{"id":18197,"date":"2025-08-15T17:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/?p=18197"},"modified":"2025-08-15T17:09:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:09:52","slug":"savka-todorovska-where-does-grb-fit-in-a-lifelong-journey-of-fighting-for-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/savka-todorovska-where-does-grb-fit-in-a-lifelong-journey-of-fighting-for-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"Savka Todorovska: Where Does GRB Fit in a Lifelong Journey of Fighting for Equality"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mersiha Jaskic<\/p>\n

I first met Savka Todorovska<\/strong> in 2022, in Ohrid, when she received the Gender Budget Watchdog Network Award<\/strong> for her outstanding contribution to advancing gender equality. Although she is 53 years my senior, her energy immediately humbled me.<\/p>\n

Over the past few years, our paths have crossed often, bound by our shared work on gender-responsive budgeting across the region. Each meeting left me with the same feeling: a mix of admiration, inspiration, and that positive kind of jealousy one feels when standing next to someone with seemingly endless drive. Her sharp sense of humor, love for what in Bosnia and Herzegovina we would call \u0107ejf, or the small pleasures savored slowly, and her unwavering commitment to women\u2019s empowerment in its truest sense, not as a slogan, but as a lived practice, have been both grounding and motivating for my own work on equal access to resources and opportunities.<\/p>\n

This year, we met again. This time in Kru\u0161evo, North Macedonia, during a GBWN workshop<\/a>. As we were about to leave, Savka, wearing a badge of FAMA – the Feminist Anti-Militarist Network, began sharing a story from her childhood which interested me:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am from Veles, a town on a hill, similar to Kru\u0161evo where we are today, where every house has an entrance on one side and an exit on the other. During World War II, illegal resistance meetings were held there. Women had a specific role in Veles, mostly helping the resistance, whether by sewing clothes or hiding people. After the war, women gained a new role. My mother, among them, had the task of being a role model, especially to help educate others. I was born in 1943, and from the age of four, I attended the first kindergarten in Veles. Visiting or hosting children from the war orphanage was part of our daily lives. Most of what we did was voluntary. I share this not only to describe my childhood, but to explain why and how I learned about the importance of working for a better community, for everyone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"The National Council for Gender Equality<\/a>, which Savka has led for many years, was established in 1994, as she would say, it is \u201ca force and energy for women\u2019s rights.\u201d It brings together women\u2019s organizations across North Macedonia to fight systemic stereotypes, advocate for legislative change, and promote women\u2019s participation in decision-making. Its founding motto remains together; women are stronger.<\/p>\n

Savka\u2019s lifelong journey inevitably led her to gender-responsive budgeting, an approach she sees as central to achieving real equality in the contemporary context:<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking on women\u2019s rights, I realized that traditional budgeting often ignores the different needs of women and men, as well as the structural inequalities in society. We can\u2019t say that women in our region are not emancipated, but now we face other challenges: political representation, leadership positions, and budget allocations. These are the issues we need to address. Simply put, the tools we use to become equal members of society must be adapted to our context and gender-responsive budgeting is one of the key solutions for a more equal future.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

As our conversation drew to a close and we were supposed to each go back to our communities and continue working in an aligned but contextualized manner, Savka reflected on why it\u2019s so important to nurture feminist values today:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s world, as we witness the rise of authoritarianism, misogyny, racism, and discrimination, nurturing anti-fascist and feminist values is more important than ever. Anti-fascism calls for a society without hate, violence, and repression, while feminism promotes equality, freedom, and solidarity across identities. These values are the foundation of resistance against oppression and injustice. To protect them is to defend human rights, democracy, and the dignity of every individual. This is our daily political, moral, and social responsibility.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Savka\u2019s story is a reminder that fighting for equality requires more than mere words, it requires structures, resources, and tools that address inequalities at their roots. And for her, gender-responsive budgeting is one of the most powerful tools we have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mersiha Jaskic I first met Savka Todorovska in 2022, in Ohrid, when she received the Gender Budget Watchdog Network Award for her outstanding contribution to advancing gender equality. Although she is 53 years my senior, her energy immediately humbled me. Over the past few years, our paths have crossed often, bound by our shared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":18219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18197"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18230,"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18197\/revisions\/18230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbwn.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}