The two-and-half year project is funded by the European Commission’s DG Reform and managed by Expertise France, the French government's technical cooperation agency, in partnership with the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).
Charlotte Groppo, Head of the gender mainstreaming in public policy and budgeting project for Expertise France, said "the general objective of the programme is to support nine beneficiary authorities in seven European member states to implement gender mainstreaming through the use of gender impact assessment, gender-responsive budgeting, and gender action plans".
Following requests for technical assistance from several EU member states, the conference brought together for the first time more than 50 participants from France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Romania, providing an extraordinary opportunity to share tools and methodologies for an effective implementation of gender mainstreaming. Christina Agoritsa from the Greek Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs confirmed: "This conference has been a valuable help because we lack tools and methodology to implement gender budgeting and gender impact assessment in the public administration."
More than 20 different experts from academia, policymaking, think tanks and the private sector contributed to the interactive and thematic sessions, discussions, workshops and presentations. The experts discussed the historical background of gender mainstreaming approaches in Europe and beyond, the European Commission’s commitment to advance equality through gender budgeting, and how gender responsive budgeting and gender impact assessment can be effective tools to advance the gender equality agenda of the project beneficiaries.
The three-day conference provided a platform to start implementing best practices in order to tackle gender inequality within the EU. "We are very happy to open the conference now in the beautiful Fiesole, at the European University Institute," concluded Päivi Valkama, Seconded National Expert at the European Commission. "I must say it has been a very successful opening and we are looking forward to two and a half years of cooperation."