Tools for Engendering Local Participatory Processes

Equal participation of women in decision making processes at local level is crucial for creating gender sensitive policy and promoting sustainable development based on equal opportunities for any social group. In Macedonia, despite the introduction of the affirmative measures (quotas) in the legal framework which stipulate that every third place on the candidate lists should be reserved for the less represented group, women are still underrepresented in local government and the parliament. Participation of women in decision making process at local level inter alia include: referendum, citizen’s initiative, public discussions, participation in the work of the municipal councils, various consultative processes, such as: surveys, councils meetings, meetings with the mayors etc. Citizens can also actively participate in the work of the town councils, through which they can influence the decision making process at local level. However, some of the existing participatory mechanisms have certain procedural restraints such as the requirement for referendum proposal to be supported by at least 20% of the registered, which could be discouraging for women to try to influence local policies or the citizens’ initiative where the threshold is 10% of the registered voters is required. The paper presents results on a research that shows women are not interested to directly participate in the local policy making through the mechanisms available. Nevertheless, they would like the municipal policies to address their needs and would like to be informed whenever consultations are planned. Therefore, the paper appraises different engendered tools for policy making that may result in policies to reflect real needs of women.