Intervention by Odd Anders With, State Secretary, Royal Norwegian Ministry of Children and Family Affairs

Making mainstreaming a natural part of an administration’s policies: Setting realistic targets

EIPA Seminar 23-24 September 2002 at Maastricht: Managing Gender equality: Policies, Tools and Best Practices in Europe

Dear audience, dear fellow participants,

It is a great pleasure to be here with you, and I am honoured to contribute to this exchange on policies, tools and best practices for managing gender equality in Europe. As you all know, Norway is not a member of the EU. We are however closely affiliated through the EEA Agreement. In1996, Norway became through this agreement an active partner in the EU co-operation on gender equality. This has given us a much more intimate knowledge of EU policy and activity in the social field and certainly provides an opportunity for mutual learning and exchange.

Through the on-going co-operation in the field of gender issues, we have gained a profound respect for the committed and innovative approach adopted by the EU.

I have been invited to talk on how to make mainstreaming a natural part of an administration’s policies and setting realistic targets. I wish to take this opportunity and point out some of the elements I consider to be crucial for the relative success of this strategy in Norway. I will also touch upon some more recent EU developments.

My argument will be structured around two main points, the first being political will at the highest levels of decision-making. Secondly, as indicated in the title of my speech, the need to set realistic targets. I am speaking from the point of view of a politician and I will not elaborate on the technicalities or methodology involved in the mainstreaming process.

First of all I should state what I understand by gender mainstreaming. It is a concept that has emerged in recent years as the common denominator for a strategy aiming to promote gender equality as an integral part of all relevant policy processes - by the actors normally involved. An authoritative definition has been provided by the Council of Europe, in the 1998 Report of the Group of Specialists on Gender Mainstreaming. Their definition reads as follows:

Gender mainstreaming is the (re)organisation, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy making. 1Council of Europe EG-S-MS (98) 2

This definition corresponds closely to the Norwegian idea of mainstreaming.

I wish to underline that the mainstreaming strategy does not in any way replace specific measures of positive action to promote the under-represented sex or national machinery and other mechanisms to promote gender equality. The two approaches are equally necessary and complementary. The impact of former discrimination against women sometimes calls for radical measures of positive action.

It should be noted that radical measures of positive action are disputed. EU law and Court practice appears to be more limiting than in Norway. The EFTA Surveillance Authority has brought a case before the EFTA Court against the Norwegian Government for an alleged breach of the EU Equal Treatment Directive. The earmarking of a limited number of academic positions for women is considered to go beyond the scope for the use of positive action according to EU case law (European Court of Justice).

Women are poorly represented in top positions in academic life. In spite of the high representation of women among students – since the 1980s women have been in the majority in higher education – only 13 per cent of professors are women. The increase of women in permanent and higher academic positions has been extremely slow. The gap between the available pool of qualified women and the number of women in academic positions is actually widening. Radical measures of positive action are clearly needed. The Norwegian Government will defend its case in the EFTA Court on 18 October.

In Norway, women are fairly well represented in politics. Since the 1980s informal quotas for women are practised in all the major political parties. These ensure that women and men are equally represented in electoral lists and internal party bodies of decision-making. The party I represent, the Christian People’s Party, has a woman leader.

The Gender Equality Act establishes a minimum quota for either sex, 40 per cent, at all publicly appointed boards, committees and expert groups. However, in the private sector, women are scarce at the top. The boards of private companies include only 6 per cent women. One major success of the Government I represent is the agreement reached that a 40 per cent sex quota shall apply to state companies, and to joint stock companies in the private sector.

These are examples of the importance of political will. Political will comes first on the list of necessary prerequisites for gender mainstreaming identified by the Council of Europe Group of Specialists on Gender Mainstreaming.

Allow me to state that the EU commitment and the leading role taken by the EU Presidency impress me. I understand that each EU Presidency selects one or two policy areas for mainstreaming by the Council of Ministers. The Danish presidency is focusing on the Employment and Social Affairs Council. Particular attention is being directed to the gendered patterns and effects of social exclusion. I believe many of you will also participate in the Gender and Social Exclusion Seminar in Copenhagen taking place on 26-27 September.

The EU has also developed a method to measure and compare progress in various fields such as social and economic policy. In the context of follow up to the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing (1995), the EU Presidency each year develops a new set of indicators to measure progress in selected areas of concern. The Danish Presidency, drawing on a preliminary report prepared by the preceding Spanish Presidency will accordingly present indicators to identify the prevalence and measure progress in eradicating violence against women. Norway was fortunate to be invited to the informal meeting of EU Ministers under the Spanish Presidency where violence against women was discussed. Combating violence against women is a priority area of concern for the Norwegian Government. I will come back to that later. It is in general very helpful for us to participate as observers to the EU political exchange.

Gender mainstreaming in the EU has been very successful in certain fields, such as employment policy, research and development, and structural policy (the European Structural Funds). I believe this is the result of a concentration of efforts and mobilising the necessary resources to ensure tangible results.

This is a very valuable message for successful gender mainstreaming and serve to demonstrate my main points: There is a high potential in p olitical commitment when translated into action, in this case influencing EU decision-making at the highest level. They are also good examples of setting realistic targets, in that policy clusters and areas of concern are tackled progressively one by one. I consider the step-wise approach of the EU a good strategy.

Political commitment to gender equality needs to be organised and translated into action. In 1998, under the first Norwegian Government led by Prime Minister Bondevik, a Committee of Junior Ministers on Gender Equality was set up for the first time. The aim was to ensure political will to sustain and further gender equality as a task for all the Ministries. All successive governments have continued this practice. I chair the current Committee.

The Committee monitors gender mainstreaming in Government policies, including with a view to implementing the Beijing Platform for Action. The Committee is an excellent forum to ensure Government attention to gender issues. It is also well suited to co-ordinating efforts, basing responsibilities and securing joint financing for campaigns or action plans that involve several actors. Mobilising joint action to combat violence against women and the related problem of trafficking in women has been mobilised through this forum. The role of the gender equality machinery could be compared to midwifery, helping to deliver, but not in charge of raising the child.

Gender mainstreaming means placing follow-up and responsibility with the actors normally involved as pointed out in the Council of Europe definition of gender mainstreaming. Violence against women is basically a criminal offence that is a matter for the police and the judiciary. Thus the Government’s Action Plan to combat Violence against Women is based with the Ministry of Justice that deals with the Penal Code.

Yet this is a cross-sector responsibility. There is a need for shelter and medical and other assistance to the victims, and treatment of the perpetrators. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs contribute to the implementation and have a "ownership" to parts of the overall plan. Implementation involves a wide range of actors both public agencies at various levels of government, and voluntary organisations tending to the needs of the victims or treatment of offenders. Shelters for battered women are generally operated by voluntary organisations. They are financed by the local authorities and the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs jointly.

A competent co-ordinator has been hired and is associated with the Police Department of the Ministry of Justice. In this way, responsibility is based in the organisation where it naturally belongs. As a result of the National Action Plan human and financial resources have been allocated to ensure proper follow-up. Allocation of sufficient human and financial resources is another prerequisite for successful gender mainstreaming.

The Government wants to promote public awareness and further improve co-ordination and co-operation. The mandate of the Violence Against Women Commission is to examine the situation of abused women and to identify further measures in law and the judiciary, in the social services, the organisation of the shelters and in terms of measures of a preventive nature. Specific attention will be paid to the situation of immigrant women. The Commission brings together experts, researchers and practitioners from diverse sectors and organisations selected for their personal competence in the field. The report of the Commission is due in September 2003 and will provide a solid basis for further Government action.

Co-operation and consultation is at the heart of Government action against gender based violence.

We achieve better and more visible results by concentrating our efforts and resources and by moving at a realistic pace, step by step. This is the approach we are taking in our recent gender responsive budget initiative. Gender disparities in terms of income and access to economic resources are core challenges in terms of gender equality. The gender pay gap and unequal gender impact of the pension system are highly relevant. Analysis of the Government’s budget proposition can prove to be instrumental to ensure public resources are allocated in a way that promotes gender equality.

The Committee of Junior Ministers on Gender Equality directs and monitors the process. Three specific areas were selected to highlight and profile the pilot initiative. They are:

improving the recruitment of women in management positions

increased flexibility in working life, with a view to reconciliation of work and family life

defending the Human Rights of migrant women, with a focus on negative practices such as forced marriages, Female Genital Mutilation, trafficking in women, and protection against gender based persecution (asylum)

Acting as Chair of the Committee I invited all the Ministries to join a common effort to mainstream gender in the budget process. They were invited to select only one or a limited number of policy areas for gender analysis for presentation in the budget proposition. The response was generally positive, although all Ministries were not able to participate in this pilot initiative. The Government decided to present the contributions of altogether eight Ministries in a separate annex to the Budget proposition for 2003 of the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs.

Our approach is quite simply as follows:

Select one or more budget chapters for the assessment

Follow the normal budget structure, in Norway this entails:

Report on results of preceding activities

Assessment of the current situation – current challenges

Identify objectives/targets and measures to be taken

Assess the gender equality dimension/effect on women and men, girls and boys

The themes selected for the current assessment include:

Parts of the funding scheme of the Norwegian Industrial and Regional Development Fund

Directions regulating the award of inability pension to part time workers (mainly affecting women)

State wage policy

The Grant for Child care

Research and development related to immigration policy

Budgetary implications of policy related to promoting women in higher/management positions, such as in the Norwegian Defence, in the Judiciary, in Industry and in the University/academic sector.

The assessments are presented in a nice publication (only Norwegian language). The publication will be presented at a seminar on 21 November, targeting apart from the Central Administration, the Norwegian Parliament Stortinget, the research community, NGOs and the media. Speakers representing these various target groups will contribute their views and possible contribution to the process. The intention is to promote public awareness and support in favour of the initiative.

The Nordic Council of Ministers has decided to launch a joint project involving both the Ministries of Finance and the National machineries for gender equality. The aim of the project is to promote gender mainstreaming in Nordic economic policy, with an emphasis on the state budgets. Gender responsive budgeting is becoming a key tool to implement gender mainstreaming in many countries. South Africa is a well-known example. Australia prepared its Women’s Budgets already in the 1980s. Since the Beijing Conference in 1995 many countries have followed suit. Other interesting initiatives include the Women’s Budget Group in the UK and the French Yellow Paper.

I consider gender responsible budgeting to be an innovative and concrete expression of gender mainstreaming.

In Norway, the mainstreaming strategy is a logic extension of the Gender Equality Act that came into force in 1979. The Act covers in principle all areas of society, although the emphasis is on education and working life. The Act places an obligation on the public authorities to promote gender equality in all fields of action. According to a recent revision of the Act the obligation has been sharpened. Public authorities accordingly shall promote gender equality in an active, goal-oriented and systematic fashion. They will also be obliged to report on that activity.

Norway has a relatively long record of gender mainstreaming. Organised activities go back to the mid-1980s and aimed at sensitising the entire central administration to the equality issue and establishing gender equality as an integrated responsibility in all areas of policy.

In Norway, gender equality is a generally accepted value. Nearly all the political parties are committed to gender equality. But as I indicated earlier, being committed is not enough. Political will is powerful only when turned into action. In my role as politician, I have chosen to exercise my political will to promote gender equality. In this task I co-operate with my colleagues in the Government, with the administration and with other actors. Together we can make a difference!

Thank you for your attention!