Across Europe and its neighbouring regions, progress toward gender equality is under increasing pressure. In the three widening countries at the centre of this project, namely Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, these pressures are especially pronounced. Turkey has withdrawn from the Istanbul Convention and restricted institutional use of the term gender, while Serbia and Bosnia struggle with weak implementation of existing legal frameworks and rising nationalist rhetoric that frames gender equality claims as extremism.
Gender Equality Plans are the primary instrument through which institutions have sought to advance equality. Yet most GEPs share two critical weaknesses: they fail to address intersectionality meaningfully, and they leave institutional budgets entirely unexamined, even though resource allocation decisions often reinforce the very inequalities GEPs seek to eliminate.
Budget-It brought together nine partners, namely Kadir Has University, Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, University of Belgrade, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Universidad de Alicante, and the municipalities of Brescia, Novelda, Maltepe, and Stari Grad, to develop intersectional GEPs integrated with gender-responsive budgets. The inclusion of four municipalities alongside five universities recognised that transformation must extend beyond academia. Gender studies, sociology, law, and political science were central to translating understanding of inequality into concrete institutional policy.
Expected impacts included replicable models for intersectional GEP-GB frameworks applicable across Europe, more equitable distribution of institutional resources, and, by engaging municipalities serving over 800,000 residents, a broader cultural shift toward genuine gender equality in public life.
