The campaign “For Every New Heart”, implemented by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) with the support of the Government of the United Kingdom (UK), published the first unique database on allocations of local communities for mothers and children in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
This database, for the first time in one place, shows how municipalities and cities in both entities plan and pay out support to families, revealing significant differences in approaches and amounts.
In the Federation of BiH (FBiH), out of 77 municipalities and cities, 71 of them (92.2 percent) allocate certain funds, while six local communities (7.8 percent) do not allocate any support for mothers and children at all.
In the Republika Srpska (RS), although maternity allowances are centrally regulated at the entity level, an analysis of 11 cities and 53 municipalities shows that many local communities additionally allocate funds from their own budgets.
A detailed overview of the available information on the website http://www.zasvakonovosrce.ba confirms the existence of inequalities in the field of allowances and support for mothers and children in the municipalities and cities of FBiH. In certain situations, inequality exists even within the same local community.
The differences are most often reflected in smaller amounts for employed compared to unemployed mothers, which is the case in eleven local communities. In five local communities, support is allocated for families with three or more children, but not for those with one or two children. Most allowances are one-off, while only five local communities provide multi-month allowances. Some local communities also have symbolic allowances for the birth of a child on a special date.
The analysis of allocations for mothers and children and newborns in 64 local communities in the RS shows that only two municipalities have budget allocations for both mothers and newborns. Sixteen municipalities/cities did not provide any allowance for mothers, while only ten municipalities have an allowance for newborns.
The campaign “For Every New Heart” was launched in 2024 with the aim of standardizing maternity allowances in FBiH and eliminating discrimination based on the place of residence or employment status of the mother.
“In the FBiH, additional inequality is created by a decentralized system in which cantons independently regulate maternity allowances. Differences between cantons are therefore particularly pronounced – for example, the amounts of allowances for unemployed mothers in FBiH range from 400 BAM to over 1.300 BAM. By comparison, in the RS, where the system is centralized, the current amount of the maternal allowance for unemployed mothers is 406 BAM regardless of residence. Local allocations additionally deepen differences, and these analyses clearly point to the need for urgent centralization and the adoption of unified rules that would alleviate inequalities and remove existing differences, especially in FBiH,” WFD states.
Through cooperation with cantonal deputies, legal experts, and analysts, workshops have been held and publications prepared with concrete recommendations for improving the system in the FBiH.
Deputies and experts gathered around the initiative in FBiH propose that: employed mothers have the right to an allowance in the amount of at least 66 percent of the previous salary (two-thirds), in accordance with the Maternity Protection Convention No. 183 and the accompanying Recommendation of the International Labour Organization. This allowance must not be lower than the minimum wage in the FBiH. The right would be integrated into the system of employment relations and social insurance, and financing would be carried out at the cantonal level. They propose that unemployed mothers receive a unified allowance in the amount of the minimum wage in FBiH, which would be financed from the federal level.
