MP and WPN member Vera Paunovic said she was pleased to meet with the representatives of the executive power, hoping that they would be cooperating in the future, exchanging experiences and knowledge and supporting one another’s future work. Speaking of gender sensitive budgeting, Branka Draskovic, advisor at the Ministry of Finance, said that the key is to take small steps and set one goal as a starting point for the development of gender sensitive budgeting.

The members of the Women’s Parliamentary Network also met with the National Assembly Support Service staff from the Department of Budgetary, Financial, Accounting and Public Procurement Affairs, who had, in cooperation with the Serbian Ministry of Finance and the UN Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Agency, attended a seminar in May of 2015 for budget beneficiaries at the national level with the topic “Gender sensitive budgeting in the Republic of Serbia”.

The participants of the meeting concluded that the role of the National Assembly in the debate on the budget is essential and opens up room to implement gender-responsive programmes, a task that requires gender budget analysis, definition of said programmes, establishment of realistic goals and indicators and finally inclusion of the results in the strategic report.