Economic literacy training in Bulgaria and Serbia

November has been a very eventful month for Karat’s economic literacy programme. Besides publishing our economic literacy kits, we ran two national economic literacy trainings. The trainings were possible thanks to the financial support of WIDE, although local organisers made their own contributions. In the case of the Serbian workshop, additional funds were also secured.

The first training was conducted 4–6 November in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event was organised by Karat’s member organisation GERT (Gender Education Research and Technologies), and as part of the cooperation of Karat members we were able to use the premises of WAD (Women’s Alliance for Development). Ten women from Sofia, including women working for gender and environment NGOs as well as governmental institutions, attended the training.

The second training, organised by Karat’s member organisation Women’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights was conducted in Subotica, Serbia. Twenty participants, including representatives of gender NGOs, trade unions and other organisations, and local government workers attended this training.

The organisers secured additional funding for the event from the Global Fund for Women and Mama Cash, which made it possible to invite participants from outside Subotica.

Jivka Marinova and Anita Seibert conducted both trainings. In Subotica, the guest speaker, Isabel Marcus from the University of Buffalo Law School, presented a case study of (economic) lobbying related to gender, focusing on lobbying for women’s refuges in USA. In both cases the trainings focused on topics covered in the economic literacy kit, including basic economic concepts, the labour market, privatisation and globalisation. All issues were discussed in the context of gender and economic justice in CEE/CIS.

The next trainings will be organised soon in Poland and Georgia. For more information, please contact Anita Seibert at

Economic literacy resource kit for CEE/CIS. Gender and economy

The objective of this publication is to provide NGO (and particularly gender-focused NGOs) from CEE/CIS with information on basic economic concepts and processes relevant in the region from a gender perspective. The production of the kit was possible thanks to long-term cooperation with WIDE (including financial support) in the area of popular economics. The content of the kit is based on the economic literacy training conducted in the past by KARAT.

Edited by: Anita Seibert

Published by: Karat, 2005

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