Kvinna till Kvinna Serbia 2016-2020

The final report covers the time period 2016 – 2020 of the programme “Strengthening Women’s Rights and Women’s Participation Serbia”, implemented by The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation (hereafter Kvinna till Kvinna), in cooperation with partner organisations – women’s rights organisations and networks in Serbia.  Initially, the programme lasted from 2016-2019, to be subsequently followed by an approved one-year extension for 2020, under the same goals and focus. During this period Kvinna till Kvinna gave direct support to nine women’s rights organisations as well as indirect support to 32 organisations and groups working for gender equality, through the Reconstruction Women’s Fund’s sub-granting.  Kvinna till kvinna reports that the organisations supported by this programme strengthened their role as GBV-service providers and were able to support no less than 24.560 victims/survivors of violence, with guidance and services through 60.396 phone calls to their SOS Hotlines. Through this programme, Kvinna till Kvinna’s partner organisations contributed to strengthening Serbia’s GBV legislation and policy, which notably increased the alignment with The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, e.g. the Istanbul Convention and EU-standards, which thus contributed to the EU-accession. Within this programme, women's civil society organisations have developed methods for monitoring the work of state institutions, but also for collecting data on some of the most extreme phenomena in the field of GBV, such as femicide. Confirmation of the credibility and expertise of methods for collecting data on cases of femicide in Serbia, these organisations also received from the Ministry of Interior, whose (unpublished) data for 2020 completely matched the data collected within the Network of Women Against Violence.  Targeted organisations and Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) increased their knowledge and improved their standards concerning security measures and increased their organisational sustainability through Kvinna till Kvinna’s support and provision of capacity development opportunities.

The Kvinna till kvinna (KtK) program aims to strengthen women's rights and women's equal participation in decision-making in Serbia. Intended programme outcome is increased prioritisation of women’s human rights by the Government of Serbia, with special regards to gender based violence (GBV).