Midterm Evaluation Report (30-06-2010)_final

Mid-term Evaluation UNIFEM Project “Women Building Peace and Human Security in the Western Balkans: Implementing UN SCR 1325Phase II 2008 - 2011” Final Report June 30, 2010 Evaluation Te

Mid-term Evaluation UNIFEM Project “Women Building Peace and Human Security in the Western Balkans: Implementing UN SCR 1325

Phase II (2008 - 2011)”

Final Report

June 30, 2010

Evaluation Team:

Kerstin Eppert, Team Leader

Zehra Kačapor, National Expert Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kushtrim Shaipi, National Expert Kosovo (under UN SCR 1244)

Table of Content

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

3 Evaluation Scope and Methods p 10

4 Context and Data Analysis p 10

4.1 Context analysis for Bosnia and Herzegovina p 10

4.2 Analysis of project-specific data in Bosnia and Herzegovina p.14

4.2.1 Collaboration between UNIFEM and the Trans-cultural Psychosocial

4.2.4 UNIFEM-EUFOR-ZZ collaboration with the European Police Mission p.21

4.2.5 Establishing partnerships at national level: the Agency for Gender Equality p 22

4.3 Context Analysis for Kosovo (under UN SCR 1244) p.23

4.4 Analysis of project-specific data in Kosovo (under UN SCR 1244) p.264.4.1 Advocacy and coordination in support of women’s human rights and security p.264.4.2 Capacity development for women’s human rights and security p 294.4.3 Support to inter-ethnic communication and empowerment p 32

4.5.1 Development in the Republic of Serbia during the period under review p.344.5.2 UNIFEM’s collaboration with the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence p 35

4.6 Regional focus through support to the Regional Women’s Lobby

p.37

5 Conclusions and Recommendations

5.1 Evaluation Question One: Contributions to women’s networks and gender

List of acronyms and abbreviations

AOGG Advisory Office for Good Governance

BFPE Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence

BIRN Balkan Investigative Reporting Network

CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

CSDP Common Security and Defense Policy

DfID Department for International Development

EUSR European Union Special Representative

EULEX European Rule of Law Mission

EUFOR-LOT European Force Liaison and Observation Teams

ICJ International Court of Justice

ICO International Civilian Office

KCPSED Kosovo Centre for Public Safety, Education and Development

KCPSED/PS Kosovo Centre for Public Safety, Education and Development/Police SchoolKGEP Kosovo Gender Equality Programme

KGSC Kosovo Gender Studies Centre

KFOR NATO Kosovo Forces

KJA Kosovo Judges Association

KJI Kosovo Judicial Institute

KP Kosovo Police

KWN Kosovo Women’s Network

LGE Law on Gender Equality

MoD Ministry of Defense

NAP National Action Plan

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NGO Non-Governmental Organizations

OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

PIPP Property Law Implementation Plan (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

PISG Provisional Institutions for Self-Government (Kosovo)

RAE Roma-Ashkali-Egyptian

RWL Regional Women’s Lobby

SGCG Security and Gender Coordination Group

SEPCA South-Eastern Police Chiefs’ Association

SIDA Swedish International Development Agency

SOP Standard Operating Procedures

ToT Training of Trainers

TOR Terms of reference

TPO Trans-cultural Psychosocial Educational Foundation

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNFPA United Nations Population Fund

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

UNIFEM United Nations Fund for Women

UNHABITAT United Nations Human Settlement’s Programme

UNMIK United Nations Mission to Kosovo

UN SCR United Nations Security Council Resolution

USAID United States Agency for International Development

WIB Women in Black

WPC Women’s Peace Coalition

WCPHR Women’s Committee for Protection and Human Rights

ZZ Žene Ženama

1 Executive Summary

The current mid-term evaluation of the UNIFEM Project “Women Building Peace and Human

Security in the Western Balkans: Implementing UN SCR 1325 – Phase I (2008-2011)I” was

commissioned by UNIFEM to satisfy internal requirements for quality management andaccountability The timing and scope of the evaluation process are further expected tosubstantively inform the continuation and completion of the project by 2011 and plan for follow upinitiatives in Southeast Europe The period under review is January 2008 to March 2010 Thegeographical focus of the review lies on Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UN Administered Territory

of Kosovo (under UN SCR 1244), hereafter ‘Kosovo’, where the majority of interventions tookplace, as well as on Serbia and one major regional initiative As per the terms of references and

as further detailed in initial consultations between UNIFEM and the evaluation team, a particularfocus of the evaluation was to be laid on assessing capacities and possible gaps in capacities ofthe women’s networks and other partners supported by the project Based on the guidanceprovided by UNIFEM and the review of the project document, an evaluation matrix wasdeveloped comprising of two main streams to be evaluated:

1) In how far did the project contribute to the establishment and/or development of women’s networks and gender mechanisms that contribute to the implementation

of UN SCR 1325, placing women on the wider human security agenda and furthering peacebuilding?

2) In how far does support to peacebuilding and security through gender mechanisms and women’s networks augment efficiency and increase the impact for women?

The strategic framework of the evaluation is set primarily by the United Nations’ Security CouncilResolution (UNSCR) 1325 and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminationagainst Women (CEDAW), as well as broader principles of human security and foundingprinciples of peacebuilding UNIFEM’s Regional Strategy for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)provides the intervention rationale

This mid-term evaluation concludes that in response to the first evaluation question, UNIFEM’sapproach substantively contributed to the development of gender mechanisms and women’snetworks at national and local levels Through their approach and the selection of the rightpartners UNIFEM provided major inputs to gender-sensitization in security sector organizations,and supported a wide range of public awareness raising, advocacy, coordination and publicdebate The conclusion of this mid-term review is that particularly for Kosovo, and there in theKosovo Police as well as in the Police School, there is a significant improvement in thecoordination among security providers to deliver security as a public service This has beenachieved through the establishment of gender units and focal points within the institutions, putting

a major focus on the integration of training units into the effort, as well as through theinstitutionalization of gender trainings and feedback mechanisms between training institutions,government offices at national and local levels, and civil society representatives The reviewprovided data that directly attributes these results to UNIFEM’s engagement

The findings also show that at the local level communication between security providers and thelocal population is improving and relations of greater trust emerge The dialogue between citizensand security sector agents that ensued from the local consultations was stressed to be a majorachievement for civilians and security personnel engaged in this project In light of EU and NATOassociation processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and justice and security sector reforms inKosovo, the national environments are conducive to the inclusion of civil society in publicoversight functions, as well as to organizational reform to increase women in security sectorinstitutions It was found that UNIFEM’s collaboration with EUFOR and EUPM in Bosnia and

Herzegovina was catalytic to the establishment of gender offices and gender-responsiveorganizational processes

With regard to UNIFEM’s engagement in Serbia, the evaluation documents a partnership insupport of the formulation of the National Action Plan 1325 which was planned and carried outextremely systematically and with great efficiency With the leadership of the Ministry of Defense

in the process, tensions between government institutions and some of the engaged women’sorganizations had to be managed at important stages of the process The key learnings hererelate to the challenge of coordinating actors from government and civil society in an environmentwhere the terms of collaboration still need to be worked out in a constructive way Thecollaboration provides an excellent case for involving parliament, which through can serve asexample in other countries

Monitoring reports prepared by major women’s networks and UNIFEM partners in Bosnia andHerzegovina and Kosovo1, suggest that for the countries engaged, the priority areas for theimplementation of UN SCR 1325 can be narrowed down to four: 1) Women’s participation inpeace negotiations and decision making; 2) Gender mainstreaming within national andinternational security sector institutions; 3) Inclusion of women’s organizations in peacebuildingand consultations with peacekeeping forces and civilian missions, using gender-based violence

as a platform for inter-ethnic dialogue; 4) Engendering UN and regional reports This constitutes

an important specification of the translation of UN SCR 1325 into the local context and needs to

be reflected in the refining of the project strategy

UNIFEM’s approach to creating networks of women’s organizations with mixed capacities anddiverse ethnic backgrounds has increased dialogue and bridging, which strengthens civil society’sresilience to conflict Further, using gender-based violence as a thematic platform to rallylocalized women’s organizations of different ethnic constitutions constitutes an area ofengagement to which all partners interviewed during this exercise connected and were able toidentify their role With regard to identifying catalytic agents for networking, a major return ofinvestment has resulted from meso-level NGOs and institutes that were tasked with thecoordination of networks and whose organizational assets became factors of success for theimplementation Their capacities to reach out to the macro level as well as access to the microlevel made them excellent connectors between the two levels With regard to efficiency andimpact on putting women’s human rights and women’s security on the agenda, the reviewconcludes that most progress was made at the level of network coordinators, i.e with meso-levelorganizations that managed to integrate formal government and non-government coordinationboards and groups relevant to the implementation of SCR 1325, where they provide technicalinputs on women’s security and broader human rights issues, representing their constituents fromcivil society Their impact here has resulted in substantive contributions to national consultationprocesses, and the inclusion of women’s concerns in national debates and planning processes Finally, one other particular asset in UNIFEM’s programmatic and operational approaches thatwas recognized in this review lies in UNIFEM’s remarkable cross-fertilization of country processeswith policy developments especially at EU-level in 2008

While it has to be kept in mind that the current review is a mid-term evaluation, and thus, theproject is only half-way through to its completion, the following findings and observations arerecommended to be addressed to refine strategies and strengthen the impact of the project Theevaluation found that in terms of placing women on the wider human security agenda, only aselect number of partners are in a position to substantively provide inputs as of today Whilenational human security or 1325 agendas are still being finalized, some progress has been made

on the development of a civil society agenda on women’s security and peace The

1 Notably the Kosovo Women’s Network’s Report “Monitoring the Implementation of UN SCR 1325 in Kosova”, 2009, and Zene Zenama’s “ Monitoring Implementation of UN SCR 1325 in Bosnia and

Herzegovina”, 2007

aforementioned monitoring reports of Žene Ženama in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the KosovoWomen’s Network constitute important steps there UNIFEM’s support will be essential to connectadditional catalytic organizations with national coordination bodies for the implementation ofnational action plans, but also to further invest in civil society consultations for the development of

a common position or positions One other important consideration that relates to the efficiencyand impact of support is the question how the resolution is translated into the national context.While both thorough and large-scale training and awareness raising have been carried out byUNIFEM’s partners, for a number of beneficiaries and stakeholders that were interviewed for thisreview, the resolution remains an abstract concept Especially among local organizations, fewwere able to specify in how far the training on women’s human rights and SCR 1325 has changedtheir approach to their work Interviewees suggested that they were in a better position to explain

to their constituents what rights they have and why they had a claim But they also expressed thatthey would need to explore the possibilities of this knowledge and find avenues to drawconclusions for their work In this regard, the approach on inter-religious dialogue developed byTPO in Bosnia and Herzegovina is highlighted in the relevant section as an excellent example forthe action-oriented translation of what SCR 1325 can represent in a local context For an efficientresponse and high impact, the project needs to pursue the identification of an action-orientedagenda for women’s organizations at the sub-national level

With regard to results-based management, the evaluation found that the project needs tostrengthen and update its strategic direction and analysis of country contexts to better positionUNIFEM and its partners in the broad range of potential areas for support A considerable amount

of information and analysis has been gathered through baseline assessments of the security andcivil society sectors in partner countries and territories, and as mentioned above, substantiveadditions to the programmatic focus have been drawn from monitoring and consultation reportsthat were carried out by UNIFEM partners within the scope of this collaboration These papersand sets of information need to be integrated into an updated project context analysis, strategyand results framework In particular, the strategy should specify how partnerships will be furtherdeveloped, what types of engagement will be distinguished, and how capacity development will

be supported along each category of partnerships Any capacity development provided should beclearly linked to a chain of results that establishes how the beneficiary of capacity developmentwill better deliver on the institutional mandate and how this delivery will impact on the targetpopulation For government institutions this means strengthening the performance of duty-bearers to respond to claim holders, for civil society partners this means establishing their role inthe SCR 1325 context, identifying their organization’s contribution in the context of this projectcollaboration and assessing needs for additional capacities to perform against this benchmark.The project would thereby establish a comprehensive approach, where results provide therationale for needs, and support focuses at different levels At present, capacity development has

in part produced very good results, for example at the Kosovo police, but from project planningprocesses do not clearly emerge as intentional because decision making and implementationprocesses are not documented sufficiently In some cases the data collected suggests that inputssuch as conferences, trainings, and workshops substitute more integral approaches for capacitydevelopment Here, the project needs to provide more information on whether inputs should beattributable to advocacy, or capacity development

With regard to results-based management, the final evaluation of the project phase I in 2007 hasalready provided substantive support to strengthening the project results-framework that wasrevised and improved for phase II The framework still lacks a complete baseline and targets,which should be added The previous recommendation for analytical and strategy updates willhelp establish these Similarly, the project reporting needs to focus more on results than inputs The regional dimension of the collaboration needs to be worked out more concretely The twoentry points for regional collaboration that this mid-term evaluation identified are the currentlyprovided support to the Regional Women’s Lobby, of which the continuation is recommended inview of its strong advocacy role at regional and international levels, and the future creation of aknowledge platform to facilitate easy access to actors, documentation, and other information that

has been and will be developed by UNIFEM and project partners either under the current project

or in individual organizational capacities The Regional Office in Bratislava can certainly play astrong role here, while partners in-country need to be consulted for the possible location of apotential regional portal

Finally, one major response on the assessment of needs for knowledge products and supportwas repeatedly brought forward from the most engaged partners that have developed their ownworking platforms and initiatives around SCR 1325 and who now need information anddocumentation resources in local languages or English to continue working in a moreautonomous way Particularly from security sector institutions this query was brought forward Assuch translated technical resources focusing on gender-specific operational and legal issues forpolice officers, customs and border police, but also army personnel were requested

2 Overview

The current mid-term evaluation of the UNIFEM Project “Women Building Peace and Human

Security in the Western Balkans: Implementing UN SCR 1325 – Phase II (2008-2011)” was

commissioned to the team of evaluators by UNIFEM in April 2010 to satisfy internal requirementsfor quality management and accountability in projects exceeding a budget of USD 1 million Ateam of three experts was hired to conduct the evaluation, comprising of an expert for Bosnia, MsZehra Kačapor, one expert for Kosovo, Mr Kushtrim Shaipi, and the team leader, Ms KerstinEppert The expected duration of the exercise was from April 1st to June 15th, including internalconsultation processes and finalization of the report by the evaluation team This period had to beextended by 15 days due to the intermittent shut-down of air traffic in Europe in late April andearly May as a result of disturbances by volcanic ash clouds

The timing and scope of the evaluation process are further expected to substantively inform thecontinuation and completion of the project by 2011 and plan for follow up initiatives in SoutheastEurope The period under review is January 2008 to March 2010 As per specification fromUNIFEM, the geographical focus of the review lies on Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UNAdministered Territory of Kosovo, where the majority of interventions took place, as well as onSerbia and one major regional initiative As per the terms of references2 and as further detailed ininitial consultations between UNIFEM and the evaluation team, a particular focus of theevaluation was to be laid on assessing capacities and possible gaps in capacities of the women’snetworks and other partners supported by the project.3 Based on the guidance provided byUNIFEM and the review of the project document, an evaluation matrix was developed (see AnnexI), comprising of two main streams to be evaluated:

3) In how far did the project contribute to the establishment and/or development of women’s networks and gender mechanisms that contribute to the implementation

of UN SCR 1325, placing women on the wider human security agenda and furthering peacebuilding?

4) In how far does support to peacebuilding and security through gender mechanisms and women’s networks augment efficiency and increase the impact for women?

Two guiding dimensions for the evaluation of progress within these streams will be i) the assessment of enabling and disabling factors that have impacted the work of the gender mechanisms and women’s networks, and ii) the assessment of potential for the codification of lessons learnt as well as the preparation of professional educational and informative resources (knowledge products) to support the maturing of organizations and

forums until the end of the project (and beyond) The thematic areas that were assessed under i)included capacities to carry out research and analysis, awareness raising, advocacy, training, andmonitoring Thematic areas under ii) included inter-ethnic dialogue, peacebuilding, women’ssecurity, advocacy for women’s security and (gender-sensitive) security sector reform

3 Evaluation Scope and Methods

2 See Annexe I

3 Consultations with involved managers were held on April 3, 2010 with the Project Manager, Ms Kaoru Yamagiwa, Kosovo (telephone), on April 10th with the CEE Regional Programme Director, Ms Erika Kvapilova, Bratislava (in person), and on April 11th with the Peace and Governance Advisor, Ms Flora Macula, Kosovo (telephone)

The strategic framework of the evaluation is set primarily by the United Nations’ Security CouncilResolution (UNSCR) 1325 and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminationagainst Women (CEDAW), as well as broader principles of human security and foundingprinciples of peacebuilding Strategically, UNIFEM’s Regional Strategy for Central and EasternEurope (CEE) provides the intervention rationale Building on these overarching frameworks, theevaluation details key areas and questions based on the scope of the evaluation questions, andwill substantiate contributions and achievements under each of the two project outcomes

Outcome 1: Security sector and relevant government institutions demonstrate increased gender

sensitivity in responding to the security needs of women in the Western Balkans.

Outcome 2: Strengthened capacity of gender equality advocates, including youth and minorities to

influence peace and security agendas and support inclusive democratization at national and regional levels in the Western Balkans.

Since the evaluation itself is however very much focused on the review of the approach todelivering the results, rather than the evaluation of the programme itself, the evaluation matrix is

used as a tool to extract possible dimensions and lessons learnt on how to pursue partnerships

and capacity development for partners for the second term of the project implementation in amore targeted way

Preparation of field work and data collection

UNIFEM provided the evaluation team with a list of partners and stakeholders in Bosnia andHerzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia, from which the team chose to contact the majority, and towhich were added resources for example in the area of parliamentary work, research institutesand specialists in access to justice and transitional justice work A full list of consultations isprovided as an annex to this report

The collection of data for the evaluation was mainly done a) through review of primary and

secondary data from surveys, monitoring reports, meeting reports, training curricula and action

plans, institutional agreements, specific outputs such as laws, procedures, etc., and b) through

interviews with partners, beneficiaries and other stakeholders of the project or actors working inthe area of peace and security in all three countries/territories

4 Context and Data Analysis

4.1 Context analysis for BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

To better understand the analysis of data gathered for the purpose of this evaluation, this sectionestablishes the context of women’s roles in peacebuilding and current threats to women’s security

in Bosnia and Herzegovina The major threads of the issues presented below were drawn fromcontextual references that were found to be extremely relevant in the preparation phase of theexercise and reconfirmed during interviews conducted Based on this, the main areas that wereand are impacting negatively on women’s lives are violence against women, or infringements onthe right to physical and psychological integrity, socio-cultural exclusion impacting on women’sfreedom of movement and property rights, as well as women’s political participation

The governance system in Bosnia and Herzegovina today has very complex structures thatoriginate in an ethno-centric polity which, post-war, was hoped to contribute to peacebuilding.Today, the state apparatus with its multi-level governance system further entrenches differences

and tends to stalled political processes especially at State-Entity level.4 It leaves responsibilitiesunclear and blurs accountability and transparency, while competencies of institutions are shiftedfrom one level to the other The political sphere tends to be utilized for establishing groupprivileges and pursue particularistic interests The mandates of the international community in thecountry add another layer to this environment, so that it is difficult for the population to pressureits government for responsible and accountable politics Through the preparation of the EUassociation process in Bosnia, the work on policy harmonisation and legal standards hastriggered a flow of policy transfers and 'quick fixes' that respond to EU standards, but are notsufficiently responsive to political needs in Bosnia and Herzegovina Consequently, the countryfinds itself with a range of unimplementable and unrealistic policies that are often in conflict witheach other and add administrative and budgetary burdens.

Missing voices, missed opportunities

The absence of women from formal peace negotiations to the Dayton Peace Accords (1995) andthe insufficient application of gendered approaches to post-war reconstruction and peacebuilding

in Bosnia and Herzegovina alienated women from the reconstruction and democratization of theircountry Despite the attention that was to drawn internationally to war crimes committed againstwomen, the national public space for the debate on social change and women’s conditions in thecountry remains small and has benefited the structural exclusion of women from the public space,and the flaring up of violence against women in the private space

While the presence of international peace-keeping forces and international governing bodieshave pushed legal and policy projects to formalize equal opportunities and protection of womenfrom violence, the complex political environment in the country and the lag between law andsocial realities have resulted in little tangible progress for women to date Analyses of the legalframeworks and policies for women’s rights and equal opportunities in the country highlight both,improvements and continuing gaps for the past fifteen years.5 While national legal frameworkssafeguarding women’s rights have been established and improved to comply with CEDAW, inmany places implementation lacks coherence and public oversight One major step forward wasmade with the adoption of the 2003 Law on Gender Equality (LGE) that led to the creation of theAgency for Gender Equality (AGE) as well as regional and municipal gender commissions andGender Centers at the entity level The LGE specifies that ‘[a]ll statistical data and recordscollected, recorded and processed in state bodies at all levels, public services and institutions,state and private corporations and other entities must be gender disaggregated’ In practice, theAgency for Gender Equality still encounters problems to exert its authority and would benefit fromgreater autonomy and financial sustainability to enforce its mandate.6 Necessary legal reforms toconform LGE and former laws at State, Entity and municipal levels did not take place yet Thereare no legal provisions for AGE to hold non-compliant institutions accountable Subsequently,AGE’s work on monitoring progress of women’s participation in public life is impacted as relevantdata is not fully available

With regard to women’s political participation and representation, the 2001 Election Law ofBosnia and Herzegovina, with amendments from 2002, stipulates the inclusion of women fromminority groups in national party’s candidate’s lists However, again, the law is not sufficientlyenforced and does not significantly impact on the distribution of political offices The 2006CEDAW Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina clearly highlights, that efforts to ensure women’s

4 The national governance structures have one state level, two entities and one district; ten Cantons; 13Governments and 13 Parliaments; total of 171 Ministries; 142 Municipalities

5 See for example Peace Women – Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, “SecurityCouncil Resolution 1325 and CEDAW: Combating gender-based discrimination and violence in Bosnia andHerzegovina , Peace Women at

http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ecosoc/CEDAW/35th_Sesssion/SCR1325_CEDAW.html

6 E.g ‘The Status and Activities of Municipal Gender Equality Commissions in Bosnia and Herzegovina –Overview and Recommendations’, August 2009, OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina

protection and equal participation in public life need to be significantly increased to achieveminimum standards In this regard, the CEDAW committee also urged the government toharmonize the Election Law with LGE 7

In view of women’s benefitting of peace dividends, the 1999 Property Law Implementation Plan(PIPP) sought to ensure equal treatment in the repossession of land and the access to socio-economic assistance by women victims of war The politicization of the return and repossessionprocesses, however, had a detrimental impact on the reintegration and reconciliation Widows ofwar, returnees and displaced women as well as survivors of war crimes found themselves to besystematically discriminated against and marginalized, leaving them in precarious or even illegalsituations.8

While there is no systematic, centralized collection of data on domestic violence, governmental organizations (NGOs) providing assistance to women victims point out a trend ofunderreporting, as police investigations and judicial procedures expose the victims An OSCEreview of the 2005 Laws on Protection from Domestic Violence stresses that the network forvictim support is insufficient in relation to the need, too little state-financed, with safety, social andhealth services almost exclusively offered by NGOs.9 Further, the laws, which are not harmonizedbetween State and Entity levels are not sufficiently well known by police forces and judges, or, ifthey are known, used foremost to punish perpetrators rather than protect victims Anotherimportant finding points to weak collaboration between forces of the law and social services tominimize the victim’s vulnerability and increase service-orientation

non-Public oversight and CSO capacities

There is a diversity of reports that analyze the state and role of civil society in BiH in variousdimensions of the peacebuilding process The genuine organization of civil society took particularmomentum during and after the war, when women and men mobilized to claim justice for warcrimes, and peace A 2009 UNDP Guidebook on Transitional Justice notes that ‘[T]here is generalpublic agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina that without CSOs, the process of documentingviolations of human rights and war crimes would not even exist.’10

“Activist links with international women’s networks helped a critical mass of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina to move into the development and reconstruction phase of post-war activities, empowering them to become equal partners and actors in the process and not just victims of war Yet the war and immediate post-war reconstruction period focused national and international attention on the importance of ethnic, regional and religious equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, sidelining issues of gender equality and relegating women to the margins of public and political interest.” 11

The National Human Development Report 2009 on social capital provides insightful data in thecurrent state of social organization and the accessibility of social capital, and concludes that only

7 Report of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, (A/61/38),

in particular §§ 116 – 150

8 Legally, property could only be repossessed by the owner as registered, which in most cases in Bosniaequals to the male head of the family In cases of disappearances of their spouse and in other cases wherewomen had no proof of their spouse’s death, the transfer of property could not take place Survivors of warcrimes also received support in the return process, however, rape has not been recognized as a war crimeand thus, women who survived rape had no legally recognized claim

9 “Response to Domestic Violence and Co-ordinated Victim Protection in the Federation of Bosnia andHerzegovina and the Republika Srpska-Preliminary Findings on the Implementation of the Laws onProtection from Domestic Violence”, OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 2009

10 ‘Transitional Justices Guidebook for Bosnia and Herzegovina – Executive Summary’, UNDP, 2009, p.58

11 See “Monitoring Implementation of UN SCR 1325 in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, Žene Ženama, October

2007, at http://www.zenezenama.org/eng/document/1325%20Final%20Report%202007.pdf

some 10% of the population, predominantly young male citizens with higher education, report to

be part of an association or social network.12 The origins of the low numbers are attributed in part

to the negative connotation that social organization and networks carry since socialist times, butalso to a deficit in democratic culture and active (political) participation One important aspect forthe mobility of social capital, i.e the possibility for individuals to access networks and benefit fromthem, is determined by the flexibility and openness of networks Here, the report provides datathat suggests that social networks in Bosnia and Herzegovina are comparatively closed and thatpersonal relations are a prerequisite for accessing different kinds of public and private services,and even more for becoming a member of a social network These patterns of social organizationimpact on dynamics of social exclusion and the position of minority or marginalized groups, whohave to put up with exclusive structures that mutually reinforce each other Thus, undertaking tosupport for example the mobilization of women will have to work simultaneously on externalconditions that impact negatively on the formal organization of women and the process ofcatalyzing civic engagement of women To give an example, working on external conditions couldinclude freeing up women’s time from household chores or child care, or organizing safetransportation to and from meetings Engaging women in the process focuses on education andawareness raising on the issues that lie at the core of the engagement, for example women’ssafety and security, and assisting in the formulation of objectives for change Wherever womenfrom marginalized groups are being targeted, the work needs in addition to focus on the patterns

of marginalization

In view of the interaction between civil society and state institutions on the subject of women’ssecurity/human security and peacebuilding, it is difficult to establish a coherent picture in the shorttime of this evaluation In their 2007 monitoring report on SCR 1325, Žene Ženama conclude:

“NGOs today are essentially divided into either service-providers or development NGOs, substituting for the state in services it is unable or unwilling to support – and democracy NGOs striving to advance the political agenda and inform policy and decision-makers.” 13

This conclusion provided one of the intervention rationales of UNIFEM’s current project cycle,which aims at increasing the engagement of civil society organizations in public oversight.Feedback collected from different resources in the country, NGOs and government, suggests thatthere is still historically-grounded mistrust between the population at large and security sectoragencies, which are not yet perceived as service agents for the population One of the resourcepersons consulted in country explained that the capacity of civil society organizations toundertake informed monitoring and oversight of the security sector had to be built up further Therespondent also indicated that the public knowledge on aspects and concerns of women’ssecurity or the UN’s engagement on women peace and security was still comparatively low.14Observations made and data collected, though, seem to indicate that there are efforts on the part

of some government institutions and agencies, such as the Agency for Gender Equality, Ministry

of Defense or the Ministry of Security to interact with civil society organizations by involving them

in the coordination of planning processes, or conducting joint advocacy and educational events With regard to government-civil society dialogue, there are indications from NGO andinternational actors that interaction at the Entity level takes place in particular through the GenderCenters For the local level, accounts from interviews suggest that outside the scope of this

12 “The Ties that Bind Social Capital in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, National Human Development Report2009

13 See “Monitoring Implementation of UN SCR 1325 in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, Žene Ženama, October

2007, at http://www.zenezenama.org/eng/document/1325%20Final%20Report%202007.pdf

14 The information collected during this expert interview suggests that the reasons for this are threefold:one, the public concerns are very much oriented towards the difficult economic situation in Bosnia(recession and high unemployment rates), the political discourse focusing on ethnic segregation andpolarization of religious identities, and lack of interest in security-related debates as these are perceived tobelong to a closed sector of state administration

project, there is little dialogue between the local population and local authorities in part due tomistrust between communities and police and armed forces and in part to an absent culture ofcollaboration Interviewees also mentioned that the awareness of rights and duties of citizens forexample in the area of personal security and civic rights was insufficient to ensure closerinteraction between authorities and communities The data collected in the course of thisevaluation confirms that the capacity of NGOs/CSOs to engage in informed dialogue with stateauthorities increases with their degree of professionalization

With regard to women’s non-governmental organizations, the UNIFEM office in Sarajevoestimates that some 200 are more or less active within the area of relevance to this project.15 Atpresent, there seems to be an attempt under the leadership of the NGO Čure to regroup some

150 of these into a new national network, the Women’s Movement Bosnia and Herzegovina, toincrease effectiveness and impact but also attract funding and offer capacity development formembers

4.2 Analysis of project-specific data in BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Against the above thematic background, UNIFEM’s Project “Women Building Peace and Human

Security in the Western Balkans: Implementing SCR 1325” seeks to address the exclusion of

women in the different spheres mentioned above and has set out to strengthen voices of civilsociety organizations and gender awareness of major security sector agents

The following section will detail the assessment and data collection through interviews and review

of background materials for the project implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina It will helpposition UNIFEM’s major engagements and establish the status based on which the evaluationwill reply to evaluation criteria and recommend next steps The structure of this section isestablished along two threads of collaboration that reflect two different approaches tooperationalization of the substantive potential in SCR 1325

4.2.1 Collaboration between UNIFEM and the Trans-cultural Psychosocial

Educational Foundation

In Bosnia, UNIFEM engaged with two very different partners The Trans-cultural PsychosocialEducational Foundation (TPO)16, based in the capital with an outreach to partners in differentareas of the country, positions itself as a think tank working on a project basis with a mandate toundertake adult and academic education on gender-related issues The foundation maintainsclose connections with academic figures and structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina TheProgramme Manager and counterpart to this project, Zilka Spahić-Šiljak, Ph.D regularly lectures

at the Centre for Inter-religious Dialogue at the University of Sarajevo Further, the Foundationhas ties with academic institutes in the US, the UK, Israel and other countries around world whichemerged from their professional engagement and interest created through their projects TPOhas access to different donors and confirmed to undertake project-based periodic fund raising.During the interview, TPO raised two examples illustrating their ability to pursue projects beyond

15 Discussion with Hjalmar Sigmarsson in reference to the establishment of a Network of Women’sOrganisations in BiH; the USAID NGO sustainability index of 2008 uses the following data from 2005: atotal of 9,095 NGOs are registered in BiH, out of which 4,629 are estimated to be active (survey by theIndependent Bureau for Humanitarian Issues), see also

http://www.usaid.gov/locations/europe_eurasia/dem_gov/ngoindex/2008/bosnia_herzegovina.pdf

For additional, government-specific information on NGOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, see the site of theSector for Cooperation with Non-Governmental Organizations and Development of the Civil Society,Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina at http://www.mpr.gov.ba/en/str.asp?id=326

16 A self-description and overview of projects of the organization can be found at

http://www.tpo.ba/eng/abus.htm

the interest of a particular donor by creating partnerships with others, or by putting activities onhold until funds are secured to further pursue the organization’s agenda The central part of thecollaboration between UNIFEM and TPO under the current sub-regional project was thedevelopment of a training of trainers (ToT) module using SCR 1325 as a framework for dialogue

on citizenship and religion TPO developed training materials that explain the background ofinternational civil rights frameworks, CEDAW, SCR 1325, the Constitution of BiH and existinggender laws, and use these together with supportive interpretations of norms on women’s rightsand freedoms from Islamic and Christian scripts to propose ways to transform traditions andcustoms and increase freedom for women TPO pointed out that the development of a women’srights-based religious dialogue did allow for engaging a much wider public as a purely rights-based dialogue around Security Council Resolution 1325 would have:

“Ninety percent of the population in Bosnia says that religion plays a strong role in their

identification [The] work on human rights does not intimately touch people if it is not connected to reality So if you want to change behavior, you have to work taking religious identification into account.”

Beyond the preparation of training materials and completing a first round of trainings for 9 NGOs

in Bosnia and Herzegovina, TPO gathered sufficient material to further develop the subject into abook, which it published with funds that were raised beyond UNIFEM’s support from theGovernment of Norway.17 Press reviews covering the final roundtable closing the ToT and thelaunch of the book were extremely positive.18 It seems that the mere fact of the topic being taken

up positively by the press constitutes an achievement in itself and opens public space Theevaluation team received written feedback from two of the organizations that participated in theToT, Čure and Medica Zenica Both confirmed that the training had been very useful for them andthe quality of the work they would be able to deliver both on women’s human rights, includingSCR 1325 and inter-religious dialogue in the future

From the perspective of empowering citizens and contributing to dialogue about the place andspace of religion in a democratic Bosnia and Herzegovina, the approach from TPO carries greatvalue Also, according to the Foundation, the affirmative messages on religion, that were given inthe book and educational materials, were well received by different religious groups Therelevance of the subject and the attention that it raised in the media created interest in the trainingamong numerous groups within Bosnia, but also in other countries in the sub-region TPOreceived requests for trainings from civil society organizations in Croatia and Serbia The projectfurther helped TPO connect with an Israeli-Palestinian network of women’s organizations At thetime of the interview, TPO was planning three major projects, two of which are of directlyrelevance to further educational work on women’s leadership in peacebuilding and can beconsidered an off-spring from this past collaboration with UNIFEM The first project will beconducted jointly with Cambridge University in the UK and aims to assess women’s contributions

to peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina The methodology for the research will beestablished until the end of 2010, and be implemented in 2011 The second project consists in abook book that TPO will edit, counting life stories of women peacebuilders and human rightsactivists as for example Rigoberta Menchu, Shirin Ebadi or Aung San Suu Kyi, to encouragewomen’s civic engagement and promote role models The book will be published in locallanguages; funding needs yet to be secured

Findings:

17 “I Vjerniće – I Gradanke”, Zilka Spahić-Šiljak, and Rebeka Jadranka Anić, 2009

18 See also http://www.tpo.ba/eng/news/sa09vernen.html

The major findings on UNIFEM’s collaboration with TPO can be summarized as follows.

 In TPO, UNIFEM has found a highly capable partner that is self-established and has aself-determined agenda Although the realization of projects within the organization willalways depend on the availability of funding, its survival does not stand and fall with theattribution of funds from a particular donor The clear delineation of its mandate furtherenables the organization to engage in genuine partnerships with other NGOs and CSOs,

as the pressure for competition is not the same

Substantively, the approach that TPO chose to work on women’s human rights, SCR 1325and inter-religious dialogue has two aspects to it

 First, the way in which the content and meaning of the resolution was translated into thelocal context and issues that matter for men and women in their daily life, iscommendable Not only did the methodology allow women of different backgrounds tolearn about the resolution, but also think about what difference it makes for their lives if it

is put into the local context and applied to one of the guiding social dimensions ofpeople’s lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina – religion and religious culture With regard tothe ethnic and religious lines that are more and more entrenched in the country, inreference to the increasing politicization of religion in the debate on national identity, TPOproposes a facilitative discourse for change, to which many citizens can connect mucheasier than to a technical discussion on SCR 1325

 The organization has further developed additional partnerships, project ideas and wasable to integrate and transform the support provided by UNIFEM to establish newprojects that are of great relevance to women’s roles in peacebuilding (multiplier effect)

 Two of the beneficiaries of the ToT that were consulted for this evaluation gave verypositive feedback on the training, and more importantly explained the connection of thetraining to their areas of engagement They pointed out how the subject would be taken

up in planned projects and how they were entering in new collaborations on the subjectwith TPO and other partners These are indicators for multiplier effects, qualitativeimprovement of work undertaken and impact.19

 With regard to establishing or strengthening women’s networks, TPO connected withboth, organisations that they had been working with previously, as well as organisationsthat were known to them, but with which they had not collaborated until then TPO, Čureand Medica Zenica all confirmed that they would continue to collaborate where possibleand maintain close ties As an example, following the success of the inter-faith dialoguefinal public event, TPO was asked by the Swiss embassy to implement a project onvoters education to increase public awareness of the importance to vote for women in theupcoming elections TPO decided to partner with Čure to complement their expertise forthe successful implementation The project is directly related to awareness raising onwomen’s political participation

As such, the outcomes of this collaboration support UNIFEM’s Programme Outcome 2, as well

as the established evaluation criterion women’s participation in inter-ethnic dialogue.

Indicators of success include the continued engagement of the members of this organization asexplained above, the organizational stability, the visibility of the activities (press reviews andfeedback on ToT), as well as the immediate impact of the activities on the public discourse While the collaboration has its strong points in all the areas above, the second perspective is that:

19 Also, at the time of writing of this report, UNIFEM CEE was finalizing an agreement on a project withTPO and Medica Zenica, on “Increasing Awareness on Gender-based Violence and the Role of Women inInterreligious Dialogue” which is to start in July 2010

 In view of a more technical assessment of contributions to placing women’s concerns onthe human security agenda in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this collaboration did not touchupon areas related to the state’s delivery of security for women, or public oversight of thesecurity sector This assessment is not in any way diminishing the value of the workundertaken by TPO However, it does fundamentally relate to the question how UNIFEMwants to relate inter-faith or inter-ethnic dialogue to a) identifying the human securityagenda and b) determining its contributions to the implementation of the agenda Thispoint will be taken up more in depth in the final conclusions and recommendations

4.2.2 Collaboration between UNIFEM and Žene Ženama

The second main partner of UNIFEM in Bosnia is the NGO Žene Ženama.20 Žene Ženama (ZZ)has been a project partner to UNIFEM since 2003 and has worked on SCR 1325-relatedactivities, notably the 2007 Monitoring report21 in the previous project phase With their main office

in Sarajevo, this professional development organization has a vast network of members andpartners in-country, and is itself part of women’s networks in the Western Balkan region andinternationally through its ties with the Swedish Kvinna till Kvinna The mandate of ZZ is verybroad and revolves around mobilizing civic engagement for women’s human rights, combatingviolence against women and contributing to a society of equal opportunities ZZ works througheducational activities, advocacy and support to partners and beneficiaries, aiming at building upand diversifying civil society The current director, Memnuna Zvizdić, is a well-known figure towomen’s activists in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the wider sub-region The organization has atrack record of collaboration with various partners from the civil society and international sector,and is starting to formalize its collaboration with governmental and government-affiliatedinstitutions The self-presentation on the website and project proposals submitted by ZZ toUNIFEM indicate that ZZ offers its services based on financial opportunities with flexibilityregarding the thematic orientation of the work In the past collaboration, the organization hasshown their ability to set up task management structures in a very short time frame

During the implementation of the two-prong project, which included the training of NGO partnerorganisations in women’s human rights and local consultations and workshops that were heldtogether with partner organizations, ZZ received technical guidance and support from UNIFEMand UNIFEM-identified experts In addition to its thematic focus and analytical capacities, ZZ’smain strength lies in the coordination and facilitation of meetings and communication amongdifferent groups and actors Thereby ZZ’s vast networks enable large scale mobilization Building

on previous collaboration with UNIFEM during the first project phase from 2005-2007, where ZZreviewed to what extent international high representatives in Bosnia and the Bosnian Governmentcomplied with the requirements of SCR132522, the core of the current collaboration focused ontraining of international and national security sector agents and CSOs on i) gender equality andwomen’s human security issues, SCR 1325, ii) advocacy and dialogue, and iii) together with theBosnian Agency for Gender Equality, a public consultation process for inputs to the formulation of

a National Action Plan (NAP) on SCR 1325, in response to the gaps identified in the previousreview.23 The preparation for the activities relay on two prongs: one focusing on partnershipbuilding and networking with international security sector agents (EUFOR, EUPM) to secure theircommitment to improve structural and professional gender-sensitivity within their respectiveorganizations Here, UNIFEM was able to support the process by engaging with both EUFOR andEUPM and conclude a MoU securing the missions’ support to the above activities The second

20 Women for Women see also http://www.zenezenama.org/eng/index1.html

21 “Monitoring Implementation of UN SCR 1325 in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, Žene Ženama, October

prong consisted in developing training materials24, selecting partners at local level and conductingthe trainings with different constituents from the civil society sector, EUFOR, EUPM and police Five organizations were selected by ZZ for training and the facilitation of local consultations: the

Helsinki Citizen’s Assembly from Banja Luka, Horizonti from Tuzla, Žene BiH from Mostar,

and Budućnost from Modriča All the aforementioned except for a representative from the

Helsinki Citizen’s Assembly participated together with a EUFOR representative in the focus groupdiscussion organized for this evaluation The substantive engagement of the other fourorganizations concentrates on support to women victims of violence and survivors of war crimes

In the discussion, and from additional information, Horizonti, Žene BiH and ZZ emerged asparticularly strong organizations within this group All representatives expressed having greatlybenefitted from the mix of experiences and the local diversity within the group The partnersvoiced deep appreciation of the work that had been undertaken together and the guidancereceived from ZZ They stated to have significantly gained in confidence which was built duringmutual visits and resulted in increased mobility as some representatives would previously nottravel alone or to towns with different ethnic majorities

“Great training and great materials The final report [prepared by ZZ] presents well the events.”

“[…] the work changed the perception of Me and Them (armed/uniformed forces)”

“We feel that the work to date has only scratched at the surface of the SCR 1325 potential There

is more need to further explore the implementation”

All participants in the discussion expressed their gratitude for UNIFEM’s support ZZ expressedtheir disappointment though, over the fact that UNIFEM had not been able to be present at allrelevant meetings and trainings and indicates that this was at times perceived as a lack ofinterest In part this was due to the remote management of the project from Kosovo and the longvacancy of the project manager’s post At the question if in their view this could be remedied bythe appointment of a dedicated national coordinator to the project in Bosnia, ZZ replied that theywould not favor this as it would make their work redundant The other participants did neitherparticularly contest nor support the usefulness of a national coordinator

Findings:

 From a process perspective, ZZ has managed to respond on a continuous basis to thesituational context of the implementation, adapting services provided to the assessedneeds which differed from one partner organization and local setting to the other Keepingthe broader objective of eventual contributions to a NAP 1325 in focus, the work withpartner organizations in the preparation and with local groups during the consultationsallowed for genuine discussions on gender equality, the situation of women and whatwomen’s security might translate into in each community or group

 From a management perspective, the evaluation team found that the project benefitedfrom UNIFEMs remarkable capacity to create synergies with major policy processes onUNSCR 1325 at the level of the European Union in 2008.25 These positively impacted onthe engagement especially with EUPM in Bosnia, and supported the collaboration withinternational security forces From the data collected, a picture of extremely efficient andresponsive use of opportunities in support of programmes within UNIFEM emerges Theway in which UNIFEM’s balanced opportunities for advocacy in top-level policy-processeswithin the European Commission, partnership development with international missions in

24 The training materials “Participation of Public in Peace Processes – UNSCR 1325” can be found at

http://www.zenezenama.org/eng/Training%20materials.pdf

25 For information on the European Union Common Security and Defense Policy, please see

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.aspx?id=261&lang=en

the country (EUFOR and EUPM), and local level capacity development for civil society isextremely positive.

 In terms of contributions to the project outcomes 1 and 2, the activities contribute to both

at a foundational level, as concrete engagements with security sector agencies wereachieved and gender-sensitization processes supported Further, through the trainings,knowledge on SCR 1325 has been transferred to professionals from the security sectorand women activists In response to the evaluation criteria, international organizationshave been made aware of their role vis-à-vis 1325, and inter-ethnic dialogue wasfurthered within the groups of NGOs that were selected by TPO and ZZ for the trainings(TPO, ZZ) and implementation of the local consultations (ZZ) In particular, the dialoguebetween citizens and security sector agents that ensued from the local consultations wasstressed to be a major achievement for civilians and security personnel

With regard to the evaluation questions26, however, the following observations have to be takeninto account for the final project phase:

 The determination of outputs that are to contribute to the project outcomes needs moreconsistency From the discussions with UNIFEM, it became clear that the process itselfwas part of the output, facilitating dialogue and laying the foundations for moresubstantive work on SCR 1325 As such, the methodology of using women’s networksand gender mechanisms for the implementation of resolution has proven successful.However, while the project was implemented, the experience that was gathered on theopportunities and limits of the collaboration was not sufficiently codified It is advisable toestablish a project monitoring framework along with the refined results framework thatwould allow for the assessment of these opportunities and limits, and analyze progressmade

 So far, SCR 1325 seems mainly to have provided a platform for bringing actors togetherthat would have extreme difficulties in engaging with each other From the review ofreports and from the interviews, the evaluation team observed that on the one handpartners now have an idea of what SCR 1325 addresses, but are not yet able to transferthis into their day-to-day work

 The overarching question that needs to be asked in view of the implementation of SCR

1325 in Bosnia today is how it can further peace, if not a peace process If the resolution

is conceived as a tool, its implementation has to be connected to a wider agenda.Therefore awareness raising and professional training on women’s human rights,including 1325 need to be connected to results of the agenda, or to the establishment of

an actionable programme In this regard, the following observation is made concerningthe outcome of the workshops conducted by ZZ partners at local level:

o The participants selected for the workshops had very diverse backgrounds, withactivists, security sector personnel, students and media represented From thedocumentation reviewed and sustained by the focus group discussion, thediversity of the groups impacts the ‘actionability’ of conclusions and outcomes ofthe workshops

26 Evaluation Questions: 1) In how far did the project contribute to the establishment and/or development ofwomen’s networks and gender mechanisms that contribute to the implementation of UN SCR 1325, placingwomen on the wider human security agenda and furthering peacebuilding? 2) In how far does support topeacebuilding and security through gender mechanisms and women’s networks augment efficiency andincrease the impact for women?

o ZZ and partners specified that the participants were very happy about theopportunity and thematic orientation of the workshop However, the conclusionsdrawn remain rather vague, with little information on next steps, futureengagement, action points, and responsibility of participants to continue theirengagement

o The greatest benefit seems to have emerged for EUFOR who have better access

to local communities, with improved communication

It is understood that this is a foundational work that will be expanded on in the comingeighteen months Therefore it is important to link any input to the output it will achieveeither for specifying the national and local SCR 1325 agenda, or for delivering on it Thereview of project proposals from implementing partners needs also to take this intoaccount to a greater extent

 The consultations and trainings have repeatedly identified violence against women andlack of trust and confidence in security sector personnel as major issues for women Butlocal groups were also concerned about socio-economic marginalization of women,which could be placed under the wider human security paradigm If these are thetranslations of what women’s security means at the local level in Bosnia today, this has to

be captured analytically to further substantiate the intervention rationale from a peaceand security perspective Based on the analysis, desired scenarios for change can bedeveloped, supported by indicators that can be monitored

 In the previous collaboration, ZZ developed an important role as the network coordinator

to establish the monitoring report and the public consultation In view of their engagement

as civil society representative in the Coordination Board of the National Action Plan(NAP) on SCR 1325, and in view of the diversity of women’s NGOs in Bosnia, it would beadvisable to provide support to another network under different leadership to ensurediversity of civil society engagement in the processes The movement that Čure isestablishing at the moment could be an additional focus, and the organization is alsorepresenting civil society in the NAP 1325 Coordination Board This option would need to

be further explored between UNIFEM and Čure

4.2.3 UNIFEM-ZZ-EUFOR Collaboration

The collaboration with EUFOR originated in ZZ and EUFOR’s interest to work on women’ssecurity in late 2007, and was then formally facilitated by UNIFEM as a third party As a result ofZZ’s and UNIFEM’s catalyzing support, the position of a national gender adviser wasinstitutionalized within EUFOR, which was felt to be progressive as opposed to the previous set-

up of an international gender adviser and national assistant focal points The NGOrepresentatives present in the focus group discussion all agreed that the commitment of theEUFOR gender adviser had been key to the success of the consultations in the districts, and thatshe went ”out of her way” to make these a success The EUFOR gender adviser stated that fromEUFOR’s perspective, their motivation was to get national law enforcement agencies and agents

to participate For EUFOR, one of the key successes of the process was the discussion amongEUFOR-LOT and citizen’s on civil rights and duties, roles and responsibilities of police officersand how to practically help the police play their role by sharing information and reporting issues.Another important result for EUFOR was the increased trust from the local population in certainlocations, which will make it easier for the Liaison and Observation Teams (EUFOR-LOT) tocollect information at the local level EUFOR expressed their strong interest to continue the

collaboration, as they feel that the ‘real work on SCR 1325 can begin only now, when the

foundations have been laid and people are more aware.’

 It should be discussed to what extent UNIFEM wants to support capacity developmentwithin European security missions If this constitutes an area of continued interest, itmight be helpful to conclude a corporate agreement/MoU on the scope and terms ofcollaboration

 With regard to efficiency and functional communication, the engagement of civil societyorganizations in training of security forces has clear limits To ensure theinstitutionalization and pre-empt liability issues or formal concerns, there is a need toassess partners at (inter-)government level that would be able to fulfill this role in thefuture.27 The participation of civil society would still play an important role as a resource ofinformation and needs, but responsibilities for the intervention would be distributeddifferently

4.2.4 UNIFEM-EUFOR-ZZ collaboration with the European Police Mission (EUPM)

The collaboration with the European Police Mission (EUPM) was initiated in early 2008, after ZZ,EUFOR and UNIFEM had been in contact and decided to enquire on EUPM’s interest incollaborating on the project In view of EUPMs mandate, they were seen as an important ally Theinterview with the EUPM Human Rights and Gender Advisor was carried out separately at therequest of EUPM Similarly to the process in EUFOR, UNIFEM’s support had catalytic impact onemerging internal action to engage in institutional gender mainstreaming The collaboration in

2008 coincided with important policy processes in Brussels, as a result of which a number ofpolicy documents and directives for Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) missions wereestablished Together with a change in the head of mission in Bosnia to a representative withexperience in gender and law enforcement and the engagement of committed staff in EUPM, theexternal environment became extremely conducive to a number of changes According to theinformation provided by the interviewee, a gender coordination board was established in late

2008 and is now institutionalized as a body that reviews recruitment procedures, standardoperating procedures (SOP), and functions as a channel for gender-specific concerns within themission At the high point of the attention to gender mainstreaming at EU and country level,EUPM undertook an investigation to assess the situation of police women in Bosnia andHerzegovina The report was to be released by AGE a few weeks after the interview As part ofthe sensitization of EUPM to gender, affirmative recruitment procedures were to be put in place,collaboration with civil society was a requirement of CSDP missions as per EU directives, allmissions are required to have a gender adviser or focal point, and a pre-deployment training ongender and the SCR 1325 had been developed by the Swedish Folke Bernadotte Academy for

EU pre-deployment training Police training curricula have not yet been reviewed form a perspective Obviously, the policy level processes here go beyond the influence of UNIFEM’sproject The EUPM representative was concerned that the changes within the mission would beattributed to UNIFEM’s project, which, as she stated, would be incorrect However, this evaluationcomes to the conclusion that the collaboration with UNIFEM was catalytic to the establishment ofthe advisory position and coordination board, as the joint work with EUFOR and the high-levelendorsement of the MoU increased the visibility and relevance of the topic

gender-At the question where EUPM would see opportunities for future collaboration, the representativesuggests joint support to the planned Women’s Police Officer’s Network shall be established as asection of the South-Eastern Police Chief’s Association (SEPCA) Discussions in this regard havealready been held between UNIFEM Bosnia and EUPM

27 UNIFEM indicated that such an assessment would be part of a potential follow-up project

 The feedback received from EUPM on the collaboration was very ambiguous Whereas all achievements point to synergies among all actors and external processes, there seems to be the concern within EUPM that the achievements of the process are

disowned and attributed to partners, namely UNIFEM

4.2.5 Establishing partnerships at national level: the Agency for Gender Equality

(AGE)

UNIFEM’s collaboration with the Agency for Gender Equality (AGE) in Bosnia dates back to 2004,when the project on SCR 1325 was being developed jointly between the UNIFEM office inPrishtina and the Regional Office in Bratislava During the second project phase, the maincollaboration with AGE relates to technical assistance for the formulation of the National Report

on 1325, and coordination on the public consultations that were managed by ZZ The mainfeedback AGE provided to the evaluation team was that it would appreciate a closerprogrammatic collaboration with UNIFEM It is hoped that the capacity of the UNIFEM-financedcoordinator for the NAP 1325 Coordination Board within AGE will contribute to this collaboration.The coordination board will include national stakeholders at State and Entity levels, notably theGender Commission and Gender Centres, as well as civil society representatives28 and otherresource persons With the UNIFEM-funded coordinator, AGE will have a dedicated additionalstaff for coordination between donors and the agency At the question what AGE would see asareas for improvement in the collaboration with UNIFEM in the future, the representativesmention regular meetings to keep abreast with UN programmes and engagements, andsubstantive support to the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) on 1325 While therepresentatives stated that coordination is a major problem, they also conceded that due toinsufficient staff resources, the agency is not always possible to keep up with all developments.With regard to the management of the consultation process, the agency put forward that it foundinappropriate for them to be invited by an NGO to a public consultation process on SCR 1325, butthat rather the government should be the one inviting civil society partners UNIFEM responded tothis issue and facilitated the establishment of a direct working relation between AGE and ZZ inthe future through a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding

Observations:

 At the time of the evaluation, the NAP 1325 was awaiting approval from the Council ofMinisters at State level Unfortunately, the evaluation team was not able to get a copy of thedraft plan for the purpose of the exercise However, the team got insights into a draft from late

2009 The main observation on the document pertains to the high level of outputs which willrequire full coordination by all government levels Also, a number of the outputs in the draftplan lay beyond the control of AGE

 The NAP 1325 will give a new rationale to UNIFEM’s support in the country The envisagedsupport to coordination through the provision of a full time coordinator within AGE is anexcellent step to strengthen AGE’s work

 UNIFEM needs to establish closer links with partners such as OSCE’s Human Rights unit that

is concerned with trial monitoring and procedural reviews of legislation, UNDP on communitypolicing and, depending on progress security sector reform to cover the question of gender-sensitization in police and security forces training

28 Čure and Žene Ženama were both part of the working group that established the National Action Plan on

1325 and have been invited to participate in the Coordination Board

4.3 Context analysis for KOSOVO (under UN SCR 1244)

Statebuilding and the provision of security to the population through international

organizations

Setting the context to understand the position of women and women’s security in Kosovo requires

a brief glance at a number of international structures that are engaged in external oversight andadministration of the territory since the end of the armed conflict in 1999 The territory is beingadministered by the United Nations Mission to Kosovo (UNMIK) under UN SCR 1244, which fromits inception was mandated to work on institutional capacities for self-government, albeit the UN’sneutral position with regard to Kosovo’s final status As a result, UNMIK governance structuresfully covered all areas of state administration, mandated with executive powers, and working withthe structures of the Kosovan Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) In 2006, exceptfor the area of security and rule of law, administrative and executive powers were transferred fromUNMIK to PISG Since its unilateral declaration of independence on February 17, 2008, whichhas been recognized by 69 countries as of June 23, 2010, UNMIK structures have beenreconfigured to take into account this new reality The body of international organizations inKosovo has been ‘footprint heavy’, both in scale of deployment and executive powers ofgoverning organizations, Based on the European Union Council Joint Action 2008/124/CFSP, theEuropean Union Rule of Law mission (EULEX) is deployed to Kosovo since late 2008 until June

14, 2012, to monitor and assist judicial institutions and law enforcement agencies in achievingcompliance with European standards.29 The same Joint Action mandates the EU SpecialRepresentative (EUSR) in Kosovo to ensure coordination between EULEX activities, ECrepresentation and EU support to the Kosovo Government in the Stabilization and AssociationProcess (SAP) This being said, NATO’s Kosovo Forces (KFOR) are still in place, even thoughreduced in numbers to some 10,000 since early 2010, supporting the establishment of civilianoversight institutions for Kosovo armed forces, providing technical assistance to demobilizationprocesses and monitoring of the security situation.30 KFOR closely collaborates with UN, EU andother international organizations and actors in Kosovo

During the negotiations to a peaceful settlement for Kosovo, women experienced exclusion andmarginalization of their agendas, despite a vibrant pool of women activists and leaders that wereengaged in advocating for peace during the armed conflict While the Rambouillet talks were stillaccompanied by a few women representatives at higher levels, most prominently by Edita Tahiri,today’s Minister for Public Administration and Chair of the UNIFEM-supported Regional Women’sLeague (RWL), the impact on and access to international governing bodies by women’s solidaritygroups and organizations dwindled as the deployment of the mission took momentum UNMIKwas always harshly criticized for its gender-blind structures The orientation of post-conflictreconstruction and recovery in Kosovo has been dominated by a strong focus on security andsocio-economic recovery through returns and resettlement programmes As in other contexts, thegrounding of women’s participation in the formulation of a new social contract in Kosovo lostpriority face to an overarching security agenda This being said, the international engagement insecurity followed the conservative paradigm of defense and home affairs and security sectorgovernance Security issues that would be pertinent to women in everyday life such as domesticand gender-based violence, armed violence or human trafficking were not part of the internationalagenda In response to the insufficient inclusion of women in major post-conflict processes,Kosovan women activists, women political leaders and women from the business communityjoined efforts, supported by international women’s organizations to push the development of agender architecture in Kosovo These efforts resulted in the development of the Kosovo NationalAction Plan for the Achievement of Gender Equality (KAP) in 2002 which constitutes a landmark

29http://www.eusrinkosovo.eu/;

30 For more information, please see http://www.nato.int/kfor/

for the institutional anchoring of gender equality in the governance system in Kosovo Supported

by the architecture, women’s human rights standards and norms are being mainstreamed intogovernance structures and the human rights protection system

Although women’s inputs were structurally marginalized, as a consequence of activism andcontinuous claims for the inclusion of women’s empowerment and gender equality in post-conflictdevelopment, gender mainstreaming became a criterion in government and internationalorganizations’ policies and programmes, which has resulted in the anchoring of women’s humanrights in the constitution, the development of a Gender Equality Law (2004) and a number ofother laws and institutional mechanisms:

a) Institutional mechanisms for gender equality at the national level

• Agency for Gender Equality / Office of Prime-Minister;

• Advisory Office for Good Governance – Division for Gender Issues / Office of Minister;

Prime-• Unit for Gender Equality - Institution of Ombudsperson;

• Officers for Gender Equality in ministries;

• Inter-ministerial Council for Gender Equality

b) Institutional mechanisms for gender equality at the local level

• Officers for gender equality in municipalities;

• Municipal committees for gender equality

c) Legal Documents regulating gender equality in Kosovo

 Gender Equality Law;

 Kosovo Program for Gender Equality;

 Anti Discrimination Law;

 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)(integral part of the Kosovo Constitution);

 Regulation 2003/13 on domestic violence;

 Anti-trafficking regulation;

 Election Law (guaranteeing 30% quota for women);

 The Law against domestic violence, which passed the first reading in the parliament at the time of this report

This institutional set up and legal frameworks need to be brought to life through their enforcementand financial investment, which is where most of the work still remains to be done Within thegovernance system in Kosovo, the justice sector remains one of the most inefficient pillars.Backlogs of cases sometimes reach several years’ periods, and there is a lack of law practitioners

as the bar exam has not been organized for a few years One of the respondents to thisevaluation specified that the judicial training and bar exam in Kosovo is undergoing reform toreceive accreditation The situation of the justice sector and in particular the delay for the ruling ofcases has a significant impact on access to justice overall, but putting a particular strain onwomen Interviewees brought examples forward to illustrate the impact of women mainly in thearea of gender-based violence, where access to justice is limited due to processes andprocedures that do not protect women sufficiently; and with regard to claims for property rights,where litigation on ownership in cases of divorce or legacy takes too long for women to pursuetheir claims, as common practice enables men to sell or dispose else off property

Similar to other Western Balkan countries, the Kosovan society has clan-based structures, with alarge educational and economic gap between rural and urban populations, within each of whichwomen are marginalized Constituting some 47 percent of the population31, Kosovan women face

31 There is no post-conflict census data available The Kosovo Statistics Office indicates a genderdistribution among the population of 47 percent women versus 53 percent men (see http://www.ks-

challenges with regard to their opportunities for political participation, and economic and culturalempowerment Women are more affected by poverty and unemployment, and within the fivepercent of illiterate in the under 45 age group constitute three times the number of men Thesefigures increase in rural areas as well as in Serbian enclaves and among Roma Some of thedata available indicate that only 13 percent of adult women in Kosovo earn their own incomecompared to 41 percent in men.32 Another structure preventing women’s economic participation istheir under-representation among owners of real estate and businesses Women rarely ownproperty and are often compelled to forsake their right to property in inheritance cases.33 As aconsequence, they are unable to achieve economic independence or secure financial credit tostart businesses.34

Civil Society Organizations

Social movements and civil society have a particular history in Kosovo, which is stronglyconnected to processes of political autonomy Since its declaration of independence in 2008, civilsociety organizations played a vital role as a watchdog, protector of the interests of differentsectors of society, and provider of social services The space of civil society in Kosovo is alsooccupied by business- or service oriented non-governmental organizations that were bloomingfollowing the establishment of the international missions in the country, and mobilized for theimplementation of foreign-funded projects and programs in Kosovo35 A 2008 report of USAIDindicates a total number 3,800 registered organizations, out of which some 200 are considered to

be active To strengthen background information for the current programme, UNIFEMcommissioned a baseline study on Serbian women’s NGOs in Kosovo in late 2008, which waspublished in March 2009 The study came to a total of some 150 registered organizations, out ofwhich twenty percent or some 30 organizations can be considered as active.36 In view of thereduction in international aid flows, it is likely that the number of project-dependent NGOs willshrink and a selection process will start, leaving those with strong acquisition and networkingcapacities in the business and leading to a process in which other organizations will either die orreform around topics of civic engagement and democratization

With regard to state-civil society dialogue, the organization of civic engagement for the claiming ofrights and the expression of the public opinion are very much part of the public culture in Kosovo

In terms of the development of civil society organizations, to seems to be a cleavage betweenhighly organized NGOs at Prishtina level that are driven by well-known leaders or other well-educated individuals and that have access to government institutions through their staff; andgrassroots organizations from rural areas that little have capacities to prepare fundraisingproposals in Albanian, Serbian or English, and low networking capacity to sustain and promotetheir work According to some respondents to the evaluation, the permeability betweengovernment offices and civil society sector is high In view of the recruitment of skilled staff, thepublic sector faces strong competition with the private/NGO sector as salaries aredisproportionately higher in private sector

gov.net/esk/), whereas different reports and research papers, including UN reports, that were consulted forthis report differ by 1 or two percent points to 48 or 49 percent

32 Valur Ingimundarson Under Patriarchy and Peacekeeping: Women in Kosovo since the War, see at

4.4 Analysis of project-specific data in KOSOVO (under UN SCR 1244)

The following section sets out to describe and analyze the interventions in Kosovo against theevaluation matrix Although the project aims to be sub-regional in nature, the main clout ofactivities is being delivered in Kosovo To allow for the best possible synthesis of the status ofUNIFEM’s engagement, the following section categorizes types of collaboration with differentinstitutions and organizations Based on this, the support provided to women’s networks andmechanisms in Kosovo can be differentiated as follows:

 Security sector agencies (Kosovo Police, Kosovo Centre for Public Safety, Education

and Development/Police School, Kosovo Judicial Institute, Kosovo Judges Association,former Kosovo Protection Corps37)

 Think tanks (Kosovo Gender Studies Centre, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network)

 Women’s networks and forums (Kosovo Women’s Network, Women’s Peace Coalition

(composed by 30 KWN members and 30 Women in Black partners from Serbia), NORMA

as the Coordinator of the Coalition of Serbian and Albanian Women’s Organizations inKosovo, Roma-Egyptian-Ashkali Network, Kosovo Serbian Women’s Network Securityand Gender Coordination Group)

 Grassroots organizations (Ruka Ruci, Women’s Committee for Protection and Human

Rights , Community-Building Mitrovica (CBM), Partners Kosova)

In addition, UNIFEM has engaged with the Advisory Office for Good Governance (AOGG) in the Office of the Prime Minister and the Kosovo Agency for Gender Equality (AGE)

Substantively, the partnerships can be divided along the dimensions of

 Advocacy and coordination Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), Kosovo

Gender Studies Centre (KGSC), Advisory Office for Good Governance (AOGG), KosovoWomen’s Network (KWN), Women’s Peace Coalition (WPC), Security and GenderCoordination Group (SGCG))

 Capacity-development for women’s human rights and security (Kosovo Police (KP),

Kosovo Centre for Public Safety, Education and Development/Police School(KCPSED/PS), Kosovo Judicial Institute (KJI), Kosovo Judges Association (KJA), KosovoGender Studies Centre/Network of Roma-Egyptian-Ashkali (RAE) Women’sOrganizations in Kosova, Gender Equality Agency (AGE), former Kosovo ProtectionCorps (KPC))

 Support to inter-ethnic communication and empowerment (Community-Building

Mitrovica (CBM), Partners Kosova, NORMA/Coalition of Albanian and Serbian NGOs(Ruka Ruci, Women’s Committee for Protection and Human Rights (WPCHR)), RAENetwork)

While the first division provides information over the organizational focus and balance in theproject, the second, substantive categories of partnership correspond to the analytical focus ofthe evaluation questions and criteria Subsequently, these will be used in the following section toanalyze results against evaluation criteria and draw conclusions

4.4.1 Advocacy and coordination in support of women’s human rights and security

In the period under review in this evalution, the support to advocacy and coordination on women’shuman rights and security includes the following initiatives

 In 2008, UNIFEM jointly organized a conference focusing on the inclusion of humanrights and women’s human rights in the Kosovan constitution with the Advisory Office for

37 With the convergence of the former Kosovo Protection Corps to the Kosovo Forces overseen by theMinistry of Kosovo Forces, collaboration with UN agencies and programmes will not be possible anymore

as a collaboration in this sector would compromise the neutrality of the UN

Good Governance (AOGG) The event was attended by approximately 200 people frominternational and local organizations and institutions

 With UNIFEM technical assistance, the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) prepared aSCR 1325 Monitoring Report in 2007, and formulated an action plan in 2008 The reportwas updated in 2009

 In a second project, BIRN organized twenty public roundtables in Kosovan municipalitieswhere a well known TV moderator facilitated controversial debates with mayors,municipal representatives, representatives from women’s groups for some municipalitiesand public participation The debates focused on political commitments of the mayors andthe status of women’s security and women’s rights in the respective municipality, with theaim to illustrate political accountability and publicly obtain the officials’ commitment toimproving particular areas of concern The debates were broadcasted by the publicbroadcaster RTK at prime time and viewed by a quarter of the population

 The UNIFEM-chaired Security and Gender Coordination Group (SGCG) has a vastmembership across international organizations, missions, Kosovo Police Gender Adviserand AGE (see TOR annexed to the report).38 The aim of the group is to share informationand coordinate for the improvement of programmatic delivery on women’s security, andadvocate for women’s human rights and women’s security In 2008, SGCG invited twoNGOs for a briefing on sexual and domestic violence and use the information tostrengthen or adapt programmatic response where possible In 2009, the group wasinvited by the Kosovo Security Council Secretariat to contribute to the Kosovo SecurityStrategy The group prepared recommendations on the implementation of national andinternational legal frameworks and human rights instruments, including SCR 1325 andwomen’s security SGCG established contact with the Kosovan ParliamentaryCommittees on Human Rights, Gender Equality, Missing Persons and Petitions, and theCommittee on Internal Affairs and Security While the group is working on a concreteaction plan to support gender and security in 2010, during the focus group discussionheld for this evaluation, members raised the issue of the group’s limits in coordination andinformation sharing, as without financial weight, programmatic priorities would be difficult

to implement Therefore, the action plan will most likely regroup programmaticcommitments of each member organization in the area of women and security In 2010SGCG launched the report “Mapping the Security actors and gender in Kosovo, thelaunching were done at the Prime Minister building leaded by Government of Kosovo-AGE

Observations and Findings:

The overview illustrates a diverse set of activities that UNIFEM has chosen to engage in Fromthe viewpoint of their connection to either advocacy, or coordination, or both, some of theactivities seem to be difficult to place Screened against the evaluation criteria, there are twopartnerships that emerge as extremely strong in terms of advocacy for women’s security, thewider human security agenda and peacebuilding, which include the collaboration with the KosovoWomen’s Network and the Security and Gender Coordination Group

 The Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) is another partner with whom UNIFEM’s strategy

of capacitating networks to take on the SCR 1325 agenda has worked extremely well.Although KWN may not be the only partner with similar potential, their reputation andstand in Kosovo and internationally make of KWN a credible and well-receivedorganization The two main contributions under the current collaboration, the monitoring

38 The UNIFEM Project Manager informed the evaluation team in June that three civil society organizationshad joined the group since the completion of the evaluation in-country