Review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the EU: Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of gender equality „Gender Equality de facto as a Contribution to „Reaching Europe 2020“ targets: the Effectiveness of Institutional Mechanisms“. September 13, 2013, Vilnius

Strategic objectives H1. Create or strengthen national machineries and other governmental bodies; H2. Integrate gender perspectives in legislation, public policies, programmes and projects; H3. Generate and disseminate gender-disaggregated data and information for planning and evaluation.

Factors affecting the Structure and Mandate of the Institutional Mechanisms for Gender Equality Shifts in political climate International agreements and legislation Current economic crisis budget/staff cuts merging (other policy areas, bodies) rationalisation same or expanded scope of tasks with fewer resources

Factors affecting the Structure and Mandate of the Institutional Mechanisms for Gender Equality EU: policy and legal initiatives move of Gender equality from DG EMPL to DG JUST merging: ‘shift EU policy and to focus less on gender equality as a separate policy field to include gender equality under “diversity mainstreaming” or human rights’

Factors affecting the Structure and Mandate of the Institutional Mechanisms for Gender Equality Shift towards legalistic, multi- discrimination approach equal treatment marginalisation of gender equality as a political goal and policy undermined equality as underlying ground of all inequalities

Indicators reviewed (1) Status of governmental responsibility in promoting gender equality; (2) Personnel resources of: (2a) the governmental gender equality body; (2b) the designated body or bodies for the promotion of equal treatment of women and men; (3) Gender mainstreaming

INDICATOR 1: Status of governmental responsibility Highest responsibility for gender equality at the governmental level Existence and permanence of a governmental body Location of governmental gender equality body in the government structure Functions of the government body Accountability (regular system of reporting) and existence of National action plan on gender equality

Overall positive development in the status of governmental responsibility for promoting gender equality The points present average at EU-level. Overall, the progress has been made in status of governmental responsibility in promoting gender equality (from 8.36 points out of 10 in 2005 to 8.79 points in 2012). The aspect on the accountability of the governmental gender equality body and on the existence of the national action plan for gender equality (GAPGE) demonstrates the largest improvement. A minor decline in the highest responsibility since 2005 is observed. However, the general nature of the questions does not allow assessing how effectively governmental action plans for gender equality are implemented. The biggest improvements observed in: Italy, UK, Poland and Slovenia.

Gender equality experienced a decrease in its importance as a policy area With whom the highest responsibility is vested is a crucial aspect when analysing the governmental responsibility on gender equality and it decreased overall since 2005. The decline is observed in Slovakia, Greece, Ireland Improvements in France and Italy

More Member States have the governmental gender equality body at the highest level Biggest improvements: Slovenia, UK, Slovakia, Lithuania The level of location is lower in Greece, Italy

INDICATOR 2: Personnel resources of: (2a) the governmental gender equality body (2b) the designated body or bodies for the promotion of equal treatment of women and men

Human resources for gender equality decreased in more than half of Member States

Decreased number of independent bodies exclusively dedicated to the promotion of equal treatment between women and men Main reason: due to increase in merging of equality bodies Median: employees per population (1000000) working on gender equality: 1.42 MERLE: graph for Jolanta on MS level – earlier graph

Resources for gender equality are less visible in independent equality bodies On the graph only human resources are presented but actually this is the same also for budget. Here are presented only the MS who were able to provide the data for both years: 2005 and 2012 The tendency in changing the human resources in governmental and independent bodies are different: more MS have been cut the human resources in governmental bodies than increased while more MS indicated an increase in human resources for independent bodies of equal treatment than decrease.

Main conclusion: indicator 1 and 2 Limited number of staff of governmental bodies Complex and expanding mandates Highest responsibility at lower level Split into different competency areas Increased, but ad-hoc, involvement of civil society In the majority of EU Member States, gender equality as a policy area is carried out by a limited number of staff. However, in many cases the independent bodies for the promotion of equal treatment of women and men were better staffed and funded than governmental bodies in 2012 .   Bodies are charged with complex and expanding mandates and placed at a lower level of highest responsibility overall in the governmental hierarchy, in various ministries such as employment, social policy/social protection, family, equality or equal opportunities, culture, education and justice. CSOs, especially women’s organisations are increasingly involved in the development of policies, legislation, reporting, and evaluation, however, not always on a regular or structured basis

INDICATOR 3: Gender mainstreaming Status of government commitment to gender mainstreaming Structures for gender mainstreaming Commitment and use of the methods and tools of gender mainstreaming: Training and capacity building for gender mainstreaming Gender impact assessment Gender budgeting Monitoring and evaluation It calculated according to improved methodology.

More Member States committed to gender mainstreaming

The majority of Member States improved their structures for gender mainstreaming

Increase in the use of gender budgeting and a slight decrease in the use of gender impact assessment Even if the use of gender budgeting or gender impact assessment of ministerial budgets in the Member States increased from 12 % in 2005 to 29 % in 2012, gender budgeting as a method for gender mainstreaming remains at its initial stage in the majority of the Member States or practically unknown in several MS. Even when gender budgeting is used, it still too rarely leads to real adjustments of budgets to meet gender equality goals. There is also gender training and monitoring and evaluations: aspects which were included in the indicator but not presented on the graph due to lack of data availability for 2005.

Less than one third Member States use both monitoring and evaluation for gender mainstreaming

Main conclusion: indicator 3 Formal commitment and structures Methodologies and training largely available Methods and tools not institutionalised Gender impact assessment and budgeting in their infancy All Member States are formally committed to gender mainstreaming and have a formal structure in place. The majority of the Member States (19) developed methodologies of gender mainstreaming and provided training (ad-hoc) Gender mainstreaming methods and tools are not properly institutionalized in many Member States. In 2012, nearly half of the Member States adopted a legal obligation to undertake GIA, but only a few used it widely. GIA is still at its initial stage or practically an unknown concept in many of the Member States

Government commitment to production of statistics disaggregated by sex NEW INDICATOR 4: Production and dissemination of statistics disaggregated by sex Government commitment to production of statistics disaggregated by sex Government commitment to dissemination of statistics disaggregated by sex Methods in use for the dissemination of statistics disaggregated by sex

In spite of a low commitment to disseminate statistics disaggregated by sex, the majority of the Member States do it

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world” Mahatma Gandhi

Thank you for your attention! Ioana Borza – Gender Expert Ioana.Borza@eige.europa.eu Ilze Burkevica – Statistics Officer Ilze.Burkevica@eige.europa.eu Anne Humbert – Gender Expert: research, statistics, indices Merle Paats –Seconded National Expert Merle.Paats@eige.europa.eu Jolanta Reingarde – Senior Researcher Jolanta.Reingarde@eige.europa.eu EIGE - General enquiries EIGE.SEC@eige.europa.eu www.eige.europa.eu/content/activities/beijing-platform-for-action European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) Gedimino pr.16, 01103 - Vilnius Lithuania