UN Women - Programme support  2023-2027 - UN Women 2023 - 2027 UN Women - Programstöd  2023-2027 The overall programme objective is to ensure that "women and girls in North Macedonia benefit from accountable, transparent and gender-sensitive governance". The programme  also aims to achieve stronger synergies and strong local ownership of the results.
The theory of change is built around two outcomes, aimed at a long-term and sustainable ambition to integrate a gender perspective at all levels of government and to ensure gradual and systematic ownership by the government.
Support focuses on strengthening national mechanisms to ensure continued and sustainable capacity development, gender budgeting and systematic gender mainstreaming in administration and public finances. In addition, transparency and accountability will be strengthened by supporting the strengthening of the capacity of key supervisory institutions. The main institutions of EU rapprochement will be supported in transposing the EU acquis on gender equality into legislation and strategic documents, while using expertise in gender mainstreaming to promote the national strategy, policy and negotiation frameworks and their alignment with the EU acquis on gender equality.
The programme is in line with the priorities of the Strategy for Sweden's reform work in the Western Balkans and Turkey 2021–2027, with a focus on promoting democracy, human rights, the rule of law and gender equality. It also contributes to building peaceful and inclusive societies, as a sub-goal.
The implementation period of the programme is 42 months October 2023 - March 2027. The requested programme budget is SEK 22 million. In parallel with Sweden's support, parts of the activities are also supported by Switzerland and donor coordination will continue as before. Det övergripande målet för programmet är att se till att "kvinnor och flickor i Nordmakedonien gynnas av ansvarstagande, transparent och jämställdhetsmedveten samhällsstyrning". Programmet  syftar också till att uppnå starkare synergier och ett starkt lokalt ägarskap av resultaten.
Förändringsteorin är uppbyggd kring två utfall, som syftar till en långsiktig och hållbar ambition att integrera ett genusperspektiv på alla förvaltningsnivåer och att säkerställa ett gradvis och systematiskt ägarskap från statens sida.
Stödet är inriktat på att stärka de nationella mekanismerna för att säkerställa fortsatt och hållbar kapacitetsutveckling, jämställdhetsbudgetering och systematisk jämställdhetsintegrering i förvaltning och offentliga finanser. Dessutom kommer transparensen och ansvarsskyldigheten att stärkas genom stöd till stärkandet av de viktigaste tillsynsinstitutionernas kapacitet. De viktigaste institutionerna för EU:s närmande kommer att få stöd när det gäller att införliva EU:s regelverk om jämställdhet i lagstiftning och strategiska dokument, samtidigt som de använder sakkunskap om jämställdhetsintegrering för att främja de nationella strategierna, policy- och förhandlingsramarna och deras anpassning till EU:s regelverk om jämställdhet.
Programmet ligger i linje med prioriteringarna i Strategi för Sveriges reformarbete på västra Balkan och i Turkiet 2021–2027, med fokus på att främja demokrati, mänskliga rättigheter, rättsstatens principer och jämställdhet. Det bidrar också till att bygga fredliga och inkluderande samhällen, som ett delmål.
Programmets genomförandeperiod är 42 månader, oktober 2023 - mars 2027. Den sökta programbudgeten är 22 miljoner kronor. Parallellt med Sveriges stöd stöds även delar av verksamheten av Schweiz och givarsamordningen kommer att fortsätta som tidigare. The Republic of North Macedonia has committed to achieving gender equality and women empowerment by becoming a signatory of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the UN Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), the Istanbul Convention, and by implementing EU related reforms framed with the Stabilization and Association Agreement and relevant Negotiation Chapters. Moreover, the Government program (2022-2024) highlights among its priority areas the promotion of gender equality policies, women empowerment, and increased participation of women and other disadvantaged and marginalized groups in all spheres of political, economic and public life. 

However, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the global crises caused by the Ukrainian conflict, and the intensified gender backlash are causing widening of the existing gender inequalities and negatively effect the most vulnerable groups and rural communities.

UN Women is a trusted implementing partner to Sweden, and a well-established partner in gender equality area to the Government and to the institutions in North Macedonia.

During the period 2018-2023, Sweden joined Switzerland in support of the Gender Responsive Budgeting  project (contribution by Sweden 14.2 MSEK), and during 2020-2023 the Gender Equality Facility  project (contribution by Sweden 16.4 MSEK), implemented by UN Women. Both projects have been successfully implemented and achieved noticeable results in the gender responsive budgeting at central and local level, and in mainstreaming gender in the institutions and transposing EU gender equality acquis in the national legislation. The external evaluation of the Gender Responsive Budgeting project assesses that the project was effectively implemented, the results are achieved to the greatest extent and processes were advanced in many ways, particularly in regard to awareness raising of Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) importance, and mobilization of women to request local policies and measures in line with their needs and capacities and mobilization of civil society to promote and safeguard GRB processes are increased.

The Embassy's assessment is that the two projects have in general terms achieved the planned results, and coordinated with each-other on priorities and project activities. However, they remained working in silos, and failed to define synergies and to build on achieved results of each-other. 

The programme  Support to Gender Responsive Governance of North Macedonia 2023-2027/ Programme support to U/N Women 2023-2027, is a unified programme that brings the two previous projects under one framework, aiming to achieve stronger synergies, and strong local ownership of results under the  contribution.

The overall programme goal is to ensure that "women and girls in North Macedonia benefit from accountable, transparent and gender responsive governance." 

The theory of change of the suggested programme is structured around two outcomes, geared towards sustainability of longstanding efforts to mainstream gender at all levels of governance, and to ensure gradual and systemic ownership by the Government.

With this contribution Sweden will provide support to advancement of the Government of North Macedonia in gender equality and in promotion of civil society and women participation in decision making through gender responsive policies and budgeting processes. It will focus on strengthening the role of the national gender mechanism in ensuring continued and sustainable capacity development on gender responsive budgeting, and systematic integration of gender perspective in the public finance management. Further, strengthening of oversight and accountability mechanisms through increased engagement and capacity strengthening of key oversight institutions will be supported. The key EU integration institutions  will be supported to transpose the EU Gender Equality Acquis in the legislation and strategic documents, while utilizing gender mainstreaming expertise for the advancement of the national legislative, strategic, policy and negotiation frameworks, and their alignment with the EU Gender Equality acquis.

The expected programme results are aligned with the National development priorities set in the UNSDCF 2021-2025 and contribute towards achieving its expected long-term results under the Outcome 4- the Good Governance strategic pillar.

The programme is in line with the priorities in the strategy for Sweden's reform work in the Western Balkans and Turkey 2021-2027, with a focus on promoting democracy, human rights, rule of law and gender equality. It also contributes to building Peaceful and inclusive societies, as a strong sub-goal.

The programme implementing period is 42 months October 2023- March 2027. The requested programme budget is 22 MSEK.

The Embassy assesses that the proposed programme is relevant and timely in light to the country's priorities: the Government programme 2020-2024, and in favor of fulfillment of commitments with the signed CEDAW, BPfA, Istanbul Convention and EU accession related reforms. The suggested programme builds on results and lessons learned from the predecessor projects, and it benefits from the expertise and accumulated knowledge at UN Women both at regional and country level.

The planned support includes the most relevant stakeholders like the Parliament; Ministry of labor and social policy, Secretariat for European Affairs; Ministry of finance, Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister in Charge of Good Governance Policies; State Statistical Office; State Audit Office central institutions, municipal authorities and the Civil Society Organizations, which creates an opportunity to approach the planned objectives at several levels and to achieve significant results.

The program approach shall be monitored and strengthened based on lessons learned during this programme implementation, and in coordination with other programmes that have taken similar approach (UNDP).

Based on the above -mentioned assessments, it is proposed that Sweden supports the program UN Women - Programme support 2023-2027 with 22 MSEK during the period October 2023- March 2027.