In Eastern Europe, including the Western Balkans, persistent gender inequalities and discrimination continue to affect family dynamics and society. These harmful norms and practices discriminate against women and girls, resulting in low female employment rates across the region and difficulties for women to reconcile work and family responsibilities. 

The Western Balkans witness significant gender disparities in labour force participation, pay, and the burden of unpaid care work. Women's labour force participation rates range from 52 per cent in Albania to 16.5 per cent in Kosovo, considerably lower than men. Contributing factors to these disparities include the lack of affordable care services, limited flexible working arrangements, and family policies that do not address gender inequalities. Moreover, the region is undergoing demographic shifts, characterized by low fertility rates and an ageing population, shifts that countries will struggle to address with persistent inequalities for women in income, education, and employment opportunities.

To address these challenges, it is crucial to implement gender-responsive family policies (GRFP) that prioritize the involvement of fathers and provide comprehensive support to both parents. However, existing policies primarily focus on supporting mothers, resulting in inconsistent provisions for maternity, paternity, and parental leave, as well as carer's leave.

To address existing policy gaps, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is launching the second phase of the  “Expanding Choices: Gender- Responsive Family Policies for the Private Sector in the Western Balkans project in Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia. With support from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), UNFPA is partnering with governments and the private sector to promote gender-responsive family policies across the Western Balkans and Moldova. Evidence shows that such policies—whether implemented at the national level or within the private sector—are powerful tools for transforming discriminatory gender norms and redistributing unpaid care work, enabling both women and men to pursue their career goals and fulfill their fertility intentions.

Expanding Choices aims to enable women to fully participate in the labour market and make informed decisions on their family and work life, leading to more gender-responsive and sustainable development.

Expanding Choices aims to:
1. Redistribute unpaid care work between women and men,
2. Involve the private sector in creating family-supportive workplaces,
3. And promote new social norms that enable true gender equality.

In the first phase of the project, through a comprehensive and rigorous assessment of over 25 private companies operating in Kosovo, UNFPA identified seven businesses that have demonstrated the drive and passion to advance company policies conducive to a family-friendly workplace. These Champion Companies have shown that family-friendly policies not only expand choices for women and men in the labor market, but also enhance company agility, capacity, and competitiveness.

The main objective of the project was to help alleviate the social hardships faced by women who lost their jobs in the informal sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. These women received one-time direct financial assistance, approximately equivalent to the minimum wage as defined by current legislation (170 euros). Out of a total of 490 women who applied for this support, assistance was granted to 444 of them. The beneficiaries were primarily women previously employed in the informal sector, specifically in the following sub-sectors: elderly care, childcare, house and residential space cleaning, retail sales, tailoring, and beauty salons. The Women’s Economic Forum used this database to advocate for the inclusion of these women in various employment-focused projects. As a result of this advocacy, one of the beneficiaries was employed at KESCO in December 2020, while several others resumed work as cleaners or caregivers for the elderly and children. As part of the project, members of the Women’s Economic Forum also produced five OP-ED articles, aimed at raising awareness and advocating for the improvement of women's status during the pandemic. These editorials, accompanied by infographics, aimed not only to inform the public but also to provide concrete policy recommendations for more gender-responsive governance.

The OP-EDs were published on the S’BUNKER platform and addressed the following topics:

1. Gender integration in the COVID-19 response in Kosovo;
2. Reproductive health of girls and women during the COVID-19 pandemic;
3. The COVID-19 pandemic as a tool to raise awareness of economic issues in marginalized communities;
4. Maternity leave as a burden on the state;
5. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women-owned businesses.

The articles and infographics are also available on the Facebook page of the Women’s Economic Forum.