PRESS RELEASE
“Marginal Activism: Employment by Political Line”
Members of associations that bring together women in the municipality of Bratunac and local communities have similar problems, and one of them is employment, which largely depends on political affiliation
As part of the European Union project “Women’s Rights – Agenda for Positive Change”, the CURE Foundation, the Foundation of Women’s Empowerment (FEW) and the Women’s Association “Jadar” from Konjević Polje organized a workshop in Bratunac to jointly create an Action Plan – An agenda for women’s needs in the municipality.
The workshop was intended for members of the Women’s Association “Jadar” from Konjević Polje and their associates, representatives of local institutions such as representatives of the municipality, health organizations, social work center, employment bureaus and representatives of non-governmental organizations.
At the workshop participants discussed mechanisms for gender equality in the Birač region with a special focus on the municipality of Bratunac and its local community Konjević Polje, but also about how jointly improve gender equality policies in Bratunac while defining specific solutions and areas of action.
On behalf of the CURE Foundation and the Foundation for Women’s Empowerment, Medina Mujić, who led the process of creating the Action Plan – Agenda of women’s needs in Bratunac, said that the participants through focus groups mapped several problems faced by citizens, especially women, from that area.
– Through the process of the workshop, we worked on conceptual solutions so that these problems could be overcome as soon as possible, and all that should be included in the Action Plan – Mujić explained.
She mentioned several key issues, highlighting education, inadequate health care and stereotyping of women, since in that area of Bratunac and Konjević Polje there is a very strong patriarchal system of education and views on the role of women in society in general.
Many participants, says Mujić, expressed the view that it is very difficult for women to fight for their rights in the private and public spheres because they do not have equal status with men and women are seen as someone who is second in value or unequal with men.
– One of the problems that was highlighted was the issue of employment, and the problem of political structures was also emphasized because all jobs are reserved according to political affiliation – Mujić underlined.
Head of the Department for Social Activities in the Municipality of Bratunac Olja Čučić also spoke at the workshop and she emphasize as the big issue the fact that one third of the population in Bratunac did not finished elementary school. That means that the number of citizens that did not finished elementary school is 6.554, of which 4.324 are women.
– I really consider that the biggest problem because women simply don’t have a chance if they want to start looking for any job, not to mention that they can’t even watch movies or series – she added.
She also noted that Bratunac do not have valid Gender Action Plan since 2014, which is necessary in order to be able to address women’s issues in that area, but this document is also needed to address donors with concrete proposals.
She stressed out that the municipality has a gender sensitive budget that allows women to apply and request funding for the needs they have.
The development of the Action Plan will continue in order to promote it by the end of October for the representatives of local institutions and to lobby for the adoption of recommendations from the Action Plan at the municipal level.
