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        • What is Gender Equality Training
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        • Step-by-step guide to Gender Equality Training
            • 1. Assess the needs
            • 2. Integrate initiatives to broader strategy
            • 3. Ensure sufficient resources
            • 4. Write good terms of reference
            • 5. Select a trainer
            • 6. Engage in the needs assessment
            • 7. Actively participate in the initiative
            • 8. Invite others to join in
            • 9. Monitoring framework and procedures
            • 10. Set up an evaluation framework
            • 11. Assess long-term impacts
            • 12. Give space and support others
        • Designing effective Gender Equality Training
        • Gender Equality Training in the EU
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      • Gender Impact Assessment
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        • What is Gender Impact Assessment
        • Why use Gender Impact Assessment
        • Who should use Gender Impact Assessment
        • When to use Gender Impact Assessment
        • Guide to Gender Impact Assessment
          • Step 1: Definition of policy purpose
          • Step 2: Checking gender relevance
          • Step 3: Gender-sensitive analysis
          • Step 4: Weighing gender impact
          • Step 5: Findings and proposals for improvement
        • Following up on gender impact assessment
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      • Institutional Transformation
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        • What is Institutional Transformation
          • Institutional transformation and gender: Key points
          • Gender organisations
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          • Gender mainstreaming and institutional transformation
          • Dimensions of gender mainstreaming in institutions: The SPO model
        • Why focus on Institutional Transformation
          • Motivation model
        • Who the guide is for
        • Guide to Institutional Transformation
            • 1. Creating accountability and strengthening commitment
            • 2. Allocating resources
            • 3. Conducting an organisational analysis
            • 4. Developing a strategy and work plan
            • 5. Establishing a support structure
            • 6. Setting gender equality objectives
            • 7. Communicating gender mainstreaming
            • 8. Introducing gender mainstreaming
            • 9. Developing gender equality competence
            • 10. Establishing a gender information management system
            • 11. Launching gender equality action plans
            • 12. Promotional equal opportunities
            • 13. Monitoring and steering organisational change
        • Dealing with resistance
          • Discourse level
          • Individual level
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          • Statements and reactions
        • Checklist: Key questions for change
        • Examples from the EU
            • 1. Strengthening accountability
            • 2. Allocating resources
            • 3. Organisational analysis
            • 4. Developing a strategy and working plan
            • 5. Establishing a support structure
            • 6. Setting objectives
            • 7. Communicating gender mainstreaming
            • 8. Introducing methods and tools
            • 9. Developing Competence
            • 10. Establishing a gender information management system
            • 11. Launching action plans
            • 12. Promoting within an organisation
            • 13. Monitoring and evaluating
      • Gender Equality in Academia and Research
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        • WHAT
          • What is a Gender Equality Plan?
          • Terms and definitions
          • Which stakeholders need to be engaged into a GEP
          • About the Gear Tool
        • WHY
          • Horizon Europe GEP criterion
          • Gender Equality in Research and Innovation
          • Why change must be structural
          • Rationale for gender equality change in research and innovation
          • GEAR step-by-step guide for research organisations, universities and public bodies
            • Step 1: Getting started
            • Step 2: Analysing and assessing the state-of-play in the institution
            • Step 3: Setting up a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 4: Implementing a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 5: Monitoring progress and evaluating a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 6: What comes after the Gender Equality Plan?
          • GEAR step-by-step guide for research funding bodies
            • Step 1: Getting started
            • Step 2: Analysing and assessing the state-of-play in the institution
            • Step 3: Setting up a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 4: Implementing a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 5: Monitoring progress and evaluating a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 6: What comes after the Gender Equality Plan?
          • GEAR action toolbox
            • Work-life balance and organisational culture
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            • Training: awareness-raising and capacity building
            • GEP development and implementation
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        • WHERE
          • Austria
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      • Gender-sensitive Parliaments
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        • What is the tool for?
        • Who is the tool for?
        • How to use the tool
        • Self-assessment, scoring and interpretation of parliament gender-sensitivity
          • AREA 1 – Women and men have equal opportunities to ENTER the parliament
            • Domain 1 – Electoral system and gender quotas
            • Domain 2 - Political party/group procedures
            • Domain 3 – Recruitment of parliamentary employees
          • AREA 2 – Women and men have equal opportunities to INFLUENCE the parliament’s working procedures
            • Domain 1 – Parliamentarians’ presence and capacity in a parliament
            • Domain 2 – Structure and organisation
            • Domain 3 – Staff organisation and procedures
          • AREA 3 – Women’s interests and concerns have adequate SPACE on parliamentary agenda
            • Domain 1 – Gender mainstreaming structures
            • Domain 2 – Gender mainstreaming tools in parliamentary work
            • Domain 3 – Gender mainstreaming tools for staff
          • AREA 4 – The parliament produces gender-sensitive LEGISLATION
            • Domain 1 – Gender equality laws and policies
            • Domain 2 – Gender mainstreaming in laws
            • Domain 3 – Oversight of gender equality
          • AREA 5 – The parliament complies with its SYMBOLIC function
            • Domain 1 – Symbolic meanings of spaces
            • Domain 2 – Gender equality in external communication and representation
        • How gender-sensitive are parliaments in the EU?
        • Examples of gender-sensitive practices in parliaments
          • Women and men have equal opportunities to ENTER the parliament
          • Women and men have equal opportunities to INFLUENCE the parliament’s working procedures
          • Women’s interests and concerns have adequate SPACE on parliamentary agenda
          • The parliament produces gender-sensitive LEGISLATION
          • The parliament complies with its SYMBOLIC function
        • Glossary of terms
        • References and resources
      • Gender Budgeting
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        • Who is this toolkit for?
        • What is gender budgeting?
          • Introducing gender budgeting
          • Gender budgeting in women’s and men’s lived realities
          • What does gender budgeting involve in practice?
          • Gender budgeting in the EU Funds
            • Gender budgeting as a way of complying with EU legal requirements
            • Gender budgeting as a way of promoting accountability and transparency
            • Gender budgeting as a way of increasing participation in budget processes
            • Gender budgeting as a way of advancing gender equality
        • Why is gender budgeting important in the EU Funds?
          • Three reasons why gender budgeting is crucial in the EU Funds
        • How can we apply gender budgeting in the EU Funds? Practical tools and Member State examples
          • Tool 1: Connecting the EU Funds with the EU’s regulatory framework on gender equality
            • Legislative and regulatory basis for EU policies on gender equality
            • Concrete requirements for considering gender equality within the EU Funds
            • EU Funds’ enabling conditions
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 2: Analysing gender inequalities and gender needs at the national and sub-national levels
            • Steps to assess and analyse gender inequalities and needs
            • Step 1. Collect information and disaggregated data on the target group
            • Step 2. Identify existing gender inequalities and their underlying causes
            • Step 3. Consult directly with the target groups
            • Step 4. Draw conclusions
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 3: Operationalising gender equality in policy objectives and specific objectives/measures
            • Steps for operationalising gender equality in Partnership Agreements and Operational Programmes
            • General guidance on operationalising gender equality when developing policy objectives, specific objectives and measures
            • Checklist for putting the horizontal principle of gender equality into practice in Partnership Agreements
            • Checklist for putting the horizontal principle of gender equality into practice in Operational Programmes
            • Examples of integrating gender equality as a horizontal principle in policy objectives and specific objectives
          • Tool 4: Coordination and complementarities between the EU Funds to advance work-life balance
            • Steps for enhancing coordination and complementarities between the funds
            • Step 1. Alignment with the EU’s strategic engagement goals for gender equality and national gender equality goals
            • Steps 2 and 3. Identifying and developing possible work-life balance interventions
            • Step 4. Following-up through the use of indicators within M&E systems
            • Fictional case study 1: reconciling paid work and childcare
            • Fictional case study 2: reconciling shift work and childcare
            • Fictional case study 3: balancing care for oneself and others
            • Fictional case study 4: reconciling care for children and older persons with shift work
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 5: Defining partnerships and multi-level governance
            • Steps for defining partnerships and multi-level governance
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 6: Developing quantitative and qualitative indicators for advancing gender equality
            • Steps to develop quantitative and qualitative indicators
            • ERDF and Cohesion Fund
            • ESF+
            • EMFF
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 7: Defining gender-sensitive project selection criteria
            • Steps to support gender-sensitive project development and selection
            • Checklist to guide the preparation of calls for project proposals
            • Checklist for project selection criteria
            • Supplementary tool 7.a: Gender-responsive agreements with project implementers
          • Tool 8: Tracking resource allocations for gender equality in the EU Funds
            • Ensuring gender relevance in EU Funds
            • The tracking system
            • Steps for tracking resource allocations on gender equality
            • Step 1: Ex ante approach
            • Step 2: Ex post approach
            • Examples of Step 2a
            • Annex 1: Ex ante assignment of intervention fields to the gender equality dimension codes
            • Annex 2: The EU’s gender equality legal and policy framework
          • Tool 9: Mainstreaming gender equality in project design
            • Steps to mainstream gender equality in project design
            • Step 1. Alignment with partnership agreements’ and Operational Programmes’ gender objectives and indicators
            • Step 2. Project development and application
            • Step 3. Project implementation
            • Step 4. Project assessment
          • Tool 10: Integrating a gender perspective in monitoring and evaluation processes
            • Steps to integrate a gender perspective in M&E processes
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 11: Reporting on resource spending for gender equality in the EU Funds
            • Tracking expenditures for gender equality
            • Additional resources
          • References
          • Abbreviations
          • Acknowledgements
      • Gender-responsive Public Procurement
        • Back to toolkit page
        • Who is this toolkit for?
          • Guiding you through the toolkit
        • What is gender-responsive public procurement?
          • How is gender-responsive public procurement linked to gender equality?
          • How is gender-responsive public procurement linked to gender budgeting?
          • Five reasons why gender-responsive public procurement
          • Why was this toolkit produced
        • Gender-responsive public procurement in practice
          • Legal framework cross-references gender equality and public procurement
          • Public procurement strategies cover GRPP
          • Gender equality action plans or strategies mention public procurement
          • Capacity-building programmes, support structures
          • Regular collaboration between gender equality bodies
          • Effective monitoring and reporting systems on the use of GRPP
          • Tool 1:Self-assessment questionnaire about the legal
          • Tool 2: Overview of the legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks
        • How to include gender aspects in tendering procedures
          • Pre-procurement stage
            • Needs assessment
            • Tool 3: Decision tree to assess the gender relevance
            • Preliminary market consultation
            • Tool 4: Guiding questions for needs assessment
            • Defining the subject matter of the contract
            • Choosing the procedure
            • Tool 5: Decision tree for the choice of procedure for GRPP
            • Dividing the contract into lots
            • Tool 6: Guiding questions for dividing contracts into lots for GRPP
            • Light regime for social, health and other specific services
            • Tool 7: Guiding questions for applying GRPP under the light regime
            • Tool 8: Guiding questions for applying GRPP under the light regime
            • Reserved contracts
            • Preparing tender documents
          • Procurement stage
            • Exclusion grounds
            • Selection criteria
            • Technical specifications
            • Tool 9: Decision tree for setting GRPP selection criteria
            • Award criteria
            • Tool 10: Formulating GRPP award criteria
            • Tool 11: Bidders’ concepts to ensure the integration of gender aspects
            • Use of labels/certifications
          • Post-procurement stage
            • Tool 12: Checklist for including GRPP contract performance conditions
            • Subcontracting
            • Monitoring
            • Reporting
            • Tool 13: Template for a GRPP monitoring and reporting plan
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        • Additional resources
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          • Principle 1: Prioritising victim safety
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          • Step 1: Define the purpose and objectives of police risk assessment
          • Step 2: Identify the most appropriate approach to police risk assessment
          • Step 3: Identify the most relevant risk factors for police risk assessment
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          • Step 6: Develop procedures for information management and confidentiality
          • Step 7: Monitor and evaluate risk assessment practices and outcomes
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        • Principle 1. Adopting a gender-specific approach
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      • Foreword
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      • Introduction
        • Still far from the finish line
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Women of the Mountains Empowerment Network (WOMEN)

PrintDownload as PDF
Good practice
Country:
Albania
Section:
Work-life balance in ICT
Period:
1 January 2016 – 31 December 2019
Publication date:
02 December 2020

Image: Alfotokunst/Shutterstock.com

The Women of the Mountains Empowerment Network (WOMEN) project is part of an initiative to protect women's rights and promote gender equality and women's empowerment in Albania. The project is funded by the European Union under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). The WOMEN project provides support to local informal women’s group initiatives to organise themselves at grassroot level and to develop new agribusinesses in the mountainous areas of Vau i Dejës, Pukë and Fushë Arrëz (municipalities in Northern Albania).

The project works closely with local government to promote local policies for economic empowerment of the most vulnerable women. It has reached around 380 women through 24 grassroots women's groups. The project also aims to support improved access to funding schemes for grassroots women's organisations using a tailored community-based approach.

WOMEN addresses the priorities set out in the National Strategy for Gender Equality for Albania 2016-2020, notably economic empowerment as a fundamental prerequisite for attaining gender equality and rural women as a priority group. It also contributes to the implementation of the Local Strategy for the Implementation of the EU Gender Action Plan II and EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders (2010) on two levels: (1) technical - strengthening the capacity of women’s organisations more exposed to risk, through best practice exchanges with established local and European civil society organisations; (2) financial - ensuring adequate resources for women’s organisations active in remote areas.

Finally, this project implements the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local life, aiming to strengthen local democracy and achieve a better life for all members of the community.

Implementing entity: Reggio Terzo Mondo and Light Steps Association

Support for local women’s initiatives

The WOMEN project supports local informal women’s group initiatives, helping them to organise and develop new agribusinesses in the mountainous areas of Vau i Dejës, Pukë and Fushë Arrëz (municipalities in Northern Albania).

The project goals are to:

  • Build a mechanism to enhance economic empowerment of vulnerable rural women in the most remote mountain areas;
  • Establish a model to promote women’s rights at grassroots level;
  • Increase the capacity of grassroots women’s organisations to access funding and manage EU-funded actions;
  • Engage with women's organisations and government institutions;
  • Mainstream gender equality at local level through the use of the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local life.

The WOMEN’s Fund and sub-granting scheme has provided an economic opportunity to around 380 women in 24 small, remote grassroot women’s organisations in mountainous areas of Albania. Close cooperation with local public entities has increased awareness of gender equality in local communities living in these areas. Other achievements include:

  • Start-up and management of three WOMEN desks in the northern municipalities of Vau i Dejës, Pukë and Fushë Arrëz;
  • Provision of advisory services to grassroots women’s organisations (and other rural women) on economic empowerment in livestock farming, agribusiness and eco-sustainable tourism;
  • Delivery of a training programme on income-generating activities and business planning for targeted women’s organisations;
  • Establishment of the WOMEN’s Fund as an opportunity for institution-building for local authorities;
  • Development of an information campaign on the WOMEN’s Fund, targeting grassroots women’s organisations in local communities;
  • Provision of technical assistance to targeted women’s organisations for the start-up and development of pilot initiatives under the WOMEN’s Fund;
  • Access to basic services for gender empowerment has significantly increased. Specific services are offered to women and their organisations in the areas of counselling, advisory services, training programmes and group study visits. 1,600 women have benefited from other local services;
  • Networking among targeted women’s organisations through study visits, conferences and pilot initiatives will enable more effective relations between grassroots women’s organisations in Albania.

Local adaptation

The project approach is based on a comprehensive response to local needs and can be adapted to different fields. In fact, it is already used by several other initiatives in the country. The Ministry of Agriculture in Albania is considering introducing a similar practice as part of a project to support rural development. This demonstrates that modest financial support can have a big impact when combined with initiative, well-thought out ideas and hard work.

Capacity-building and sustainability

The project targets local grassroots organisations based in the mountains, as these are often isolated and mistrusted by the patriarchal structures within their communities. WOMEN focuses on learning and targets local grassroots organisations in a bid to achieve lasting change in local patriarchal structures. The project has plans to develop into a long-term capacity-building programme and to become an institutional practice at both local and national level. This model uses sub-granting, which has proved to be an effective financial mechanism for:

  • reaching small/less developed organisations;
  • offering solutions to grassroots pilot projects;
  • local ownership of local interventions;
  • increasing cooperation between civil society organisations operating at different levels.

The model is expected to expand to other groups of women and - potentially - become an institutional practice, supported by local and national government sectoral strategies. The project’s overall aim is to effect real and lasting change in local patriarchal structures.

National plans and strategies

This initiative addresses the priorities set in the National Strategy for Gender Equality for Albania 2016-2020. The Strategy sets out the economic empowerment of rural women as a fundamental pillar for gender equality.

The WOMEN Project contributes to the strategic priority to increase women’s self-employment, as set out in the National Programme and Action Plan for Women’s Entrepreneurship 2014-2020. It promotes women’s participation in the rural economy by facilitating access to training, support services, financial support and networking.

Implementation of the WOMEN project matches priority objective no.3 of the Inter-sectoral Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development 2014-2020. It contributes to achieving balanced territorial development of rural areas by fostering diversification of economic activities, job creation and social inclusion.

The Ministry for Agriculture has launched a design competition for a ‘Heart of the Mountains’ logo that will help to identify the products from the agribusinesses supported by the WOMEN network. The specific branding will increase visibility of the products and contribute to the development and economic empowerment of women in remote areas.

Metadata

Tool:
Gender equality measures in the IPA region
  • Support for local women’s initiatives
  • Local adaptation
  • Capacity-building and sustainability
  • National plans and strategies

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