1st Gender Budget in Bulgaria

by Stanimira Hadjimitova, Gender Project for Bulgaria Foundation Director

Introductory notes

It was a real challenge for Gender Project for Bulgaria Foundation (GPF) to initiate this first gender budgeting analysis in the country. The idea came up after the numerous trainings in Poland I participated in, as a member of two international NGO coalitions: KARAT Coalition and NEWW Polska.

It became obvious how important it is for the women’s advocacy NGOs in the country to acquire knowledge on the matter and information about the different initiatives that were implemented in the other countries. On the other hand, there was another, more difficult goal: the respective decision makers at both national and local level to be acquainted and involved in the process.

Mama Cash was the donor who lent us a helping hand. Thus, in 2005 a small group of experts in economics, finance and gender equality issues came together and formed the Bulgarian Gender Budgeting Group (BGBG). The members of BGBG were: Katia Vladimirova- Professor in Economics in the University for National and World Economy in Sofia; Jovka Bankova – an Assistant in the University for National and World Economy in Sofia; Lilia Abadjieva – Chief Expert in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy; Veselka Donkova and Evgenia Chapanova – experts in the Ministry of Finance; Genoveva Tisheva and Iliana Stoycheva from Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation; Ani Lyapcheva from Women’s Alliance for Development and Stanimira Hadjimitova from Gender Project for Bulgaria Foundation.

The Group was trained and then started the first gender budgeting analyses of some of the latest social programs of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. The process was difficult as the National elections were held in the middle of 2005. Their finalization took a long period of time, spent in negotiations between the leading political parties for forming a Government.

As a whole, we estimate this first step as a positive one that will contribute to the next activities. Let me express our wish this process to continue and involve more actively all actors concerned.

For report full version - please write to: gender@fastbg.net