By initiating the Equality Academy, Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Sarajevo Open Centre have created a new platform for political leadership and a space for joint action of Members/representatives in the parliaments in B&H, leaders of political parties and civil society organizations.

This year’s Equality Academy starts on the 19 February. The first module, that is called Policies for Gender Equality, will take place in Sarajevo and will last until 21 February. The Academy will be opened with the speech of Michael Weichert, the director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Office in B&H. Every one of the four modules, as well as this one, lasts for three days, and is made of lectures, workshops, discussions and meetings with the representatives of the civil society organisations. The focus of this module is on reviewing the achievements and challenges that are ahead of us in 2016, related to the gender equality policies. The moderator of this module is Duška Jurišić.

On the first module of the Equality Academy the following issues will be discussed:

– The contribution and effects of the Law on Gender Equality on the gender equality policies in B&H;

– Integrating the gender equality policies in the election system of B&H, through the legislative, processes and institutions;

– Reviewing the place of women in the legislative and executive in B&H;

– The relation between language and power in the context of gender equality and

– Gender equality through the cooperation of politics and civil society organisations.

The lecturers on this module are Samra Filipović Hadžiabdić, the director of the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Adnan Kadribašić, legal advisor at the OSCE Mission to B&H, Adis Arapović, project manager at the Centres for Civil Initiatives, Ismeta Dervoz, representative in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of B&H in the 2010-2014 mandate, Sandra Zlotrg, the executive director of the Association Lingvisti, as well as the representatives of the civil society organisations that stand out as the persons who intensively deal with the issue of gender equality and come from NGOs in B&H, political practice, media and the academia.

The Academy aims at strengthening the capacity of the leaders in the field of gender equality and the equality policies for the underprivileged groups in B&H, in order to advance the rights of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Besides this, the Academy aims at strengthening the cooperation between the decision-makers and the representatives of the civil society organisations in B&H.

The participants of the Equality Academy include MPs on the cantonal, entity and state levels, members of the parliamentary party bodies, advisers to the ministers on the entity level who are interested in strengthening their own capacities and in working on identification and implementation of the specific solutions that would improve gender equality and the position of the underprivileged groups in our society.

The Programme of the first module of the Equality Academy is available in the B/C/S version of this text.