Good practice:

Regional Committee for Gender Equality

The Regional Committee for Gender Equality Sterea Ellada is responsible for supporting proper integration of the gender dimension into the regional development strategy and making proposals to the Regional Council related to certain gender measures to be enforced.
Created following a national law relevant to all Greek regions (2010), the current format of the Regional Committee was established in 2015 with the following aims:
A) To support integration of gender equality into regional development policy, in coordination with local development efforts
B) To introduce measures that promote effective gender equality in all areas of economic, political and social life, thus controlling and systematically integrating gender into development planning and sectoral policies
C) To propose projects to be funded by the Region, balancing individual gender integration projects with the corresponding resources available in the Region
D) To undertake awareness raising and dissemination initiatives for the wider public
E) To cooperate with the national General Secretariat for Gender Equality and civil society stakeholders
Prior to any gender mainstreaming planning policies in the Region, the Committee is called upon to use its knowledge to analyse regional development potential and barriers that limit gender mainstreaming in regional strategies and to propose concrete sub-actions related to gender that can help to achieve regional development aims.

The Good Practice refers to a soft administrative structure, so no actual financial resources are directly required for its implementation. It requires human resources, in terms of commitment from the members of the Committee.

• Implementation of the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life, supporting enforcement at local level.
• Action Plan for support to female entrepreneurship and women’s position at work, with one stop service point and funding programmes
• Women’s network with free information and counselling

While the creation of a Gender Committee was established by national law in this case, it is a concept that regional authorities could adopt at their territorial level and within their funding programmes / regional development strategies.
The Regional Committee is chaired by the regional governor and its members represent the regional council, the regional association of municipalities, women’s associations in the region and the general secretariat for gender equality. The creation of such a consultancy organ, involving the key stakeholders in each specific territory, could be transferred.
Moreover, the range of activities promoted by the Committee mean that there is plenty for regions to transfer elements of this GP, according to their territorial situation: from the creation of specific action plans, to the provision of services, to the events and awareness raising events, to the more complex analyse of funding allocation with relevance to gender.