Belgium : institutional mechanisms for gender equality and gender mainstreaming factsheet.
Date: 2025-08-05
Institutions: European Institute for Gender Equality
Subjects: Belgium, comparative analysis, gender mainstreaming, performance measurement, policymaking, support mechanism

Belgium

Belgium’s institutional mechanisms for gender equality and gender  mainstreaming 
stand above the EU average and show progress compared with 2021

Institutional mechanisms refer to national machineries that implement, 
monitor, evaluate and mobilise support for policies that promote gender 
equality and gender mainstreaming. All indicators and sub-indicators used 
to monitor progress are available on EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database.

Belgium 
scored
65.7 %

EU average
50.8 %

Indicator H1: status of commitment to 
the promotion of gender equality

Belgium scored 7.8 out of 15 points, which is below the EU 
average of 9.4 and below its 2021 score of 8.5. While the 
mandates of both the governmental and independent 
bodies focus exclusively on gender equality (H1d and H1f), 
the score reflects the lack of a strategy or national action 
plan for gender equality (H1e). 

Indicator H3: gender mainstreaming

Belgium scored 8.9 out of 14 points, which is above the 
EU average of 4.7 and shows improvement compared 
with its 2021 score of 7.9. This reflects Belgium’s 
commitment to gender mainstreaming and effective use 
of gender mainstreaming methods and tools, such as 
gender budgeting (H3c). 

H1 
Overall

7.8

H3 
Overall

8.9

9.4 – EU average

4.7 – EU average

15 max

H1a 
Responsibility

H1c 
Position

H1d 
Mandate (Gov.)

H1e 
Accountability

H1f 
Mandate (Ind.)

H3a 
Commitment

H3b 
Structures

1

0.5

2.7

1.8 – EU average

1 – EU average

2 – EU average

1

2.6 – EU average

2.7

1.9 – EU average

1.5

1 – EU average

2.5

1.7 – EU average

14 max

H3c 
Methods

4.4

1.7 – EU average

2 max

2 max

3 max

5 max

3 max

2 max

4 max

6 max

H3d 
Consultation (Ind.)

0.5

0.3 – EU average

2 max

Indicator H2: resources of the 
national gender equality bodies

Belgium scored 3 out of 4 points for personnel 
resources of both the governmental and independent 
bodies, as both bodies have from 25 to < 100 
employees working on gender equality, which is above 
the EU average of 1.9. There has been no change since 
2021.

Indicator H4: production and dissemination 
of statistics disaggregated by sex

Belgium scored 4.3 out of 6 points, above the EU average of 
3.6 and shows progress compared with the 2021 score of 4. 
There is a legal obligation for the National Statistical Office 
to collect data disaggregated by sex (H4a), but there is no 
website that provides direct access to relevant datasets, 
impacting efforts to disseminate gender statistics (H4c).

H2 
Overall

3

H4 
Overall

4.3

1.9 – EU average

3.6 – EU average

H2a 
Resources (Gov.)

1.5

1 – EU average

4 max

H2b 
Resources (Ind.)

1.5

0.9 – EU average

H4a 
Production

2

1.2 – EU average

6 max

H4c 
Dissemination

2.3

2.4 – EU average

2 max

2 max

2 max

4 max

Human resources are scored in size groups based on the total headcount adjusted  where relevant for the proportion of time spent on gender equality issues.

(Gov.) refers to governmental gender equality body; (Ind.) refers to independent gender equality body.

Overall ratings for the strength of institutional mechanisms are based on the average of the scores for each of the four underlying indicators (H1 to H4), each 
expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible score so that all indicators have equal weight in the average.

For more information, please see country information and the methodological report.

ISBN: 978-92-9486-297-6

doi:10.2839/0313207              MH-01-25-010-EN-N