V.I.S.P.O - Valutazione di Impatto Strategico Pari Opportunità

The VISPO (Assessment of the Strategic Impact of Equal Opportunities) guidelines include Gender Impact Assessment, Gender Analysis and Evaluation. These guidelines were drafted for the first time in 1999, and later fully developed during the 2000-2006 planning period. They represent a methodological and technical point of reference for the implementation of GM. For instance, they provide operational guidelines for the Regional Managing Authority which is involved at various levels in the planning and implementation of public interventions. In addition they provide a framework for the development of a model for the evaluation of equal opportunities. The purpose of this tool is to provide operational support to the institutional stakeholders in the planning of actions from a gender perspective. The aims of VISPO are to:
- Create context analysis and an assessment of scenarios aimed at an effective reading of one's own territory from a gender perspective;
- Identify and define equal opportunities criteria for the selection of projects, which are valid for different types of actions to be financed, that make it possible to assign a preference and to identify those most representative;
- Identify indicators for output and result that allow for ongoing evaluation focusing on equal opportunities. In the VISPO framework, different activities were also been developed at a national and regional level: qualitative monitoring that seeks to assess the implementation stage of the actions co-financed by the Structural Funds; the analysis of public notices issued by the Regional Managing Authority aimed at monitoring the implementation the VISPO Guidelines in the process of the implementation of these programs, toads well as providing support to the regional Managing Authorities to plan the following FSE programme; the analysis of national and regional policies regarding ESF and other Structural Funds (ERDF, EAGGF), which facilitate the reconciliation of work and family life; the analysis of decision-making, coordination and implementation of equal opportunities policies in the ESF; the compliance with ESF measures in terms of expectations, the specificity of users involved, and employment outcomes.