Living Equality

​Objectives:

• to sensitise public employees on gender equality;
• to provide further training on the use of gender mainstreaming tools for staff of ministries and departments responsible for policy and programmes;
• to set up a structure for implementation and monitoring;
• to build a communication mechanism to share initiatives and ways to overcome stumbling blocks related to the implementation of gender equality and gender mainstreaming;
• to create debate and raise awareness;  and
• to build knowledge on gender responsive budgets.

Research:

Research on Gender Responsive Budget (GRB) at pan-European level:  This research focused on Sweden, France and the UK, Switzerland and Italy.  Information on GRB was gathered with the aim of transferring this knowledge from a European level to a local policy-making scenario.

Implementing Gender Mainstreaming: Focus groups were carried out with management and policy-makers within the Public administration to discuss feedback on the implementation of gender mainstreaming and to identify good practices in this regard. Practical information was then compiled into a document.

Training: 

Gender Sensitivity Training Sessions were also organised and aimed at ensuring strong ownership of gender equality by public officers. Through such ownership, the implementation of gender mainstreaming would be facilitated and more effective.  These sessions also trained public officials on the Gender Sensitivity Manual, a publication that was issued as part of this project.

An e-Newsletter was developed containing information on how gender mainstreaming can be implemented better within the Public Service and Sector. Whereas the first issues presented general information on gender mainstreaming, delving into the prerequisites for this process, the later issues provided more information on particular gender mainstreaming tools, such as Gender Audit and Gender Impact Assessment.