The Ombudsperson for Gender Equality organized and participated in a conference marking the beginning of the project "Strengthening and supporting women in the army force and in the peace missions of the Republic of Croatia”. Project whose holders are doc.dr.sc.Irena Petrijevčanin Vuksanović and doc.dr.sc. Davor Božinović and partners the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality of the Republic of Croatia and Center for education, counselling and research CESI is funded by the U.S. Department of State - 2020 AEIF / U.S. Embassy in the Republic of Croatia. 

The speakers at the conference were: Višnja Ljubičić, the Ombudswoman for Gender Equality of the Republic of Croatia, the project holder doc.dr.sc. Irena Petrijevčanin Vuksanović, the State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, H.E. Robert Kohorst, US Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia, Admiral Robert Hranj, the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces, and Anamarija Tkalčec from the partner organization CESI. A short video about women in the Croatian Armed Forces was presented as well as the recorded statements of doc.dr.sc. Davor Božinović, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia and the Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia.

The project is one of 11 selected in a competition of more than 300 submitted from all over the world at the prestigious competition of the US. State Department from Washington - 2020 AEIF (Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund). It will last for one year, use innovative methods and direct education and for the first time in the Republic of Croatia provide an analytical insight into the status of women in military forces and peacekeeping missions.

The project will have a direct impact on raising the level of awareness, information, knowledge of the project participants as well as on eliminating weaknesses within the system, strengthening gender equality, prevention and suppression of gender-based violence, mobbing and other forms of abuse.

Direct beneficiaries will be female candidates/non-commissioned officers/officers and participants/attendants in direct educational programs and participants in planned activities and events. Indirect beneficiaries will be the representatives of gender equality institutions and bodies at national, local and regional levels, as well as EU level with whom the results of the analysis and the project itself will be shared, representatives of the executive and legislative authorities, civil associations and organizations, the media interested in the topic and the public sensitized to this topic.