Gender Budgeting
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SlovakSteps 2 and 3. Identifying and developing possible work-life balance interventions
Table below categorises proposed interventions according to objectives in proposed funds’ regulations. It also adds a set of proposed actions that are not explicitly mentioned in legislative acts. These would support work-life balance by enhancing the quality and accessibility of care provision; supporting active ageing; strengthening integrated health care communication; advancing the integration of shared services; and enhancing the integration of employability, migrant support and care workforce expansion by improving the quality of care-related employment. These actions are offered as a form of guidance exemplified for the ERDF and ESF+; they will help you think about possible interventions and components of project design.
More on policy objective 4
Policy objective 4 of the CPR (‘A more social Europe — implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights’), for example, contains an extensive list of possible actions. Considering the gender dimensions of these potential areas allows the detailed and creative use of the EU Funds to address complex, interrelated challenges to gender inequality and develop more holistic solutions.
Step 2. Identify possible interventions from the regulation on the post-2020 period
Policy objective 1
A smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation (main policy objective for the ERDF; additional policy objective for the ESF+)
- Business infrastructure for SMEs (including industrial parks and sites)
- SME business development and internationalisation
- Skills development for smart specialisation, industrial transition and entrepreneurship
- Advanced support services for SMEs and groups of SMEs (including management, marketing and design services)
- Incubation support for spin-offs, spin-outs and start-ups
- Innovation cluster support and business networks primarily benefitting SMEs
- Innovation processes in SMEs (process, organisational, marketing, co-creation, user- and demand-driven innovation)
- Research and innovation processes, technology transfer and cooperation between enterprises focusing on the circular economy
Step 3. Develop gender-aware actions to promote
Work-life balance in the ERDF
Build childcare and intergenerational care facilities as part of businesses, industrial parks and incubation centres.
Develop childcare and social care service SMEs.
Facilitate innovation between SME clusters on shared care services and facilities.
Support innovation clusters and business networks that primarily benefit SMEs based on specific assessments of the needs of female- and male-owned SMEs, and the needs of women and men employees.
Work-life balance in the ESF+
Develop training initiatives in SMEs to promote changes in the traditional gender roles of women (as care-givers) and men (as breadwinners).
Policy objective 2
A greener, low-carbon Europe by promoting clean and fair energy transition, green and blue investment, the circular economy, climate adaptation, and risk prevention and management (main policy objective for the ERDF; additional policy objective for the ESF+)
- Household waste management, including prevention, minimisation, sorting and recycling
- Clean urban transport infrastructure
Step 3. Develop gender-aware actions to promote
Work-life balance in the ERDF
Revise the location of recycling centres in relation to women’s and men’s needs (as women, on average, spend more time on household waste management, the provision of waste management facilities influences women’s time use). Considering this when developing household waste management initiatives can free up women’s time, enable them to engage in other activities and improve their work-life balance.
Plan clean urban transport infrastructure based on an assessment of women’s and men’s mobility needs.
Policy objective 3
A more connected Europe by enhancing mobility and regional ICT connectivity (policy objective applicable to the ERDF)
- Cycling infrastructure
- Digitalisation of urban transport
- Multimodal transport (Trans-European Transport Network — TEN-T)
- Multimodal transport (rural/non-urban)
- Digitising transport via other modes of transport
Step 3. Develop gender-aware actions to promote
Work-life balance in the ERDF
Ensure that transport planning and provision demonstrates the application of gendered time use analysis and responsiveness to multiple care-related travel and transport activities.
Policy objective 4
A more social Europe by implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights (main policy objective for the ESF+; additional policy objective for the ERDF)
- Infrastructure for early childhood education and care
- Infrastructure for primary and secondary education
- Infrastructure for vocational education, training and adult learning
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Housing infrastructure for migrants, refugees and persons under or applying for international protection
- Housing infrastructure (other than for migrants, refugees and persons under or applying for international protection)
- Health infrastructure
- Health equipment
- Health mobile assets
- Measures to improve access to employment
- Specific support for youth employment and the socio-economic integration of young people
- Support for self-employment and business start-ups
- Support for social economy and social enterprises
- Measures to modernise and strengthen labour market institutions and services to assess and anticipate skills needs, while ensuring timely, tailor-made assistance
- Support for labour market matching and transitions
- Support for labour mobility
- Measures to promote women’s labour market participation and reduce gender-based segregation in the labour market
- Measures to promote work-life balance, including access to childcare and care for dependent persons
- Measures for a healthy, well-adapted working environment that addresses health risks, including by promoting physical activity
- Measures to encourage active, healthy ageing
- Support for early childhood education and care (excluding infrastructure)
- Support for primary and secondary education (excluding infrastructure)
- Support for tertiary education (excluding infrastructure)
- Support for adult education (excluding infrastructure)
- Measures to promote equal opportunities and active participation in society
- Measures to improve the access of marginalised groups, such as the Roma community, to education and employment, while promoting their social inclusion
- Support for civil society working with marginalised communities, such as the Roma
- Specific actions to increase the participation of third-country nationals in employment
- Measures for the social integration of third-country nationals
- Measures to enhance the delivery of family- and community-based care services
- Measures to improve the accessibility, effectiveness and resilience of healthcare systems (excluding infrastructure)
- Measures to improve access to long-term care (excluding infrastructure)
- Measures to modernise social protection systems, including by promoting access to social protection
Step 3. Develop gender-aware actions to promote
Work-life balance in the ERDF
Invest in the construction of childcare and social care facilities, including in tertiary and vocational education centres, alongside the expansion of the care workforce.
Ensure inter-generational housing, social care and social service provision – including low-carbon amenities – to improve social inclusion, community cohesion and sustainability.
Link innovations in health care technology with the expansion of SMEs, time use analysis, expanded care facilities, and digital inclusion actions (combined ERDF and ESF+).
Support the expansion of care infrastructure and the care workforce through youth employment and employability programmes for older workers, alongside a focus on labour mobility (combined ERDF and ESF+).
Expand the eligibility of education and care support to include infrastructure for care facilities (combined ERDF and ESF+).
Integrate the expansion of care facilities and infrastructure with actions to support labour market access and active and healthy lives, and address social and economic exclusion (combined ERDF and ESF+).
Innovate to improve the integration of Roma communities and their access to care and education services (combined ERDF and ESF+).
Build expertise in gender and housing, and in gender and infrastructure planning, and apply this to projects.
Support innovative community-based forms of cooperative housing projects that integrate intergenerational forms of housing and community-based forms of care provision.
Work-life balance in the ESF+
Include childcare provision in eligible infrastructure expansion at all levels of mandatory public education to increase the availability of good-quality, affordable and accessible childcare (childcare expansion integrated with education facilities maximises infrastructure investments, while reducing travel-related emissions and time pressures).
Innovate in housing provision for different family sizes and household compositions, including improved provisions for older people and persons living with disabilities.
Include the provision of care services within support for social enterprises.
Support the development of work-life balance practices among employers of all sizes, in line with ‘a healthy, well-adapted working environments’, including innovative flexible working practices and stress-reducing time use initiatives.
Demonstrate links across the ‘Agenda for new skills and jobs’, with a focus on ‘modernising the labour market and promoting work through new forms of flexibility and security’[1].
Advance innovations in employment and skills activities related to the expansion of the care workforce , so as to increase the domestic labour force and the labour market participation of nationals of countries outside the EU.
Support innovation in the design, construction and delivery of community-based care services, including inter-generational care, digital healthcare, the expansion of the care workforce, and urban and transport infrastructure.
Support innovation and the integration of improved childcare and care services within measures to address poverty and exclusion.
Policy objective 5
A Europe closer to citizens by fostering the sustainable and integrated development of urban, rural and coastal areas and local initiatives (policy objective applicable to both the ESF+ and the ERDF)
- Protection, development and promotion of public tourism assets and related tourism services
- Protection, development and promotion of cultural heritage and cultural services
- Protection, development and promotion of natural heritage and ecotourism
- Physical regeneration and security of public spaces
Step 3. Develop gender-aware actions to promote
Work-life balance in the ERDF
Advance innovations in care facilities in indigenous communities, and ensure access to care and education services in their languages with due consideration for their cultural heritage and living areas (combined ERDF and ESF+).
Advance innovations in the regeneration and security of public spaces and buildings, while taking into account gender planning knowledge.
Work-life balance in the ESF+
Support innovations in the provision of care for workers engaged in public tourism services.
Other codes related to policy objectives 1-5 (applicable to both the ERDF and the ESF+)
- Improving the capacity of programme authorities and bodies linked to the funds’ implementation
- Enhancing cooperation with partners both within and outside EU Member States
- Cross-financing under the ERDF, including support for actions that are similar to those financed by the ESF+ and necessary for the implementation of operations directly linked to the ERDF
Step 3. Develop gender-aware actions to promote
Work-life balance in the ERDF and ESF+
Improve cross-programme actions on expanding child and social care infrastructure and the related care workforce.
Improve the quality, availability and application of relevant data for effective analysis of gender and equalities’ to inform programme priorities and funded actions to advance work-life balance.
Improve the awareness and understanding of programme authorities and others involved in programme implementation regarding the inter-related gendered dimensions of time use, care facilities, transport and infrastructure use.
Technical assistance (applicable to both the ERDF and the ESF+)
- Information and communication
- Preparation, implementation, monitoring and control
- Evaluation, studies and data collection
- Reinforcement of the capacity of Member State authorities, beneficiaries and relevant partners
Step 3. Develop gender-aware actions to promote
Work-life balance in the ERDF and ESF+
Increase monitoring and evaluation-related reporting to include specific actions on promoting work-life balance and actions to advance gender equality.
Improve ex-ante analysis, programme and project content, monitoring and evaluation.
Footnotes