Description
There is an urgent need to involve municipalities in the promotion of gender equality. In Portugal, more than half of the municipalities still do not have mechanisms in place for this prupose. In order to overcome this deficit, the Local Gender Equality project aims to provide methodologies and tools for the gender equality mainstreaming of policies, processes and practices at the local level. It will apply participatory methodologies in the design, testing and validation of tools, both for the members of the consortium and the municipalities, as well as local actors in different domains. The development of diagnostic, implementation, monitoring and evaluation tools is based on a dual 3 Rs model - a diagnosis of the representation of women and men in the various socio-economic and political positions and on the distribution of resources between them. This is complemented by the examination of the easons of the realia (observed reality). The conclusions should inspire the definition of policies to fight injustices – access to Resources, Recognition and Representation. Following the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life, the project will take into account the roles of the municipalities as employers, providers of goods and services and regulatory authorities of activities carried out in their territories. The Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo will share best practices though organising visits to local town halls with good track records in the gender equality field.
Summary of project results
The project’s final outputs are: - White Book of Gender Equality in Local Life – addressing the main crosscutting issues raised by the promotion of local citizenship based on the principles of social justice and gender equality. - Toolkit for Participatory Diagnostics (aimed at municipal staff it contains guidelines of nine participative methodologies and techniques to produce information about resident’s needs and priorities; it can also be useful to researchers of all social sciences comprising any sort of action-research); - Training framework for Integration of the Gender Equality Perspective in Municipal Action (for municipal staff and leaders; it can also be useful to trainers and consultants in Gender Equality, as well as teachers of all study cycles); - Eight Guides for the Local Integration of the Gender Perspective in: 1. Education 2. Urban planning and environment 3. Mobility and transport 4. Safety and preventing violence in the urban space 5. Culture, sport, youth and leisure 6. Health and Social Action 7. Personnel management, training and employment 8. Violence at work - Municipal Gender Equality Index – proposes a set of 20 indicators (divided between structural, outcome and processual), looking to measure the measures that have been taken by municipalities and their impact on the living and well-being conditions of their resident citizens, as well as in the equal opportunities between men and women. - Video LGE - Project presentation and promotion – documenting the main objectives and activities of the project and introducing the team and the partners. The video includes imagens and recordings of the main activities carried out in the project. It includes also testimonies of the project agents and partners. All the project outputs are available at:
http://lge.ces.uc.pt/outputs.php#primeiro_cont The main beneficiaries of the project are all the members of the partnership (municipalities and research centers); indirectly the public institutions and non-governmental organizations operating in the five municipalities involved in the partnership also benefitted from the project activities. They all benefitted from the peer-learning strategy in which the collective activities have been based.
Summary of bilateral results
All along the execution of the LGE project, the relations with donor country institution - Gender Research Center at the University of Oslo - were consolidated, especially through the preparation and carrying out of the exchange of best practices on gender equality that included almost all partners. The visit to Norway has been carefully prepared jointly by the national team and the international partner. The international partner proposed activities, prepared the logistics of the visit, provided the facilities and was in charge of the inaugural lecture. Their representative – Sara Orning - was present in all activities. It was a time of strengthening the international partnership, with increasing personal / institutional proximity and the exchange of experiences between two contexts with different paths in terms of equality between women and men, with mutual benefits. The dialogue continued after the visit. The project also counted with the participation of the Unit for Diversity and Integration of the Oslo City, to present its OXLO Project - Oslo Extra Large in the LGE Final Seminar. Among the main gains from the international cooperation, could be enumerated the following: • One of the most interesting conclusions is that in both countries leaders in GE struggles with difficulties. E.g., the need to take constant measures and investment to avoid setbacks. • One of the conclusions both teams came to was that the work of the IG cannot be taken as acquired even in contexts that present the best indicators in this area-the "normality of inequality" continues to be effective and produce its effects. • The gathering with the international partners also contributed to the consolidation of the national partnership of the project: increase of the shared knowledge of the project and its objectives; expected reinforcement of commitment in its activities; • Strengthening international partnership: personal/institutional proximity with mutual benefits; exchange of experiences between two national contexts with different routes in terms of equality between women and men. The study visit to Oslo and the contact with the Gender Equality Research Center allowed to have a better understanding of Norway as a country with advanced GE policies, but not without difficulties of implementation. At the same time this cooperation also brought elements that enable the project promoter for a better self-awareness.