Step 2. Project development and application

The project application, and project development more broadly, must specify how the project will address existing gender gaps and/or women’s and men’s needs in the area. Managing authorities can support applicants by clearly explaining that each application should include:

  1. a description of the applicant organisation, including, for example:

    • a gender equality mission statement within the organisation’s identity or organisational culture;
    • gender competencies within the organisation’s structure, such as persons responsible for gender equality and access to external gender expertise;
    • the situation of men and women in the company, such as women and men at different levels of the hierarchy, in different job categories, with different qualifications or different working arrangements;
    • gender equality’s integration into the organisation’s quality management and certification;
    • gender equality-related human resource policies, such as in recruitment, training and development, knowledge and competence management;
    • personnel resources and competencies within the project team.
  2. if appropriate, a description of external support or capacity building for staff in order to meet the programme’s gender equality requirements;
  3. a gender analysis of the issue the project will address, using sex-disaggregated data and findings from research, that also analyses the causes of gender inequalities and identifies strategies the project can use to overcome them;
  4. a description of the project’s target groups, disaggregated by sex and other diverse characteristics;
  5. specific gender equality objectives and indicators, alongside the analysis of all thematic objectives/indicators from a gender perspective;
  6. a description of actions through which the project will promote gender equality (e.g. a gender-mainstreaming approach and/or a positive action approach);
  7. an explanation of necessary support structures and context of the project, such as the financing of participants, funding for capacity building on gender equality for project staff, and the location and timeframe of project activities;
  8. a description of how the project will disseminate information to engage women and men, in all their diversity;
  9. a description of the project’s monitoring approach, which should use sex-disaggregated and gender-budgeting data to assess the project’s performance against its objectives, and to measure progress using its established gender indicators;
  10. a description of how the project will use a gender equality approach in internal or external evaluations, and how it will evaluate the thematic and structural aspects of gender equality within the project (e.g. strategy, methods and instruments);
  11. a detailed presentation of the project’s financial resources, such as the budget for implementing gender equality-related activities and for capacity building on gender equality.