The EU, gender and democracy building

The EU’s policies and actions abroad automatically impact on the gender aspects of democracy building. Such effects can be either negative or positive.

This article summarizes the gender-related findings of the International IDEA project “Democracy in Development – global consultations on the EU’s role in democracy building.” The project compared the EU’s policy intentions with the perceptions of EU partners and correpondingly presented a number of policy proposals in order to close the gap between what the EU intends to do and how it is perceived.

Consultations revealed that partners perceived EU intentions on gender to be vague and unclear: the EU was seen to have had little impact in this area.

EU intentions – what commitment to gender equality?

The EU has a clear commitment to gender equality and equal opportunity, not only in EU internal policy but also as a part of EU external action, particularly in the area of development cooperation.

The UN remains the main actor in gender issues. In comparison, the EU is perceived as nearly invisible. In this regard it is a positive sign that the EU often engages in partnerships with UN agencies such as UNIFEM in specific projects. However, if the EU is to live up to its own intentions and commitments, more must be done. International IDEA can play a role in this regard, providing recommendations, opportunities for dialogue and networks for sharing experiences.

The EU intends to be an active player in supporting democracy building with a gender perspective. However, it is a fairly new actor in this field and has only recently adopted thorough policies and measures to effect this goal.

The 2005 Consensus on Development identified gender equality as one of the broad objectives of EU development cooperation. The Consensus focuses on the socio-economic aspects of gender inequality and on gender as a human rights issue. It does not link governance and democracy building with gender.

This approach changed in May 2007 with the adoption of Council Conclusions on Gender equality and women’s empowerment in development cooperation. The Council Conclusions connect gender equality to governance issues and put gender equality at the centre of support for democracy building.

Financial support for EU gender related actions is provided through the geographic instruments (the Development Fund EDF, the Neighbourhood Instrument ENPI and the Development Cooperation Instrument DCI) and the thematic instruments EIDHR and the annual “Investing in People” action plan (most recently adopted 12 May 2009). Operational guidelines are available in a special toolkit for country programming.

The perceptions of EU partners

The International IDEA project held consultations with EU partners in five regions in early 2009. A number of articles were commissioned from authors in these regions. This material provided a rich foundation for analyzing perceptions of the EU’s work¹.

Though each context was different, a number of common perceptions and ideas surfaced across all five regions. On gender issues, three themes were found to be given particular emphasis: the role of civil society organizations, interest in the EU’s own experience and the perceived lack of mainstreaming of gender throughout EU programmes. Yet a common conclusion was that the EU had little impact on this area.

The main gender equality activities carried out by the EU were seen to be with civil society organizations. And in the area of education, health and economic opportunity. There was less sense that the EU’s engagement on gender equality related to governance processes or state institutions such as the executive, the parliament or the judiciary. Indeed, much of the EU’s energies were seen to be token.

As Professor Elisa Tarnaala says: “The EU’s economic support to the civil society in general and women’s organizations in particular is invaluable and indispensable. However, the political dialogue strongly emphasized by the EU leaves much to desire”.

Yet partners recognized that the EU itself could point to examples of success stories, particularly in the Nordic countries for furthering women’s participation e.g. as political candidates and parliamentarians. There was a clear interest in learning more about these experiences.

How to strengthen the gender perspective to support democracy building

After listening and analyzing the views expressed in the consultations, IDEA believes that the EU must go beyond support to civil society organizations. The EU has an important role to play in changing state institutions and reforming political processes to promote the inclusion of women in decision making processes – as voters, political candidates and parliamentarians.

Gender is not about women's issues and women’s rights, but about the relationship between men and women and the opportunities for all to take part in public decision-making processes. Gender equality action therefore has to include men. The EU approach must be broadened to include this aspect.

The EU should draw upon its own stories and experiences when trying to influence others.

The EU must also show it is serious about mainstreaming gender equality and include it in areas beyond development cooperation. Trade negotiations, dialogue on migration, design of security policies and actions should all clearly bring in the gender perspective.

Finally, the EU should make further efforts to communicate its objectives. This includes by both external information campaigns to inform partners and internal training of staff to ensure there is an awareness of existing EU policies.

Learn more about this IDEA project on www.idea.int/eu. All reports and commissioned articles are or will soon be available via this link.