Define

In this phase, it’s recommended that information is gathered on the situation of women and men in a particular area. This means looking for sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics, as well as checking for the existence of studies, programme or project reports, and/or evaluations from previous periods.

Did you know that EIGE has a Gender Statistics Database? Check whether there are relevant statistics to feed into your analysis.

Examples of gender and regional development statistics

Examples of studies, research and reports

Examples of gender analysis

Did you know that EIGE has a Resource and Documentation Centre?Check whether there is relevant information to feed into your analysis.

Examples of gender impact assessment

Examples of stakeholders that can be consulted

Plan

In this phase, it’s appropriate to analyse budgets from a gender perspective. Gender budgeting is used to identify how budget allocations contribute to promoting gender equality. Gender budgeting brings visibility to how much public money is spent for women and men respectively. Thus, gender budgeting ensures that public funds are fairly distributed between women and men. It also contributes to accountability and transparency about how public funds are being spent.


The European Parliament 2012 study “The multi-annual financial framework 2014 – 2020 from a gender equality perspective” proposes a gender budgeting methodology for analysing in a gender perspective the MFF proposal for 2014 – 2020. Furthermore, the study tests this methodology in 5 gender equality areas (economic independence; education and training; health and well-being; environment; fundamental rights and external relations) showing that the attention to gender is not given evenly by issue and that evaluation/monitoring in a gender perspective is still not as widespread as it should be to ensure an actual implementation of gender mainstreaming.

Examples of indicators for monitoring gender and regional development

Regional policy is embedded within the Cohesion policy, and in particular within the European Structural and Investment funds (ESI). ESI funds (ERDF/ESF/CF) finance several policy sectors that are associated with gender inequalities. For example, employment/unemployment, education and training, childcare or elderly care, social inclusion, poverty in the ESF framework and energy, transport, ICT, environment, tourism, culture in the ERDF framework. Each policy sector has its own specific indicators for monitoring and evaluation. In some cases, gender-sensitive indicators are also included. For gender-sensitive indicators referred to in regional policy, please see the indicators included in each sector of the website: education, entrepreneurship, youth, poverty, employment, health, migration, digital agenda, energy, research, culture, tourism, environment, transport.

Examples of procurement

Act

In the implementation phase of a policy or programme, ensure that all who are involved are sufficiently aware about the relevant gender objectives and plans. If not, set up briefings and capacity-building initiatives according to staff needs. Think about researchers, proposal evaluators, monitoring and evaluation experts, scientific officers, programme committee members, etc.

Examples of capacity-building initiatives about gender in regional development

Example of gender language in regional development

It is not yet a common practice to include gender aspects in hard investments. A short movie produced by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions illustrates situations where gender should ideally be applied, and concrete examples of gender mainstreaming in infrastructure and city maintenance. It’s worth mentioning that these are 2 areas specifically targeted by ERDF.

The film is available in English, German, French, Spanish and Finnish.

Check

A policy cycle or programme should be checked both during – monitoring and at the end – evaluation, of its implementation.

Monitoring the ongoing work allows for the follow-up of progress and remedying unforeseen difficulties. This exercise should take into account the indicators delineated in the planning phase and data collection based on those indicators.

At the end of a policy cycle or programme, a gender-sensitive evaluation should take place. Make your evaluation publicly accessible and strategically disseminate its results to promote its learning potential.

Example of monitoring and evaluation on gender in regional development