Review of progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly (2000) in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been completed in May 2014.
The report was prepared by the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the basis of previous activities of institutional mechanisms for gender equality in cooperation with all relevant actors in the executive, legislative and judicial authorities, answers to specific questionnaires and reviews of reports and studies of international and national institutions and non-governmental organizations by processing qualitative and quantitative data.
Based on the overall approach taken by the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Guidance note for the preparation of national reviews a country wide consultations were organised in the process of the preparation of the Review for Bosnia and Herzegovina. This process was supported by the UN Women Country Office for Bosnia and Herzegovina and this support has enabled the inclusion of a number of civil society organisation. A total of 5 consultative meetings were organised and included organisations and individuals which work in the area of empowerment of women and gender equality including those representing women form minority groups. Over 100 persons representing over 80 civil society organisations participated in the country wide consultations which was the widest consultations conducted over a report so far.
According to the Methodology developed for the consultation and validation process civil society organisations where considered as important stakeholders in the review process and an approach focusing on a two way communication was enhanced to maximise the inputs from the grass-root. In these consultations a focus was on the gathering, compilation and validation of information on current status in the progress made to achieve Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action agenda and to define and enhance a common understanding on the priorities in the post-2015 development agenda through the integration of a gender perspective.
Indirectly this process has contributed to the development of stronger synergies and coherence among women-related initiatives and advancing the empowerment of women and gender equality as well as on the validation and mobilization of support for the implementation of the priorities in the post-2015 development agenda with specific, time-bound actions based on and contributing to the Gender action plan of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other sector specific public policies;