Gender mainstreaming in public policy and budget processes

Gender mainstreaming in public policy and budget processes

The City of Strasbourg participates in a flagship project that aims to increase the awareness of policies for promoting Gender Equality along with six other Member States. The project supports the beneficiary administration to analyse policies and budgeting processes from a gender mainstreaming perspective. Its aim is to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their gender, are able to fully participate and contribute to a fair society. Support is provided to build capacity and implement good practices, methodologies and tools for mainstreaming gender (equality)  throughout the policy making process. In particular, the project supports Strasbourg on the collection and use of gender-specific data, gender mainstreaming of public procurement and grants, consolidation of good gender-responsive budgeting and practices and adoption of Gender impact assessment. The project also facilitates peer learning opportunities between the participating Member State authorities. The project’s ultimate/long-term goal is to promote structural reforms through improving gender equality outcomes in policy actions taken by the beneficiary administrations.

Context

This project responds to the EU Gender Equality Strategy set for 2020-2025 which operates through Gender Mainstreaming. This action responds to the Commission’s proposal “to enhance gender mainstreaming by systematically including a gender perspective in all stages of policy design in all EU policy areas”.

The support under this project will significantly contribute to the integration of Gender Mainstreaming (GM), through the application of Gender Budgeting (GB), Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) and/or other relevant tools. These measures will foster the implementation of policies with stronger women and men equality considerations.

Support delivered

The project provides support to the City of Strasbourg in the following areas:

• Identify good practices and needs, as well as formulate consistent strategies
• Establish an action plan with prioritised actions and building capacities to apply and integrate Gender Mainstreaming tools
• Provide tested methodological guides for the implementation of good practices and tools to effectively carry out  Gender Mainstreaming strategies/ to effectively target Gender Mainstreaming.

The City of Strasbourg regularly meets with the beneficiary administrations in the other six participating Member States for seminars, workshops or study visits. This enables Member States to exchange ideas on their (differing/ varying) needs, practices and to discuss common challenges or potential opportunities.  Although these events offer a chance to share best practices, activities are designed to identify beneficiary authorities’ needs. Member State specific sub-components are followed up with tailored analysis and will include beneficiary specific proposals for policy changes, guidelines and training plans for their implementation.

The project is implemented with the support of Expertise France, in cooperation with the European University Institute (EUI) and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).

Results achieved

Through the implementation of public policies undertaken by the participating beneficiary administrations, this project is expected to increase sensitivity on policy effects of gender equality.

The project’s multi-country approach promotes the exchange of practices and ideas on multiple administrative and policy levels. This will consequently support the future dissemination of projects that focus on equality-related policy matters and make best practices readily accessible/available to a wider audience.

By the end of the project, the City of Strasbourg is expected to have access to manuals, guides and other updated tools. These practices and tools are designed to be transferable to other institutions or services, and can be utilised by a wider pool of public servants across the EU.