Working Better Together in a Team Europe Approach

The EU and its Member States promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, as a core objective of their external actions. Anchored in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the new European Consensus on Development (2017) reaffirms gender equality and women’s empowerment as vital for achieving sustainable development.

The EU Gender Action Plans¹ set the EU’s policy and political commitments to gender equality and translate them into a set of concrete objectives. Their commitments apply to the work of EU institutions and EU Member States alike. Therefore, joint programming processes should integrate GAP objectives in order to move towards gender equality and women’s empowerment as a key driver of inclusive sustainable development and economic growth.

Joint programming provides a paramount opportunity to speak with one voice and strengthen coordination on gender equality and women’s rights.

Coordination and a shared response. Increased coherence and coordination amongst EU and MS is in itself a GAP requirement. This implies a shared analysis and a joint response by Team Europe, establishing an ambitious and shared agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment at country level.

The gender analysis at country level will inform division of labour as well as the identification of joint actions and joint implementation in the key areas of intervention. In many partner countries a donor gender coordination mechanism is in place and is often lead by the EU Delegation or MS. These mechanisms constitute a valuable resource for joint programming, they contribute to share information, knowledge and skills to maximise division of labour and avoid duplication. The use of EUD and MS in-house gender expertise (in particular Gender Focal Persons) and/or any other mechanism in place to access external expertise will feed and enrich the joint programming process.

Mandatory gender analysis. The gender analysis² should inform the joint programming exercise from the outset. Context- and/or sector-specific gender analysis, as well as the increasing availability and use of sex and age-disaggregated data and gender responsive indicators, are key to ensure that joint programming effectively contributes to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Shared objectives and indicators: Based on the findings of the gender analysis, the selection of objectives and indicators in the priority areas of intervention in the joint programming will be informed by and aligned with the EU Gender Action Plan.

If the joint programming documents include the main elements required in the EU GAP, the two processes and related documents can be synergised.

Seek to optimise opportunities for implementing shared results frameworks and reporting. In all cases, reporting processes should be streamlined as far as possible to effectively monitor how EU and MS are jointly contributing to gender equality throughout their external actions.

Consultation and partnerships. Ensure meaningful consultation and partnership with key stakeholders at country level such as gender national machineries, Gender Units/Focal Points at the sectoral ministries and CSOs working on girls’ and women’s rights.

¹The implementation of the EU Gender Action Plan (GAP III) will start in 2021.

²This gender analysis can be done by the EUD, MS or by another international organisation, governmental institution or civil society organisation (including those working for gender equality and women’s rights).