Gender equality in cooperation and development: Europe finds it hard to fill the men-women gap

Member States are not properly implementing the European strategy on gender equality in areas like cooperation and development, as remarked by the Foreign Affairs Council dedicated to the issues of Development.

The pace of progress in implementing the 2010-2015 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development – known as GAP – is “extremely slow,” as stated by the EU28 Foreign Ministers during their meeting in Brussels. They said they are “worried” for the management of the less than perfect of the ‘European pink agenda’. In particular, “most projects lag behind in achieving a satisfactory gender marker score and the gender-sensitivity aspects of projects are often neglected.” That is, the commitments taken are just a sign on a piece of paper so far. The Council then urged the Union and its Member States to “develop a stronger and more ambitious plan.” The new GAP, covering the period from 2016 to 2020, “should build on the progress of the current GAP, apply lessons learned and address remaining shortfalls and challenges.” To this aim, the Ministers called upon the Commission and the EEAS “to set up a task-force to prepare Terms of Reference and define objectives of the new GAP.”

In 2010, the Commission published a Communication aiming at reducing the men-women gap, with the target of a 75 percent share of women employment, salary equity, equity in the decisional process, equity between men and women for external actions. In reference with the last item, it was necessary to implement the action plan on equity of treatment and women emancipation concerning with the cooperation and development (2010-2015). What an irony, the chosen acronym was GAP – the same gap Europe is still trying to fill in.

R. G.