On 26 May 2021, SAO representatives headed by Auditor General met with representatives of the United Nations Body for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, UN Women in North Macedonia, Ivona Paunovic Bisevac, National Coordinator for Gender Responsive Budgeting Programme and Ivan Vchkov, Project Coordinator for Gender Responsive Budgeting.
UN Women reps presented their work in the country and their commitment to assist central and local government in integrating gender equality and gender responsive budgeting into national planning and policy-making as part of the project “Promoting Gender-Responsive Policies and Budgets: Towards Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Republic of North Macedonia”, financially supported by the Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency – SIDA.
Auditor General presented some of the activities taken so far concerning this matter, emphasizing that SAO 2021 Annual Work Program will include performance audit on implemented Government measures for gender equality and appropriate gender budget initiatives. The audit should analyze the effectiveness in implementing international obligations of our country concerning the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), UN Treaties on Human Rights, Sustainable Development Goals and the Beijing Platform for Action. SAO 2021 Annual Work Program will also include several performance audits related to Sustainable Development Goals.
The future activities between both institutions were agreed and will be precisely defined in a Memorandum of Cooperation to be signed in May. UN Women will organize a series of trainings for SAO staff, where participants will be informed about the concepts of gender equality and gender responsive budgeting, as well as the tools and methodology for conducting gender audits.
