4.2. EU Gender Action Plan and 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.
With the adoption of the EU Gender Action Plan III: An ambitious agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment in EU external action (GAP III) on 25 November 2020, the EU reaffirms the centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment throughout EU external action at all levels and in all sectors. GAP III is articulated around 5 pillars, of which the first two pillars are particularly relevant for TEIs and joint programming:
- Pillar 1: Making EU engagement on gender equality more effective as a cross-cutting priority of EU external action in its policy and programming work. According to GAP III, 85% of all new actions throughout external relations (including TEIs) should contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2025. This requires further gender mainstreaming in all external policies and sectors and a gender-transformative, rights-based and intersectional approach.
- Pillar 2: Promoting, together with EU Member States, a strategic EU engagement at multilateral, regional and country level and jointly, in close cooperation with all key stakeholders.
As stressed under Pillar 2, Working better Together in a Team Europe approach provides a paramount opportunity to speak with one voice and strengthen coordination and coherence amongst EU and Member States on gender equality and women’s rights. Increased coherence and coordination is in itself a GAP III requirement. This implies a shared analysis and a joint response in a Team Europe approach, establishing an ambitious and shared agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment at country level.
In line with the 85% target mentioned above (Pillar 1), TEIs and their different contributions should be designed respecting the requirements of the OECD DAC policy marker. The aim is that any TEI and its components should be genuinely marked as G1 (gender equality is mainstreamed). TEIs and their components targeting gender equality as their principal objective should qualify as G2.
The EU applies the three-point scoring system of the OECD-DAC gender equality policy marker, which reads as follows:
G2 score - principal objective - gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) is the main objective of the action and is fundamental in its design and expected results. The action would not have been undertaken without this objective. In other terms, gender equality is the overall objective of the action which is designed with the purpose to contribute to GEWE.
G1 score - significant objective - gender equality and women’s empowerment is an important and deliberate objective, but not the principal reason for undertaking the action (often explained as gender equality being mainstreamed).
G0 – not targeted.
For more information check:
The Guidance on gender equality from OECD (where gender analysis is tackled): Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls: Guidance for Development Partners | en | OECD and The OECD DAC gender equality policy marker : The DAC gender equality policy marker - OECD
Mandatory gender analysis.
The country gender analysis constitutes the mandatory starting point and should inform the design of the TEIs as well as the joint programming exercise, right from the outset. Context- and/or sector-specific gender analysis (in the areas relevant to TEIs, such as green deals, digitalisation, governance, etc.), as well as the increasing availability and use of sex and age-disaggregated data are key to ensure that joint programming and TEIs effectively contributes to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
According to GAP III, the design of all external EU-funded programmes will apply three minimum standards:
- Conducting and using updated gender analyses to inform decision-making on future action and integrating these into all relevant dialogues, policies, strategies, programmes and operations.
- Applying gender and sex-disaggregated indicators and statistics to monitoring and evaluation.
- Giving robust reasons, based on the findings of the gender analysis, to substantiate any action deemed not to contribute to gender equality.
Division of labour and identification of joint actions
The country gender analysis should inform the GAP III country-level implementation plan (CLIP) and the division of labour in the key areas of intervention. In many partner countries a development partner gender coordination mechanism is in place, often lead by the EU Delegation or one of the Member States. This mechanism constitutes a valuable resource for the Team Europe approach, as it contributes to sharing information, knowledge and skills to maximise division of labour and avoid duplication. The availability of country gender analysis (and eventually, the sharing of administrative and financial resources for carrying it out in case it is not available) should be discussed within the development partner gender coordination mechanism or, in its absence, within the TEI coordination mechanism in place. The use of EUD and Member States in-house gender expertise (in particular Gender Focal Persons) and/or any other mechanism in place to access external expertise can feed and enrich the Working Better Together process.
Shared results frameworks
The gender analysis at country level should also inform the identification of joint actions and joint implementation in the key areas of intervention, in alignment with the EU GAP III and the respective Country Level Implementation Plan (CLIP).
Based on a gender analysis, the Joint Intervention Logic of the TEI as well as the joint programming documents should include specific gender equality objective(s) and result(s) as well as at least one gender-responsive indicator or an indicator informing on gender equality and women’s empowerment, Disaggregation of data by sex and a commitment to report on the gender equality results achieved should also be included in the TEI/JP results-based framework. The GAP III Staff Working Document offers a menu of outcome and impact indicators, which are also available in OPSYS.
The joint Staff Working Document on Objectives and Indicators to frame the implementation of the Gender Action Plan III (GAP III) complements the joint communication to the European Parliament and the Council by providing a set of objectives and indicators to monitor progress in the implementation of GAP III and measure its results at country, regional and international levels.
For more information check:
Access the list of GAP III objectives and indicators (SWD2020 - 284 final) here
Consult the list of GAP III key thematic outcome indicators available on Capacity4dev.
Shared reporting
TEI/JP and GAP/CLIP reporting processes should be streamlined as far as possible to effectively monitor how EU and Member States are jointly contributing to gender equality through the TEI and joint programming, in line with the GAP III and the Council Presidency conclusion on the GAP III.
In the case of joint programming and of TEI where it has been agreed to undertake a joint reporting in line with the joint results framework, information on progress towards the gender objective(s) and result’s using the selected gender specific indicators, should be included. In case a mid-term and/or final evaluation of the TEI is foreseen and external experts are tasked to perform external monitoring and/or evaluation, a gender perspective should be included in the joint terms of reference agreed by all partners.
In the case of TEIs where the different components are considered too different in nature and each partner will carry out the monitoring and evaluation activities of its respective component, progress towards the gender objective(s) and result’s using the selected gender specific indicators, should also be included under each one of the components, as well as in the joint aggregated report to be prepared on the basis of the individual reports. This joint aggregate reporting can form an important input into policy dialogue and visibility communications, regarding progress towards GAP III commitments.
Meaningful consultations and partnerships
Meaningful consultations and, when possible, partnerships (as described in Chapter 3), with key stakeholders advancing GEWE shall be promoted throughout the process, from design to implementation and follow up of TEIs and joint programming processes. These consultations should be coordinated by the EUD/Commission or one of the contributing Member States. They should be regular and if possible, aligned with or even institutionalised within the steering and governance mechanisms established to follow up the TEI and joint programming. They shall involve all relevant stakeholders at country level such as Gender national machineries, Gender Units/Focal Points at the sectoral ministries, women rights organisations and CSOs working on girls’ and women’s rights.