Democratization agencies were established following the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, but they have faced significant constraints in performing their tasks. Challenges include marginalization in national government structures; insufficient support from national political leadership; dependence on donor funding, and the accompanying implication that gender-equality issues are a foreign import; unclear and weak mandates; and a lack of adequate staff, expertise, and resources. ODIHR undertakes initiatives to help strengthen such national structures through activities aimed at developing expertise, transparency, and accountability in their work. Assistance includes support in organizing staff training on women’s rights, gender-sensitive policy planning, gender-budgeting, and outreach to civil society partners and think tanks to promote wider public input into their activities. In Ukraine, ODIHR conducted a number of capacity-building workshops in 2007 for elected women officials in municipalities on integrating gender aspects into local policy-making, and it assisted representatives of local government bodies in the Chernivtsi, Kirovohrad, and Zaporizhzhya regions to develop action plans for promoting gender-equality measures in the policy-making process. The development of these action plans involves a broad range of local stakeholders from elected officials from various political parties to local civil society experts and is designed to identify action necessary for gender-mainstreaming of locally developed public policies. Furthermore, ODIHR provides governments with advice on the development of state policies and national action plans on gender equality. In 2006-2007, upon a request from the Unit for Gender Equality of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, ODIHR provided expert guidance on international standards and best practices for developing a national action plan on gender equality. Integration of gender-equality studies in national education curricula In 2007, ODIHR continued to provide assistance in promoting education on gender-equality issues in Armenia. ODIHR, in co-operation with the Association of Women with University Education, provided expertise and financial support for the teaching of gender-equality courses in more than 30 high schools and 10 universities in Yerevan and in nine regions of the country. In addition, ODIHR initiated a review of the highschool curriculum on civic education and will provide further expertise on the gender-mainstreaming of this curriculum in 2008. In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, ODIHR supported the organization of a two-week course at the International Summer University in Bitola in July on gender, ethnicity, and democracy, which brought together more than 20 representatives of various universities from across the country and members of civil society organizations from all Balkan countries. IV. Migration/freedom of movement increased population mobility has become one of the main characteristics of modern societies. As people move both within their countries and between countries, migration patterns are becoming ever more complex. Regulated migration can be a positive factor in economic and social development for both host and home countries and can contribute to increased understanding among cultures and to democratization trends. OSCE participating States have undertaken a number of important commitments to create conditions to facilitate the movement of people across borders, as well as within their own countries, and to protect the human rights of migrants. A number of OSCE participating States have taken steps to accommodate waves of migrants in recent years, though sometimes the necessary policy and legal frameworks for their protection are not yet in place. Notwithstanding the efforts of ODIHR and its many partners, there remain serious obstacles Annual Report 2007 33