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Moving gender equality towards the mainstream policy process

June 2007

Learning from the experience of gender equality bodies and good practices that have influenced policy development was aim and task of the second Peer Review of the Community of Practice on Gender Mainstreaming. Hosted by the Irish Government on 14^th and 15^th June 2007, the event brought together key players from old and new Member States.

In the framework of a lively learning platform, ESF managers, representatives of gender equality structures, key people from relevant NGOs and gender experts from Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Sweden reviewed the strong and weak points of the Irish NDP Gender Equality Unit (NDP GEU). This unit has been created as a dedicated structure to promoting and facilitating gender mainstreaming (GM) across the ESF-co-financed National Development Plan (NDP) 2000 – 2006. It will continue its work under the new NDP and ESF programming period 2007-2013.

Social Policy Analyst Anne-Marie Mc Gauran who is part of the National and Economic Forum advising the Irish Prime Minister led the NDP GEU during its first period of work. Together with a small and highly committed team she has succeeded to lay the ground for establishing gender mainstreaming as a comprehensive strategy for making equality a reality for women and men in her country. The Unit cast a critical eye not only on the six ESF Operational Programmes implemented under the NDP, but also acted as a mover and shaker within the whole plan with all its policy areas. A huge and challenging task! The table below shows the activities and achievements generated by the unit between 2000 and 2006. According to Anne-Marie these are the backbone for implementing GM.

Tasks	Performance and Outcomes
Collecting gender disaggregated data	√ Achieved for 44% of NDP measures
Carrying out gender impact assessment of the policies intended under the NDP	√ Done for almost all NDP measures, although only 23% were committed to equality actions
Applying gender equality criteria in project selection	√ Undertaken in 37% of NDP measures
Increasing the number of women in decision-making bodies	√ Goal of 40% women achieved in one of six monitoring committees
Regular monitoring and reviewing of commitments	√ Done
Evaluating the impact of programmes on gender equality	√ Done – although recommendations on gender equality were weak in the evaluations

Despite this impressive picture of established tools and strategies, Mc Gauran and her two expert colleagues agreed that all this work can only be the beginning. They found that in Ireland as in other EU countries GM has been promoted by researchers and experts, mainly concentrating on the analytical and technical process of introducing GM. As a result too little attention was paid to integrating it into the process of mainstream policy making. This, however, requires the firm political will of the top political decision-makers and the commitment of those managing the relevant programmes. Whilst winning support from gender equality advocates and experts from both inside and outside of ministries was very successful, convincing the other two categories of players proved to be more difficult.

Anne-Marie Mc Gauran provided participants of the Peer Review with a wealth of practical "do's and don'ts" for gender equality structures, particularly for those aiming to integrate the gender dimension into the new programmes of the Structural Funds. These recommendations range from locating such a unit as an internal body in a ministry rather than as an outside watchdog to the necessity of combining GM training for programme implementers and one-to-one advice to all those who "do GM". "Working with numerical and time-bound targets", the former Head of the NDP GEU argued, "is as important as making individuals accountable to reach these goals. Sanctions and incentives can promote buy-in from various organisations." She emphasised that "for instance the allocation of the ESF performance reserve may be an opportunity to do that."

To round up the first part of the Peer Review Gemma Carney, researcher and policy analyst presented considerations concerning the importance of the current policy context for GM at national and international level. She reminded participants that the Irish NDP is a plan for economic growth conceived as part of neo-liberal economic policy. "GM", she said, "seemed compatible with that policy and so was acceptable to policy makers and national government. () It is important to develop a dialogue between policy makers and researchers and to marry the intellectual and real world' in the effort of mainstreaming gender."

During the second round participants were invited to comment on the Irish experience and to share their own good practices. Key issues discussed included the existence of bodies dedicated exclusively to gender equality versus infrastructures being responsible for equal opportunities for all groups encountering discrimination on the labour market and all societal spheres. Other important points of the debate were related to building alliances and competencies to support gender mainstreaming. Last but not least several of the Peer Reviewers underlined the crucial role of the European Union when it comes to implementing GM in general and in particular in the framework of the Structural Funds where this has not been on the political agenda: "EU gender equality legislation as well as the Regulations for the Funds can help those committed to gender equality to convince top level decision-makers of the fact that gender mainstreaming is not an option, but an obligation and to act accordingly."

Community of practice logo

Vincent Landers, the Head of the ESF, followed the discussions on the establishment of GM with an overview of the Irish ESF Operational Programme (OP Human Capital Investment) for the new period (2007-13). Unlike the previous period, when Ireland had been a large beneficiary of the Structural Funds, the budget has now been greatly reduced. Gender equality will therefore feature as a horizontal dimension in the OP which will focus in particular on up-skilling human resources and tackling the barriers to the labour market, taking on board the experiences of EQUAL. Vincent Landers also highlighted that, within the Transnational Cooperation dimension of the OP, there is scope to support further areas such as gender equality, particularly as the themes are still to be determined. So, the dialogue between policy makers and gender equality advocates from academia, administration and NGO is needed more than ever.

Input papers for the Peer Review and the report of the event as well as information on the GM CoP can be found at the Finnish EQUAL website.

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