Step 2: Securing support and resources

  1. Begin by raising awareness

    Use your internal communication platform to raise awareness about gender concerns adn integrate them into evaluations. Emphasise their importance and potential benefits, such as:

    • improved policy effectiveness;
    • increased accountability and transparency;
    • enhanced institutional reputation;
    • relevance to institutional goals and commitments.

  2. Identify allies

    • Seek out support in different teams within your institution to promote gender-responsive evaluation.
    • Engage influential colleagues who can help to mobilise support and act as allies for this initiative.
    • Support gender equality focal points, equality coordinators and other available support structures for gender equality to champion gender-responsive evaluation.
    • These collaborations can bring in additional expertise and resources, as well as opportunities for learning and sharing experiences.

  3. Engage leadership

    • Secure the support of management and leaders within your institution. Get their endorsement and ask them to communicate the importance of this initiative to staff.
    • Encourage leaders to publicise their commitment to assess gender impacts in evaluations and demonstrate their commitment through public statements and actions.

  4. Secure financial and staff resources

    Ensure that adequate financial and staff resources are allocated. This may include:

    • budgeting for gender expertise, gender-responsive data collection tools and capacity-building activities;
    • looking for ways to leverage existing resources that can support gender-responsive evaluation;
    • finding internal gender expertise and evaluation specialists;
    • engaging with other partners (such as other EU agencies or governmental gender equality bodies).

    If you need more resources, ask the leadership to present the case for gender-responsive evaluation.

How to deal with resistance in implementing gender-responsive evaluations

Dealing with resistance is part of any change process. It requires patience and persistence, but such resistance can be addressed and used to promote change.

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To address resistance effectively, you may first want to take some time to listen actively to those individuals and groups expressing resistance, to acknowledge their perspectives and understand the reasons for the resistance (e.g. misconceptions, or doubts about feasibility).

There are several steps you can take to address these concerns.

For example, you could provide evidence-based responses to address individuals’ doubts or misconceptions. You may also want to emphasise the rationale, illustrate the benefits, and highlight support from the institutional leadership. Look for opportunities to provide education and training to alleviate people’s concerns by building capacity and raising awareness.

 

If you are working at the European Commission, you and your team can consider undertaking available training on topics such as gender mainstreaming and change management. It may also be necessary to address institutional barriers or challenges (e.g. lack of resources, and institutional evaluation policies) by advocating for necessary changes.