Presentation of TWG
Gender equity has been recognized as an international commitment and a prerequisite for development since the United Nationals Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995. Over the years the international development evaluation field has collected a wide-range of experiences in carrying out gender-sensitive evaluations. Since 2015, Gender equity is also acknowledged by the international development community as an enabler and accelerator for all the Sustainable Development Goals, and the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development offers an opportunity to achieve not only SDG 5 (gender equity) but to contribute to progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Gender-focused and gender-sensitive evaluations began in the late 1990s looking into gender relations and the different gender effects of the policies. However, still nowadays evidence suggests that gender perspectives have not been integrated in every relevant policy and in some instances any progress has also been hindered by the contradictory content of some policies. While labelled ‘gender policies’ they have unintendedly reinforced traditional gender roles and stereotypes. Another challenge is the availability of gendered data which only recently is receiving more attention as it also provides the evidence for a lack of consideration of gender perspectives during the design phases of interventions and programmes. Other challenges come from using “women” and “gender” as interchangeable terms rather than looking at the relational aspects, e.g. examining how the relations between all gender identities co-construct expectations on each other and define power relations; and the intersectional dimension, i.e. examining how gender interacts with other social identity markers such as age, class, ethnic caste, sexual orientation, rural/urban location, disability, marital status and so on.
The Gender and Equity Thematic working Group focus is on advocating for, building capacity and raising awareness about gender-responsive evaluations as a key and powerful tool for accountability and learning and creating societies based on just, inclusive and effective policies for all.
Objectives of TWG
The main objective of the EES Gender and Equity Thematic working Group is to improve and exchange our knowledge and skills on how to carry out evaluations from a gender perspective. It specifically seek to connect practitioners from different fields, enthusiastic individuals, institutions, organisations and civil society actors working on this issue nowadays as well as to build a platform for the practitioners across sectors to disseminate relevant evaluation activities, materials and opportunities and to learn from each other’s experiences. This will be done through various activities:
- Establishing and maintaining a knowledge repository, the EES GEKIWIKI, seeking to share global practices and challenges when designing, managing and using gender-responsive evaluations. It also includes resources from forerunners in the field of gender-responsive evaluation and brings together reports and resources applicable across a wide range of sectors from climate change, rural development and transport to peacebuilding.
- Building of a European Evaluation Network of practitioners advocating for and actively using gender-responsive evaluations
- Advocating for gender-responsive evaluations and gender-mainstreaming in evaluation activities globally.
- Building capacity and providing guidance and support to monitoring, evaluation and reporting systems related to gender mainstreaming.
- Welcoming professionals from various fields, backgrounds and ages who are willing to actively contribute to TWG objectives.
- Connecting to the global evaluation networks, communities of practice and initiatives to maximize learning without borders.
- Convening various knowledge exchanges and learning opportunities through conferences, online webinars and informal meetups.
Specific Contact Person in the EES Board
To be announced
EES Thematic Working Group 1 Gender & Equity NEWSLETTER (formerly Gender & Evaluation Newsletter)
On behalf of the European Evaluation Society Thematic Working Group I – Gender and Equity, we are pleased to share with you the first edition of its biannual newsletter! Access the newsletter here.
Through this newsletter we hope to create more discussion, information sharing and space in general for gender and evaluation, policy making and experience of us practitioners worldwide.
We are very honoured to present you in the attached document a very insightful content from practitioners well known in the field of gender and evaluation.
With this I would like to thank all who contributed to this newsletter and wish you happy reading!
With kind regards, on behalf of the EES TWG 1,
Petra Novakova
TWG 1 Lead
EES Gender and Equity Knowledge and Information WIKI (GEKIWIKI)
TWG 1 Gender and Equity is proud to share the EES Gender and Equity Knowledge and Information WIKI (GEKIWIKI). It provides a curated list of resources containing information on legal instruments and relevant international standards of particular importance to women’s human rights and gender equity, as well as evaluation reports, publications, tools and manuals related to gender-responsive evaluation.
It is now available to all EES members in good standing. Please contact EES TWG 1 leader to learn how to access the platform.
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Blog on Gender Mainstreaming in Evaluation
In honour of International Women’s Day, EES’ TWG 1 Leader Petra Novakova and former Secretary General Karin Kohlweg authored a blog on how to improve gender mainstreaming in evaluation: https://europeanevaluation.org/2021/03/08/time-is-up-lets-increase-efforts-to-mainstream-gender-in-evaluations/