Over the years much has been written on how Gender Mainstreaming should be integrated into the European Social Fund (ESF). Gender-CoP is now taking the process one step further.
The main problem identified by the Gender-CoP and confirmed by the networks Baseline study is that Gender Mainstreaming is not implemented in all phases of ESF-management/cycles. Also:
- Quality is not high enough in the work on Gender Mainstreaming within the ESF
- Gender Mainstreaming is not prioritized in all phases of ESF Management
- Gender Mainstreaming work is not sustainable within the ESF Managing Authorities
- Inefficient learning processes decreases the efficiency within ESF management
The Gender-CoP stresses the implementation of a Gender Mainstreaming strategy that needs to become strengthen within the ESF. There is currently no European Coherence in the way that the Gender Mainstreaming obligatory of the ESF is being implemented in the member states and also the quality of implementation has turned out to vary.
Targets
In order to tackle these problems six target areas have been identified:
- To produce an European standard/guidelines on how to implement a gender perspective in all phases of ESF Management – from planning, programming, implementing to monitoring and evaluation
- To produce a training and capacity building program to strengthen the capacity to implement Gender Mainstreaming according to the standard. The training will emphasize with focus on why and how Gender Mainstreaming can improve the capability of ESF management and ESF cycles among Managing Authorities and intermediary bodies to reach Gender Equality objectives and improved quality of the ESF programme.
- To improve the quality of Gender Mainstreaming through evaluation
- To strengthen knowledge and capacity on awareness raising and advocacy skills on Gender Mainstreaming within the ESF and intermediary bodies
- To understand and improve policy impact in relation to key actors and policies in the priority areas of the ESF
- To learn and improve mechanisms to support sustainability and learning in the work to integrate a gender perspective throughout the ESF policy cycles
The results of the network in areas such as training, evaluation, awareness raising, sustainability, policy impact and training, could be useful in many areas besides the ESF even though ESF is our main focus.
