On the 19 May, 2021, EU TACSO 3 supported an on-line event on the “EU Gender Action Plan III and Kosovo Country Level Implementation Plan”,organised by the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN). The event is a part of   the consultation process to meet the needs of Gender Action plan III (GAP III), which requires all EU Delegations and offices in the region to prepare a GAP III Country Level Implementation Plan (CLIP). The CLIP also should be aligned with Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA III) funding windows and GAP III objectives.

The event was opened Hillen Francke, Deputy Head of EU Cooperation Section, who noted that the European Union adopted the Gender Action Plan (GAP) III, “An Ambitious Agenda for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in EU External Action” 2021-2025, in November 2020. Additionally, it was emphasized that the EU strives to have 85% of its contracts contribute to gender equality.

During the opening remarks, Tanja Hafner Ademi, Team Leader EU TACSO 3, highlighted the importance of the topic in the work of EU TACSO 3. The project, amongst many interventions, strives to have a strong gender balance in its activities, both in terms of organizations and participants taking part in project activities as well as of addressing topics of importance to gender equality. This is present in all regional events, for example on empowering women during COVID-19 times.

The main session started with a thorough presentation by KWN of EU GAP/CLIP. In the presentation, the linkage of the GAP/CLIP with other regulations was mentioned and reflection of  COVID-19 pandemic effect. The Plan has five pillars which include: engagement of EU offices for implementation, engagement of stakeholders for implementation, fields of engagement, best practices of implementation of CLIP and accountability. The areas of engagement focus on the main gender inequalities that exist in Kosovo. These sub-areas are listed to contribute to all five windows of IPA III.The implementation is dependent on the transformative approach of gender equality and it is required that all stakeholders provide their contribution to it. KWN drafted a short gender profile for Kosovo that will serve as a basis for CLIP and was shared after the event. This will be complementary to the input of CSOs.

The event concluded that there are many gender inequalities in Kosovo, and related GAP III objectives, which civil society actors believe are most important, should be in the focus of EU. Among other,the event aimed to avoid overlaps of efforts of other donors.

Find the presentation on GAP III here. For more information on GAP III/CLIP Kosovo consultations visit KWN website here.

Civil Society Organisations and other stakeholders were consulted on the GAP III and  CLIP in North Macedonia, too. To find more information on this please see the following link: https://tacso.eu/csos-and-stakeholders-consulted-on-the-eu-gender-action-plan-iii-and-north-macedonia-country-level-implementation-plan/

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.