Follow-up to the assessment of the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on children

The goal of the follow-up to the assessment of the social and economic impact of COVID-19 on children, is to generate scenarios and expanded policy proposals in a situation where it is certain that this will be a protracted crisis, both from a health and from a socio-economic perspective, and where we can verify the validity of the initial assumptions of its nature and duration.

Donor: UNICEF

Duration: December 2020 – March 2021

Gender responsive budgeting in times of pandemic

The project aims to improve the position of women and reduce gender inequality in the labor market in the long run. A detailed examination of the use of gender responsive budgeting in active employment measures will provide a basis for designing new measures and models to improve the position of women in the labor market and mitigate the socio-economic consequences of the crisis and / or recommendations for redesign of existing measures in order to design gender-responsive measures that best meet the needs and characteristics of women.

Donor: Center for Research and Policy Making through the Gender Budget Watchdog Network

Timeline: December 2020 – May 2021

Rapid assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on selected local programmes and support local planning and budgeting in response to the immediate socio-economic needs of women and men

The objective of this project is to provide support in the development of rapid assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on selected local programmes and support local planning and budgeting in response to the immediate socio-economic needs of women and men.

This proposal envisages the following activities:

  • Desk analysis of the LSGUs budgets for 2020 in order to map the envisaged gender-based program, their categorization and comparative analysis with the local policies and strategies for equal opportunities between men and women, in order to evaluate how many local programs and funds were allocated directly for women, before the Covid crisis.
  • In-depth interviews with LSGUs’ officials to discuss in details the LSGUs response interventions to address the local citizen’s needs, with reference to the gender impact.
  • (Online) focus groups with local citizens to assess their experience and attitudes toward LSGUs’ response measures that tackle the Covid-19 impact.

All activities will result in short gender budget policy analysis (15-18 pages) for each LSGU separately, with included assessment of the LSGUs response interventions from gender perspective, as well as policy and recommendations for improving the gender-budgeting process in the post-Covid period.

Donor: UN Women Skopje

Duration: October 2020 – March 2021

Assessment of the poverty effects of Covid-19, with a focus on the most vulnerable categories of citizens

The aim of this project is to assess the risk of poverty imposed by the Covid-19 crisis, with special reference to the groups most at risk, and to raise awareness of the use of the measure to facilitate entry into the system of guaranteed minimum assistance.

Specific objectives include:

  1. To evaluate / simulate the effect of the Covid-19 crisis on poverty, with special reference to gender poverty;
  2. To make a qualitative assessment of the effect of the Covid-19 crisis on the target groups: women and youth at social risk, informal workers, recipients of social assistance and Roma;
  3. To assess the fiscal implications of the measure for relaxation of the criteria for obtaining guaranteed minimum assistance;
  4. To raise awareness of the eased entry into the system for guaranteed minimum assistance;
  5. To propose measures for evidence-based policies, with potentially narrower targeting of the target groups.

 

Donor: The Government of North Macedonia

Duration: July – December 2020

 

 

Beyond income inequalities in North Macedonia

The aim of the project is to provide an overview of inequalities in North Macedonia beyond income, i.e. inequalities in opportunities in four critical areas: education, healthcare, labor market and justice.

 

Provider: UNDP

Duration: December 2019 – January 2020

 

Gender equality in the workplace: Monitoring at the local level

The main objective of the project is to promote and encourage gender equality and non-discrimination in hiring and in the workplace.

The short-term goals of the project include: 1) assessing employers’ attitudes to gender inequality and discrimination in hiring and tin the workplace and the mechanisms for their prevention and protection; 2) to examine the experiences of workers in relation to gender inequality and discrimination and to assess whether they are reduced to isolated cases or systematically occurring; 3) to help policymakers make informed decisions based on evidence, data and recommendations; 4) to encourage social dialogue between key stakeholders (workers, employers and policymakers); 5) to raise public awareness of the regulatory framework for protection against gender inequality and discrimination in hiring and in the workplace.

 

Donor: Foundation Open Society

Duration: November 2019 – May 2020

 

Good or bad tax? Reforming Macedonian personal income tax

The overall objective of the project is to assess the effect of the announced tax reform of the personal income tax.

The specific objectives include:

  • To assess the impact of the announced tax reform on the poverty, income inequality, employment behaviour and the budget of the country;
  • To assess the reflected and expected behaviour of the stakeholders (employers and employees);
  • To steer policymakers to make informed decisions based on evidence, data and recommendations;
  • To increase public awareness of the potential impact of the announced tax reform.

 

Donor: Balkan Monitoring Public Finance / Analytica Think Tank

Duration: January – August 2019

 

Gender-responsible budget of the city of Skopje

The objective of this research is to identify gaps in the gender policies and implementation of gender-sensitive budget of the City of Skopje, and make appropriate recommendations to overcome the gaps.

The survey will give a narrower focus on the economic aspects of these policies. The research will be in three directions: analysis of existing policies and implementation, access to public services and the labor market (kindergartens, schools and health services), gender-sensitive budgeting.

 

Duration: September-November 2016

Donor: Center for Research and Policy Making

 

“Heroes and she-roes”: Knowledge for analysis of and advocacy for equal pay for women and mothers in Macedonia (SHE-ROES)

The objective of this project is to correctly measure gender pay gaps (difference in wages between men and women) and motherhood pay gaps (difference in wages between mothers and childless women) in Macedonia and to advocate solutions for addressing the prevalent pay gaps.
In particular, previous research has demonstrated that Macedonia faces gender and motherhood wage gaps of 12.5% and 8.7%, respectively. However, a large part of females remains outside the labour market and can therefore not be considered when the pay gap is calculated (as their wage is not observed). This makes the above figures incorrect, since it is likely that females who stay outside the labour market are not randomly selected not to work. Hence, one bold challenge is to obtain knowledge for the proper calculation of pay gaps, i.e. econometric (technical) knowledge to address the selectivity bias in the labour market.

The project envisages activities positioned within three pillars:

  1. Professional development thorough capacity building and direct knowledge transfer.
  2. Collaborative research.
  3. Building networks for advocacy, promotion and collaboration beyond the project cycle.

 

Donor: Know-how Exchange Program – Austria through the Central European Initiative

Project partner (know-how provider): The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies

Duration: November 2015 – January 2017

 

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Video – The gender wage gap in Macedonia through the perspectives of 5 women

 

Initial kick-off meeting, Vienna, 21-22 December 2015 – Agenda – Gallery

Training “Econometric methods for survey data”, Vienna, 28-30 January 2016 – Agenda – Gallery

Research stay, Vienna, 31 January – 3 February 2016 – Agenda

Working meeting at the Federal Ministry of Education and Women, Vienna, 1 February 2016 – Gallery

Cartoon competition – Flyer – Call – Gallery & winners

Workshop „Gender and motherhood wage gap: Policies, data and econometric methods“, Skopje, 5 July 2016 – Call – Gallery

Round table “Women in the labor market: Stereotypes and challenges”, Skopje, 6 July 2016 – Invitation and agenda – Press release – Gallery

Research stay, Vienna, 19 – 24 September 2016 – Agenda – Gallery

Research seminars attended at wiiw (Gallery):

  • Innovation persistence and firm growth models, Dario Guarashio, University of Rome Sapientsa, 19 September 2016
  • On the future of the European Monetary Union: Targeted reforms instead of greater fiscal integration” Ana Iara, European Commission, 20 September 2016
  • The space for an industrial policy in Europe, Mario Pianta, 22 September 2016
  • Modest recovery in the East – new uncertainty because of Brexit, the economic relations of Austria with the region and the long-term structural changes in the CESEE countries, Mario Holzner, 23 September 2016
  • Connectivity in Central Asia – International workshop, 15-16 December 2016.

Working meeting with a gender expert at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, 22 September 2016 – Gallery

Research stay, Vienna, 14-15 December 2016 – Agenda

Economic forum: „Gender equal wages for higher economic growth“ – Skopje, 30 January 2017 – Аgenda – Gallery – Gender responsible companies

 

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FT Comment No.10 on the the economic aspects of the National Strategy for Gender Equality 2013 – 2020

Info-graph

Advocacy Show-card

Policy brief 15: The gender wage gap is detrimental for economic growth

Upgrade of EdPlaKo-MK

Manual for proper calculation of the gaps