Localization of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Bosnia and Herzegovina: From Words to Action

Real social progress is reflected in the willingness of local communities to openly discuss problems, seek solutions together with citizens and, ultimately, take concrete action that leads to change. Through the Women Lead the Way towards Peace and Security in Bosnia and Herzegovina programme, supported by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), communities across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are putting this approach into practice to support the greater and more equal participation of women in peacebuilding processes. In doing so, the programme is helping advance an important process launched in the country more than a decade ago – the localization of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda.

From May to July 2025, more than 350 people took part in 15 community dialogues organized through the programme. The idea was simple: to bring together representatives of local institutions, non-governmental organizations and interested citizens to identify challenges, discuss opportunities and agree on concrete steps to advance peace and security in their communities.

The dialogues were held in cooperation with municipalities and cities across Bosnia and Herzegovina – Zavidovići, Mostar, Stolac, Gacko, Nevesinje, Trebinje, Cazin, Bihać, Velika Kladuša, Prijedor, Srebrenica, Rogatica, Novo Goražde, Kotor Varoš, Foča, Višegrad and Ljubuški. Local institutions hosted the discussions, provided venues and brought participants together, helping anchor the process in existing local structures. This cooperation also demonstrated the willingness of local authorities to actively advance the WPS Agenda.

Most importantly, the process did not end with dialogue. Communities identified their own priorities and then moved towards concrete activities designed to address them.

In Zavidovići, for example, participants highlighted the need to make local community premises more accessible to women and to increase women’s participation in local community councils. In Mostar, the focus was on women’s everyday safety, including better lighting and safer access to public spaces. In Gacko and Nevesinje, demographic decline and the departure of young people were identified as major challenges, placing an increasing burden on women who remain in these communities.

One priority that emerged across almost all communities was women’s economic empowerment. Women, particularly in rural areas, face economic insecurity that directly affects their ability to participate in public and political life. Their marginalization is further compounded by limited employment opportunities, poor access to resources and information, low levels of women’s entrepreneurship and limited property ownership.

Reskilling for Employment

Prijedor is one of the communities where women’s economic empowerment was identified as a priority, both through discussions with women and in the city’s Gender Action Plan for 2024–2027. Building on these priorities, the City of Prijedor proposed an activity under the programme, in partnership with the PREDA Development Agency, to enable women to complete vocational retraining for occupations where there is demand in the labour market – assistant cooks and caregivers.

The Employment Bureau of Republika Srpska confirmed a shortage of workers in these occupations. Nada Zorić, Head of the Department for Professional and Administrative Affairs and Gender Equality Coordinator of the City of Prijedor, therefore believes that participants will have good prospects of finding employment after completing the training.

“Through our conversations with women, and based on one simple sentence – If I had a job of my own, everything would be different – we came up with this activity”, says Zorić.

Currently, five women are enrolled in a vocational retraining programme for assistant cooks at the Hospitality and Economics School, while thirteen are enrolled in a vocational retraining programme for caregivers at the Secondary Medical School. Zorić says they have already received positive feedback from the teaching staff about the participants’ strong commitment.

Women’s economic empowerment can be an important starting point for stronger engagement in community life, including peacebuilding processes. Greater financial stability can provide women with more security and space to contribute their time and knowledge to their communities, strengthen their families and support other women.

“If we can help even one family, one woman, in this way, I think that is a huge success. Trainings and meetings are held and then come to an end, but when you receive your diploma, find a job and go to work every day, that represents enormous progress for a woman in terms of empowerment, self-confidence, and being able to support her family”, says Zorić.

Connecting Participants from Different Cities

Cazin is another city where the programme is supporting the localization of the WPS Agenda. The city has already adopted a Gender Action Plan for 2025–2028, with funds allocated in the city budget for its implementation.

Zemira Sejdinović, Economic Affairs Associate and Gender Equality Coordinator for the City of Cazin, notes that one of the plan’s objectives is the economic empowerment of women, particularly those living in rural areas.

“I can say that, for several years now, the City has continuously provided programmes to support business development for marginalized groups of women and other marginalized groups and a significant number of them have started their own businesses. Women in rural areas are setting up home-based businesses and generating income within their households.”

Cazin also hosted one of the community dialogues, bringing together participants from different sectors, including the police, social welfare centre, education, culture and tourism, women’s associations, associations of cancer patients and organizations dedicated to preserving traditional crafts. Women municipal councillors also took part, further strengthening the discussion on women’s political participation.

Alongside the local dialogues, the programme has created opportunities for representatives of municipalities and cities to exchange experiences on implementing the WPS Agenda. Sejdinović participated in two such training sessions with colleagues from across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“The meetings I have attended so far on the Women, Peace and Security agenda have helped us get to know one another across different local communities and exchange examples of our practices.”

For local officials who often face similar challenges, these exchanges provide an opportunity not only to gain knowledge, but also to discuss what works in practice, learn from one another and identify shared solutions. The contacts and trust built through the process can continue long after individual training sessions or projects end.

Zorić also emphasizes the value of learning how other municipalities and cities address similar challenges, providing practical examples that can be adapted locally.

“You always hear something new, and you are impressed by how someone found a simple solution to something you had been struggling with. And then we stay in touch even after we return to our local communities. Our Women, Peace and Security Viber group is active and continues to function. We use it for the purposes of this project, but it also serves us as a space to exchange experiences on other topics”, says Zorić.

Gender Action Plans as a Basis for Further Steps: From the State to the Local Level

Another important part of localization is translating WPS priorities into local policies and plans that can guide action over time.

Through the programme, Gračanica and Jablanica identified the development of local Gender Action Plans as a priority. While Gračanica already had such a strategic document in place until 2025, Jablanica had not developed a Gender Action Plan for several years.

“They asked us to engage an external consultant who could help them analyse the state of gender equality, jointly define strategic directions and prepare the first draft. We expect these initial drafts in August or September”, explains Emir Kustura, Project Coordinator at the Centers for Civic Initiatives, the organization implementing this activity.

The new Gender Action Plans in Gračanica and Jablanica will include measures aimed at increasing women’s participation in peacebuilding and security processes, translating WPS priorities into concrete local measures and activities.

“In practical terms, this means that these Gender Action Plans will cover the prevention of violence against women, protection of survivors, stronger cooperation between institutions and greater participation of women in decision-making and security-related processes. At the local level, this will be achieved through better cooperation between municipalities, the police, social welfare centers, schools, and healthcare institutions”, says Kustura.

Strategic documents of this kind can support more systemic change by setting out a community’s priorities and defining the actions needed to address them.

“The most practical and direct way to localize the Women, Peace and Security agenda is precisely by integrating it into local Gender Action Plans. It is also possible that awareness is changing in local communities about the importance of these documents, as we currently have other cities that are also interested in developing their own Gender Action Plans. I hope we will succeed in this”, says Kustura.

Bosnia and Herzegovina began localizing the Women, Peace and Security agenda more than a decade ago through the development and adoption of local WPS action plans by municipal councils. By placing greater emphasis on human security, these efforts brought attention to women’s everyday safety concerns – from protection against gender-based violence and discrimination to access to legal protection, education, healthcare and economic resources, as well as infrastructure-related issues such as landmines, inadequate street lighting and limited public transport.

As explained by the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AGEBiH), local Gender Action Plans and WPS plans are usually grounded in the national Gender Action Plan and the Action Plan for the Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace and Security. Sharing knowledge and experience between institutions at different levels is therefore an important part of translating national commitments into local action.

As part of the programme, AGEBiH organized a three-day training in September, bringing together representatives of local authorities, institutions responsible for gender equality and civil society organizations. Working with concrete challenges from local communities, participants analysed the current situation, explored how WPS principles could be applied in practice and discussed how its priorities could be incorporated into local Gender Action Plans.

“The implementation of local action plans is more than simply advancing the WPS agenda. It can also provide strong examples of effective public policy within a highly fragmented and unstable political environment”, says Kika Babić-Svetlin, Expert Adviser at the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

External support to communities is most effective when it responds to priorities and security concerns identified locally. This is why localization matters: it creates a framework through which broader Women, Peace and Security commitments can respond to the everyday realities of women and girls in individual communities.

“UNSCR 1325 can have a genuinely positive impact on women and girls in local communities. Although the results of localization may not be immediately visible, there are already strong qualitative examples of the difference that local action plans can make”, concludes Babić-Svetlin.

Women Lead the Way towards Peace and Security in Bosnia and Herzegovina is jointly implemented by UN Women Bosnia and Herzegovina, IOM Bosnia and Herzegovina and UNFPA Bosnia and Herzegovina, in partnership with the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with support from the United Nations Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF).