Gender equality and local governance: Global norms and local practices

Abstract

From the global to the local level, gender inequality is the most persistent and entrenched challenge to development. The local level of governance is closest to citizens. Decisions taken at this level have the most direct effect on citizen’s everyday lives, as improvements in living, working and leisure conditions depend on good local governance. This chapter focuses on local government. It attempts to describe in detail practical steps toward the localization and realization of SDG #5 at the local level by mapping how to improve, from a gender perspective, the analysis, monitoring, participation, decision-making and access to services to citizens at the local level in order to develop good local governments that serve all citizens. The aim of this chapter is to understand the processes of implementing SDG #5 with focus on urban local governance. We develop a theoretical framework to understand how global norms are translated into local practices. Moreover, we examine policy framework and practices in three municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Visoko, East Ilidža and Žepče to implement SDG #5, tools available and used for SDG implementation and actors involved in these processes at the municipal level. The research is based on fieldwork, qualitative text analysis, interviews and surveys in each of the three municipalities to map the use of tools to implement and mainstream gender equality into the decision-making processes, policies and practices at the local level.