Mainstreaming gender equality in Colombia

Colombia has made a lot of progress on promoting gender equality. From international treaties to national policy guidelines and laws to combat sexual violence and increase women’s access to land, the country has a strong legal framework to build on.

Successes in the peace talks between the government and the FARC have also allowed room to advance women’s rights – along with addressing inequality more broadly.

But some problems remain endemic.

Out of the 50,000 reported cases of partner violence, 86% constitute violence against women, according to a report submitted to the UN. Also, women still face difficulties in accessing productive resources – along with access to land and credit. Despite the laws, political participation remains limited, too – with just 19% of women in the Parliament being women.

To better address these challenges, the EU Delegation to Colombia has been implementing the EU Gender Action Plan 2016-2020 (GAP II), the EU’s framework for promoting gender equality in its external cooperation.

A focused message

For the EU’s development cooperation in Colombia, the GAP II has been instrumental in providing a framework to address gender issues.

“It has allowed us to define specific priorities and to concentrate our message in the dialogue with the Government,” said Tito Fernando Angarita Contreras, Gender Focal Point at the EU Delegation to the country.

One of the key priority areas of the GAP II is eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls and protecting women against sexual violence. The GAP II has helped increase coordination with EU Member States and local partners, and to deliver gender-sensitive messaging at all levels, from the EU Ambassador to project implementers.

“We want to make sure women can participate, work and have a voice, without the fear of being persecuted or killed,”

said Contreras. “In Colombia, there has always been a problem of violence against women who defend human rights, so we’ve set this as a central goal.”

Tito Fernando Angarita Contreras on the situation of women in Colombia and the EU GAP:

Another component of EU Delegation’s work is helping women get access to productive resources.

“We’ve placed considerable emphasis on rural development – in line with the peace process – as this converges on gender equality and rural development,” said Contreras. “We’ve been able to achieve the empowerment of rural women and girls, especially when taking into account the large gaps that exist between the countryside and the cities of Colombia.”

Contreras added that in the past, “gender issues were often added to the agenda at the last minute. They were not spoken of enough and weren’t well integrated into projects and programmes.” With the inclusion of the GAP II’s minimum standards of performance ^[1] across all the Delegation’s interventions, this is no longer the case, he said.

The process of integrating gender issues and meeting women’s needs starts with practices, such as understanding that many women are mothers and caregivers, and therefore it is important to schedule activities during times that better work for them, Contreras said. “These small practices can help give them a voice and increase their participation, so we can better understand their needs,” he explained.

A ways still to go

Contreras warned of the risk of getting too caught up in the logic of cooperation and bureaucracy. “In some ways, losing sight of the faces and specific situation of women can affect how we see the situation,” he said. “I think we’ll have to work harder to meet our expected results and to truly make a change.”

Many of the existing gender gaps – in employment, access to resources, political participation and elsewhere –   can be explained through the prominence of negative gender stereotypes, he added. One way of achieving a cultural transformation – and not just an administrative one – is by ensuring that people are sensitised to the realities of women’s everyday life.

“Being able to read different situations with gender lenses is important when implementing any development project,” Contreras said, adding that men and women very often have different perceptions. “Over time, I believe we’ll be able to take on the gender lenses more spontaneously and better read each situation.”

Any sustainable change will require the involvement of both women and men.

“On that account, there has been a commitment to rethinking what it means to be a man and getting men involved, too,” Contreras explained. “I think the possibility of involving men as gender focal points sends an important message – that the issue of gender equality concerns us all.”

[1] The minimum standards of performance are: OECD/DAC Gender Marker 0 is always justified; there is a gender analysis done for all priority sectors; sex-disaggregated data is used throughout the project and programme cycle and programming; gender expertise is available and used timely in the programme cycle and programming; GAP II objectives are selected to be reported on.