Western Balkan Ministries of Defence Use Regional Youth Perception Survey’s Results for Gender Responsive Recruitment Polices

The Ministry of Defence of Montenegro and the Ministry of Defence of North Macedonia came up with several recommendations and new ideas for small-scale projects focusing on innovative ways to attract young men and women interested in and eligible for employment at the ministries of defence and armed forces enabling environment for women’s and men’s equal rights to participate and influence in matters related to peace and security in line with the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

This came as a result of the workshops for evidence-based policymaking organised by SEESAC in partnership with the MoD of Montenegro and MoD North Macedonia, as a follow-up of the Regional Youth Perception Survey. The regional survey obtained regionally comparable and gender-segregated data on how attitudes and values, socio-economic context and previous education influence the choice of profession/occupation of young women and men with a specific focus on the career.

The ministries were mostly interested in values that young women and men promote and the values they perceive as a part of the organisational culture of defence system.

Two workshops were held for the representatives of the Ministry of Defence of Montenegro in February and for the Ministry of Defence of North Macedonia in April 2022 to support development of practical recommendations on how to integrate the gender perspective in recruitment policies.

At the additional request by the Ministry of Defence of Montenegro, the findings of the Regional Youth Perception Survey were presented to high officials of the Ministry and the Armed Forces on 7 September 2022. The Director and representatives of the Human Resources and Public Relations Departments, Deputy Chief of the General Staff (GS), and GS members were introduced to survey findings showing how attitudes and values, socio economic context, and previous education influence the choice of profession of young women and men in Montenegro.  MoDs representatives confirmed that the Ministry is using the survey results in developing evidence-based, gender-responsive human resource policies.

This activity was implemented within the Strengthening of Regional Cooperation on Gender Mainstreaming in Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans project and is financed by the Governments of Norway and the Slovak Republic. With the support of SEESAC, the project provides the Ministries of Defence and the Armed Forces from the Western Balkans a platform where, over three years, they work together to ensure long-term and sustainable inclusion of the gender perspective in defence policies and practices, contributing to accountable and responsive institutions and inclusive societies (SDG 16) and gender equality (SDG 5).