Towards a Gender Equal World: the EU Gender Action Plan III

Image

• Gender marker: G2-Promotes gender equality as a primary objective

• Period of implementation: 2020-2022

• Amount: EUR 176,049.77 (The Slovenian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs contributed EUR 130,000)

• Geographical area: Western Balkans and Türkiye

• (Co-)funded by: Slovenia

• Implementing partners: Caritas Slovenia, Diocesan Caritas of Belgrad (local partner in Serbia), Municipalities of Aleksinac, Ražanj and Knjaževac in SE Serbia, Municipalities of Kočevje and Razkrižje from Slovenia, Slovenian Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry, Slovenian company Talisman d.o.o., RTV Slovenija, Regional Koper-Capodistria television programme

• Link to the project:

  • https://www.karitas.si/studijski-obisk-predelovalk-domace-hrane-iz-jugovzhodne-srbije-v-sloveniji/

• GAP III’s Area:

  • Economic and social empowerment

In rural areas of Serbia, where twice as many people live below the poverty line compared to urban areas, the lack of formal employment obliged them to rely mostly on self-sufficiency farming or seasonal work, affecting in particular women. As they have less education, very few assets (usually they don't own land or property/house) and little income, rural women are in an unequal position to men within their families, while living in a patriarchal society.

In this challenging context, and in coherence with Slovenia’s commitment to the empowerment of rural women and the promotion of gender equality, both in national policy and in its foreign policy and international development cooperation, this intervention aimed at women’s agricultural entrepreneurship in rural municipalities in South Eastern Serbia. 

In particular, the project aimed to empower and increase the income of 62 women farmers – fruit and vegetable producers - through a series of activities to professionalise the processing and sale of home-grown produce. Even if in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to mitigate the health impact of the pandemic and the worsening socio-economic situation of the population, the women increased their monthly income by 30 percentage points or more compared to the time before the intervention. 

Thanks to the diverse training activities, women have gained new entrepreneurial skills, learned standard technological procedures for processing fruits, and vegetables, handled during the epidemics, and obtained quality certificates. Women were also provided with adequate facilities for processing and storing home-grown food and had better access to the market through branding and participation in food fairs. Besides, in the municipality of Knjaževac, an innovative machine produced by the company Talisman d.o.o. is helping women to set up a joint food processing production line. 

Nevertheless, this intervention has gone a step further by increasing the support from local politicians thanks to a conference organised for municipality representatives/authorities where Slovenian experiences of rural women empowerment practices were presented. Also, recommendations on how to better support the development of entrepreneurship for more women farmers were shared with local/municipality political decision-makers, who finally included a special budget for the development of women farmers’ entrepreneurship in their annual budgets (starting with the 2023 budget), thus ensuring the future sustainability of the project. 

In a nutshell, interventions such as this one contribute to ensuring that the role of rural women in their families and society is recognised. Women are becoming more active in making decisions in and for their families as they bring home an income. 

"The project means a lot to us, because as rural women we have the opportunity to participate, we are more than satisfied that someone can help us, it empowers us", said Radica Babić from Aleksinac, one of the Serbian women involved in the project.