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and two in Serbia.

“Through this support, we managed to modernize our production by purchasing special machinery and hired 10 new workers. We also developed our web shop and webpage so we can reach out to new customers. We have started exporting to EU,” says Marijana Bučevac, CEO of Sana Linea. About the project:  The ILO, in partnership with the German Development Agency (GIZ) and UNDP implements an EU-funded project “COVID-19 Investment Response – EU4Business Recovery “ to support the recovery of BiH economy from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall objective of the project is to provide emergency support to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to ensure their business continuity, retain more than 1,000 jobs, and create at least 100 new jobs, especially supporting women entrepreneurs, young people and other vulnerable groups.

Journalists who are reporting on this topic face non-transparent institutions, lack of interlocutor, financial and editorial support. Journalists and editors from the Western Balkans point out that the media are not focused on reporting on gender-responsive budgeting, as emphasised in the discussion during the UN Women Online Regional Dialogue “Media Reporting on Gender-Responsive Budgeting”, held on 12 September 2022. Reason for this is the lack of knowledge among journalists and editors on gender-responsive budgeting, and insufficient awareness of the importance of reporting on gender equality issues. “Budget reporting should be more focused on what the people need and on the problems that they face on a daily basis. Media coverage can and should encourage citizens to follow processes related to public finances and budget, and show them how they can be involved and advocate for issues that matter to them; and they can generally contribute to the transparency of  public spending,” says Ermira Lubani, Gender-Responsive Budeting  Programme Specialist in UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office. Insufficient media coverage of gender-responsive budgeting is also caused by the non-transparent institutions that rarely base their decisions on budget allocations on the principles of gender-responsive budgeting and rarely speak about it in public. Research conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina by Mediacentar Sarajevo and UN Women shows that the media outlets report on budgets on a regular basis, but the coverage usually boils down to political disputes, curt indicative figures, press statements and politicians’ general statements about the budget. „There is a lack of analytical articles about budgetary proceedings written by journalists, especially from a gender perspective. Inquiry into specific budget items, its spending and budget scrutiny in terms of whether it ensures equal and fair distribution for all, is simply not the way how the mainstream media report on budgets,” says Selma Zulić Šiljak, co-author of the research. „Study on Media Reporting on Gender Responsive Budgeting in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2020”  is the first research on this topic conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the research, 40 per cent of journalists who participated in the survey answered that they are not familiar with gender-responsive budgeting and only 10 per cent of them answered that they have already covered gender-responsive budgeting, but only on rare occasions. Zulić Šiljak explains that the conducted research indicated the necessity of training for journalists and editors on gender-responsive budgeting. In March 2022, Mediacentar and UN Women held a training for BiH journalists to introduce them to gender-responsive budgeting, raise the journalists’ awareness on this topic and increase the volume of media reports. Journalist Slađan Tomić, who attended the training, says that he was not familiar with gender-responsive budgeting before the training, despite seven years of journalistic experience. The knowledge he acquired during the training prompted him to report on this topic. “By learning about budgets and how budgets can be gender-responsive, especially about the benefits, I gained basic knowledge about gender-responsive budgeting and how the media can report on it,” said Tomić. Journalists from the region share similar experiences and challenges Although research on media reporting on gender-responsive budgeting has not been conducted in the entire Western Balkans, the experiences show that journalists in the region face similar challenges in reporting on this topic. Journalists and editors from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo* and Serbia who participated in the UN Women Online Regional Dialogue organized by Mediacentar Sarajevo and UN Women state that the media in the Western Balkans are generally not interested in reporting on gender-responsive budgeting. Journalists agree that the rare media coverage of this topic causes lack of knowledge of journalists about economic and gender issues. “We don’t have many journalists who are focused on the economy and this is the problem because younger journalists have difficulties to understand and be involved in this sector. It is a challenge to explain to journalists issues in economy and the importance of gender-responsive budgeting,”,says Aurora Sulçe, executive producer for business of A2 CNN in Albania. However, journalists who report on these topics face difficulties in accessing information and lack of transparency of institutions. Documents and data published by institutions are often insufficient for journalistic stories, while institutions do not help by enabling timely access to additional information. “A significant number of employees in institutions do not understand what gender-responsive budgets are, and we have to make an extra effort to explain to them what we are looking for or to find those who understand the issue. Journalists who report on this topic face numerous obstacles even to get basic information on gender-responsive programmes,” explains Selma Učanbarlić, freelance journalist from Bosnia and Hercegovina. Milica Janjatović from Novi Sad School of Journalism states that the lack of transparency of institutions is a smaller problem compared to the lack of media interest in this topic. “There is certain information publicly available that could be a good start for media stories, but the media are the ones who need to put the pressure on the institutions, to ask them to be more transparent and to provide more information. The institutions will not do it by themselves, the media outlets have to do it,” explains Janjatović. Journalists also say that it is difficult to find adequate interlocutors, users of public funds and experts. Sulçe explains that women often refuse to speak publicly and believes that this is the case because men are still dominant in the media environment. „I can’t explain why they sometimes felt unsure to share their arguments and to be part of public opinion. Women must have a much more active role in society, and also be a role model in the media. Those women can help us journalists discuss more about gender equality,” emphasizes Sulçe. Also, journalists state that newsrooms and editors do not consider it necessary to invest time and resources in order to cover this topic. Hilma Unkić, freelance journalist from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who presented her experience in reporting on gender-responsive budgeting, says that journalists need support in order to produce quality media content. „First of all, journalists need to have editors who are familiar with the topic, who are patient to give us enough time to work on these topics, and, of course, to give us resources to do a quality story,” adds Unkić. Mediacentar and UN Women research points out that continuous and in-depth coverage of the overall process related to budget drafting, adoption and execution is needed. „This will make citizens aware of the importance of budgets and clarify their role and their power to influence the budget creation process, which may improve the exercise of their human rights and equality of all persons,“ the research states. Slow but visible progress Despite all the challenges, journalists believe that progress was made in the promotion of gender equality in the Western Balkans in the previous period, as well as in the media approach to the topic of gender-responsive budgeting. They say the progress was influenced by the support that UN Women provides to the countries of  Western Balkans as they set global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented. Since 2020, UN Women has been implementing the program “Transformative financing for gender equality towards more transparent, inclusive and accountable governance in the Western Balkans”, supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The programme is designed to support governments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo* and Serbia with the overall goal to enhance the systematic integration of gender equality at all stages of national and local policymaking and budgeting processes in the Western Balkans. Journalists and editors say that much needs to be improved in societies in order to raise awareness on gender equality and to familiarize citizens with gender-responsive budgeting. Despite the numerous inequalities that citizens face on a daily basis, they are still not familiar with the processes and mechanisms that are available to them in realizing their rights, according to journalists. “We need to put the pressure on media to start reporting and in that way the general public will be more acquainted with what needs to be done in order to achieve gender equality,” says Janjatović. Journalists and editors from the Western Balkans conclude that the media plays a crucial role in promoting gender equality and putting pressure on decision makers to allocate public money in a fair manner, while taking into account and respecting the needs of all citizens. In their opinion, professional and responsible work of the media maintains democracy and trust in the governing institutions and influences political responsibility. *All references to Kosovo, whether the territory, institutions, or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo. Conversations held by journalist Selma Učanbarlić whilst reposting on gender-responsible budgeting within UNWOMEN - media partnership on the topic.  

These teams typically consist of various institutions relevant for combating domestic violence, such as social work centers, police, health centers, municipalities, educational institutions. One such team was formed in 2017 in Novi Travnik. We discussed the importance of the multisectoral team, the activities done so far, but also the challenges they face in their work, with the team coordinator and employee of the Center for Social Work in this municipality, Ms. Neda Kapetan. How did the establishment of the multisectoral team in Novi Travnik come about and which institutions joined it? The process of establishment was long and begun at the end of 2016 when a coordinating body for the prevention and protection of survivors of domestic violence was formed in the Central Bosnia Canton. After that, we realized that it is best to take preventive activities to the local level because the problems are most specifically solved "in your own home". A multisectoral team was formed in Novi Travnik in 2017, but at the start it was big because it included representatives of all primary and secondary schools. The following year, when we formally established the team, we realized that such a large team would have been difficult to work with, so today we have six members. They are representatives of the social work center, the police, the health center, the municipality, one primary and one secondary school. I think we made the right move because now collaboration is easier. What is the importance of a multisectoral team and what is your main task? The basic function of the team is prevention and protection of survivors of domestic violence. Thanks to the support of the Gender Center of Federation of BiH and UN Women BiH, we implemented several projects aimed, above all, at strengthening the capacity of the team members themselves, then the wider community, and the youngest generation, in order to educate them about violence. Thanks to this team, communication between the different institutions has significantly improved, because now the flow of information is much better. Earlier, it would often have happened that we were missing information about activities carried out by an institution in the field of protection against domestic violence. Nevertheless, I think that these initiatives should not come exclusively from the NGO sector, and that their continuity needs to be maintained. So far, no multisectoral team has been recognized through the budget of municipalities, and the coordination body in the area of the Central Bosnia Canton was not financed by authorities, although the authorities have officially appointed us. We never received compensation for working in the multisectoral team. Instead we are financed through projects. In addition to a volatile financial source of funding, what are the biggest challenges facing the multisectoral team? People leave certain functions and work tasks, so it can be difficult for new people to decide to join the team. Not everyone is sensitized the same or wants to do this kind of work. Lately, collaboration   between the police station and the Center for Social Work has been very good, and we are in contact very often in relation to cases of domestic violence. However, it is a devastating fact that from 2016 to 2018, we had an average of seven protective measures imposed annually at the municipality level, and that from 2019 to date, only two protective measures have been imposed. I believe that cooperation with the police must be better here, and that new people who get hired as inspectors should be further strengthened and educated. Also, at the meetings of the multisectoral team, we often get in a position to talk about specific cases of violence, but I believe that we should still focus on prevention. Have you noticed that women in Novi Travnik have become more empowered to recognize and report domestic violence? There's an anecdote that shows me that something is happening in the field, that people know that there a certain team exists and that things are functioning. A colleague once found himself in a shopping mall and two women were talking in front of him. One told the other that her daughter was having marital problems and that she had been suffering from violence. The other one told her that there was a social work center and that she needed to contact us, and that we would take care of it. I think it's our biggest indicator that people know they can reach out to us and get support. I would also add that another good indicator is the empowerment of survivors, who went through the system with a multisectoral approach, which included the path from the imposition of protective measures, the initiation of criminal proceedings for violence, to the provision of psychosocial support. We often witness that the survivors themselves point out that they have been strengthened through the process, and in many cases, they have empowered themselves and started a new life. What needs to be done in the future is to find an effective model of economic empowerment for survivors of violence. Very often the reason why women do not choose to report violence is because they are financially dependent on the abuser. We also need to think about effective ways of preventive action in rural areas, because it is noticeable that reports of violence mainly come from women living in the urban area. I believe the youngest generations must be educated and sensitized about zero tolerance to violence, and I firmly believe that it is not too early to start such programs at the preschool age, because in the long term that is the only way to influence the change of awareness among new generations.