Raising awareness about gender and minorities

How can gender and minority aspects be better integrated into the EEA and Norway Grants programmes and projects? The topic was recently discussed at a conference in Riga.

Participants at the conference 'Gender and Minorities mainstreaming' in Riga 28-29 November 2013.

All measures funded by the EEA and Norway Grants are required to be based on the principle of gender equality. Protecting human rights and empowering vulnerable groups, such as minorities and the Roma population, is a specific concern for the Grants.  Gender and minority issue assessment has the aim of fighting discrimination, intolerance and social exclusion on the grounds of gender, ethnicity or religion.

On 28 and 29 November close 100 experts in the field of gender and minorities mainstreaming and NGO representatives from Norway, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland were gathered in Riga for a conference to raise awareness of gender and minorities and discuss how these aspects can be better integrated into the EEA and Norway Grants programmes and projects.

The conferences was organised by the Society Integration Foundation in Latvia – who are the fund operator for the €10.4 million NGO programme in the country – and the Norwegian Embassy in Riga.

Representative from EEA Grants NGO fund operators in Latvia and Poland were also present. The promotion of democratic values including human rights, combating discrimination, intolerance, gender inequality and social exclusion, are central to the EEA Grants NGO programmes in all the 15 beneficiary countries.

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