Abstract
From the global to the local level, gender inequality is the most persistent and entrenched challenge to development. The local level of governance is closest to citizens. Decisions taken at this level have the most direct effect on citizen’s everyday lives, as improvements in living, working and leisure conditions depend on good local governance. This chapter focuses on local government. It attempts to describe in detail practical steps toward the localization and realization of SDG #5 at the local level by mapping how to improve, from a gender perspective, the analysis, monitoring, participation, decision-making and access to services to citizens at the local level in order to develop good local governments that serve all citizens. The aim of this chapter is to understand the processes of implementing SDG #5 with focus on urban local governance. We develop a theoretical framework to understand how global norms are translated into local practices. Moreover, we examine policy framework and practices in three municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Visoko, East Ilidža and Žepče to implement SDG #5, tools available and used for SDG implementation and actors involved in these processes at the municipal level. The research is based on fieldwork, qualitative text analysis, interviews and surveys in each of the three municipalities to map the use of tools to implement and mainstream gender equality into the decision-making processes, policies and practices at the local level.
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Notes
- 1.
All three municipalities consist of urban and rural population, and its inhabitants represent one of the major ethnic groups of BiH (Bosniak, Serb and Croat respectively). Visoko is located in central BiH between Zenica and Sarajevo on Bosna River. It is organized into 24 local communities (communes). The municipality has 39,938 residents, out of which 11,205 live within the city limits, and it is one of the most densely populated areas in BiH. The vast majority living in Visoko is Bosniak (90%). The second selected municipality of the study is East Ilidža Municipality, which is a municipality of the city of Istočno Sarajevo, or East Sarajevo as it is more commonly known in English, located in RS. In the almost 28 m2, there are 7649 women and 7069 men, 94% of which are living in urban areas across 73 streets. The third municipality in this comparative study is Žepče Municipality. It is located in a valley in the Zenica-Doboj Canton of the FBiH and the river Bosna flows through the town. Some 30,219 persons live in the municipality, among which only 5460 in urban areas, and the majority is Bosnian-Croats.
- 2.
The Parliamentary Assembly of BiH has two chambers and one of them, the House of Representatives has had a Committee on Gender Equality since 2000 (https://www.parlament.ba/committee/read/21); at entity level, the Parliament of FBIH is also bicameral and its House of Representatives has a Committee on Gender Equality, the National Assembly of RS has a Board for Equal Opportunities; at cantonal level in FBIH each of the ten cantonal assemblies has a Committee for Gender Equality.
- 3.
UN Stat—Gender Statistics Manual, https://unstats.un.org/unsd/genderstatmanual/What-are-gender-stats.ashx.
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Björkdahl, A., Somun-Krupalija, L. (2020). Gender Equality and Local Governance: Global Norms and Local Practices. In: Cheema, S. (eds) Governance for Urban Services. Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2973-3_5
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