Gender, Civil Society and Women Entrepreneurship
Report from EBRD Workshop: Gender, Civil Society and Women Entrepreneurship – 4 December 2008, London
05.12.2008 |Anke Stock
On 4 December 2008 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development held a workshop on its draft gender action plan at its headquarters in London. Academia and NGOs (international and national) were invited and different departments from the bank were represented at the meeting.
The discussion evolved generally about what the bank could do to advance gender considerations within its practical work since so far the bank has no experience in this area. Even though the EBRD adopted a new “Environmental and Social Policy" in May 2008, gender is still a new concept to most staff at the bank. Therefore, internal as well as external measures were requested to promote gender as a concept of the bank’s work. As first step the importance of monitoring gender relevant factors by a gender impact assessment within all projects was highlighted. Furthermore, the NGOs called for specific gender related projects, such as community-based projects and gender credit lines.
The EBRD will now take the recommendations into account and issue a new draft of its gender action plan towards the beginning of 2009. There will be another 30 days for civil society to comment on the new draft online. Afterwards, the action plan is due to be adopted at the AGM of the bank in May 2009.
For more information contact: Anke Stock (anke.stock@wecf.eu)
