Belgrade 26, 2021 – The Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation and the Centre for Democracy Foundation organized a meeting with the aim to form the Thematic Group “Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls”, related to Goal 5 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Six cross-sectoral thematic groups are to be established within the “SDG for All” Platform with the aim to coordinate activities on identifying and formulating development priorities and policies in line with the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals and establishing the social dialogue on their implementation.

The meeting was attended by representatives of decision-makers, independent experts in this field, representatives of civil society organizations and the media.

The meeting was opened by Nataša Vucković, Executive Director of the Centre for Democracy Foundation, and Ivona Gvozdenović, Project Manager of the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation. Meeting participants were addressed by the Minister of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, Gordana Čomić, and the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Brankica Janković.

The discussion was attended by Marina Savković, Assistant Professor of Singidunum University, Svetlana Ilić, activist of the Roma Women’s Center “Bibija”, Jelena Marinković, Executive Director of the Women’s Association “Lav” from Pirot, Marija Penčić, Executive Director of the Women’s Association “Žene juga” from Pirot, Miloš Đajić, Executive Director of the Centre of Modern Skills, Sarita Bradaš, Researcher of the Centre for Democracy Foundation and others.

During the meeting, participants were discussing the Laws on gender equality and anti-discrimination, the development of a gender equality strategy, institutional discrimination, and cooperation with the Labour Inspectorate. Also, the questions regarding economic resources, gender budgeting, women’s labour rights, unpaid work, sexual harassment, the position and role of women in ecology, health, agriculture, improving access to information technology to promote women’s empowerment, were raised.

As the next steps, the newly established Thematic group will define priority topics in the field of achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls and will start the process of formulating proposals and recommendations for improving public policies and advocating for their implementation.