RRPP: Impact of migration on women empowerment in Western Balkan countries

Analytica together with its partner organizations the Albanian Centre for Social-Economic Research (ACSER) – Albania (the project leader organisation) and the Center for Economic Development and Research (CEDAR) - Bosnia and Herzegovina were granted the project Impact of migration on women empowerment in Western Balkan countries. This project is funded by the Regional Research Promotion Programme for the Western Balkans (RRPP) of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Analytica together with its partner organizations the Albanian Centre for Social-Economic Research (ACSER) – Albania (the project leader organisation) and the Center for Economic Development and Research (CEDAR) - Bosnia and Herzegovina were granted the project Impact of migration on women empowerment in Western Balkan countries. This project is funded by the Regional Research Promotion Programme for the Western Balkans (RRPP) of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Summary of the project:

The Western Balkan countries have extensive migration experience, which was historically initiated as a male phenomenon, meaning that men have started to migrate leaving their wives and children behind. Also, it is commonly known that as Balkan coutries, Macedonia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina share the strong patriarchal traditions or “intra-household relations” which are often constructed on a patriarchal basis that impinge on the rights of women. In other words, gender stereotypes and traditional mentalities help to preserve a structural gender gap in all economic, political and social areas. On the other hand, women empowerment is supposed to be one of the pathways through which migration may impact development and growth. Yet, this impact of migration on gender roles has not received the necessary attention.

This project will intend to investigate whether migration has any impact on the women empowerment in traditionally patriarchal countries as Albania, BiH and Macedonia, that is if women in migrant’s households have a say in decision-making. The main part of the methodology consists in collecting and analyzing new quantitative and qualitative evidence related to individual, households and community characteristics in order to capture the role of migration on women empowerment and assist the development of gender and human related policies.

The project outputs are: 1- survey datebases; 2 – organization of visibility events to ensure promotion of the project results; 3- two working papers and one policy paper; and 4 -  book publication on the “Social-demographic impact of migration in Western Balkans - putting together all the working papers and articles produced by ACSER, CEDAR and ANALYTICA in the framework of the RRPP projects.

The successful implementation of this project will have a substantial policy impact in Albania, BiH and Macedonia and also in the wider region of the Western Balkans. Primarily, the outcome of the study will provide material for richer and more inclusive policy debates on important issues relating to women empowerment, migration policies and economic development. The project is expected to demonstrate the impact of migration on the empowerment of women and how migration policies can be improved. The importance of women empowerment is expected to be promoted through the presentation of project results. At macro level (governmental policy making), the study will work to elucidate strategies for dealing with the challenges of migration and its implications to situation of women with the purpose of providing the governments with tools for easing conditions of women and combating the negative effects. With the research results, concrete and practical recommendations are expected to be promulgated to policy makers and to political leaders for specific problems and obstacles during the ongoing path toward responding to the needs arising out of migration and women empowerment. At mezzo level (experts, professionals) the project will increase their skills in dealing with the issues of migration and women empowerment. At micro level (wider public) the project will increase the awareness of the wider public on the issues that relate to migration and how it is affecting the daily life of women.