WRITTEN QUESTION E-3149/96 by Fernando Fernández Martín (PPE) to the Commission (22 November 1996)

Subject: Women in developing countries

One of the undertakings given by the Council at the Fourth World Conference on Women, following the Commission's guidelines, was to make involving women in development a priority.

A Council resolution has laid down the general principles which are to govern the pattern of development cooperation in future, incorporating the issue of sexual equality, both at Union and Member State level and in development aid policy.

What measures has the Commission taken to implement the conclusions of the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women and the resolution adopted by the Development Council on 20 December 1995 on 'development and gender' in developing countries?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-3149/96, E-3150/96 and E-3151/96 given by Mr Marín on behalf of the Commission (9 January 1997)

The Council Resolution of 20 December 1995 on integrating gender issues in development cooperation, translates into the field of development cooperation the political commitments undertaken in the Beijing Conference. Actions the Commission is currently undertaking, to fulfill these commitments include:

- training and sensitization of staff in gender issues;

- providing technical guidance and expertise on the integration of gender issues to cover the financial and technical cooperation of the Commission at the level of projects, programmes, policies and strategies;

- influencing the internal procedures of the Commission in order to ensure the integration of gender issues at all stages of project and programme design, implementation and evaluation. This, in particular, involves monitoring of and guidance regarding the use of the so called gender impact assessment form, which is compulsory for all projects presented to the committees for developing countries and for Latin America, Asia and Mediterranean non member countries.

As requested by the Council Resolution, and after consultations with the gender and development experts from the Community and Member States, the Commmission is in the process of drafting precise proposals for common criteria and indicators for reporting on the implementation of the Resolution (Article 17). Budget line B7-611 (previously B7-5051 - current annual budget MECU 3) aims to provide a catalytic role within the Commission and to contribute to the larger use of mainstream funds for gender-sensitive development cooperation.

The Council will review the progress made by the Community and the Member States in the second half of 1997.

The Commission is sending directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat general details of the projects that have been so far financed by the Commission for women in developing countries.

The Commission does not restrict itself to funding specific actions for women, as experience suggests that such actions can only have a limited impact in the long term. Most activities in favour of women, accordingly, are financed under the main budget lines for development cooperation, in the form of integrated projects addressing both women and men, but with specific attention to the needs of women. In addition, a number of large-scale positive action programmes specifically for women are also funded on these mainstream budget lines. Furthermore, budget lines exist also for non-governmental organisation (NGO) actions and for specific concerns, such as environment, or in respect of specific countries or regions. Such budget lines also finance actions in favour of women, either in the form of integrated projects, or positive actions in favour of women, or a combination of both.