On the 18th of September in the premises of the University Gender Resource Center (Unigerc), the TPO Foundation and a representative of the Sarajevo Open Center held a meeting with the aim of exchanging experiences regarding advocacy on the topic of menstrual poverty.

In November 2021, the Sarajevo Open Center (SOC) launched an initiative to abolish the tax on hygiene products for women and children. According to the resolution of the European Parliament of 15th of January 2019 on gender equality and taxation policies in the EU, all member states are invited to abolish the so-called ‘tax on personal care and tampons’ and use the flexibility introduced by the VAT Directive, by applying an exemption or VAT rate of 0% on those basic products. Referring to these documents, the SOC invited the BiH public to participate in public consultations and send their letters of support for this initiative. Unfortunately, the proposed amendments to the Value Added Tax Act were not adopted, which means that the tax on pads, tampons, diapers, and other similar products still amounts to 17%. The TPO Foundation is currently implementing a project called Menstrual and Gender Action – MENGA, the main goal of which is to reduce the “pink tax.”

As an introductory activity of this campaign, the TPO Foundation organized a meeting with the representative of the Sarajevo Open Center, Amina Dizdar, with the aim of gaining insight into the activities and results of their previous initiative and developing a strategic approach to running the MENGA campaign. The participants of the meeting concluded that the topic of menstrual poverty is still an unexplored and taboo area and that it is extremely important to work on the promotion of this topic, which affects all female members of BiH society. Also, it was concluded that the MENGA research will be one of the key researches in this field, the results of which will provide an objective basis for advocating policies to reduce taxes on menstrual products.

We remind you that with the implementation of the MENGA project, the TPO Foundation becomes part of the Gender Budget Watchdog Network, a network of civil society organizations that advocate the implementation of a gender-responsive budget in local communities and at the level of the Western Balkans and the Republic of Moldova. The project in Bosnia and Herzegovina is implemented by the Center for the Promotion of Civil Society, and financially supported by the Austrian Development Agency and the Swedish Agency for International Development and Cooperation.