The policy brief focuses on three observations made during the first year of the SUPPORTER project at three different dimensions interlinked by the SUPPORTER context: institutionaldimension, sports education-dimension and the ‘widening’-dimension. It emphasises the need for contemplating the intersection of these dimensions in policy-making and the need for contextualising the assessment and progressive development of GEPs across Europe. Additionally, given the crucial role of sports in social inclusion, it also highlights the potential of sports, and correspondingly sports higher education as part of it, as a catalyst for gender+ equality societal changes. The aim of the policy brief is to communicate SUPPORTER’s policy-related observations and implications thereof to the EC.
As a way of harvesting our collective insights from the RESISTIRÉ research, we 1) propose the concept of ‘crisis as a continuum’ as an essential framework for crisis prevention, response, recovery, and monitoring, and 2) suggest that public authorities at all levels, including the European Union, support and learn from an inclusive feminist crisis response to prevent and better manage future crises. These recommendations are based on the three cycles of RESISTIRÉ research and supported by project factsheets that aim to provide a conceptual framework for approaching future crises.
Most of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) focused their attention on the economy and finance, support for business, the construction of infrastructures, and economic stabilisation. In most cases the design process of the plans was based on consultations with organisations involved in the production, labour, and economic sectors. Insufficient importance was assigned to engaging with actors representing the interests of vulnerable groups. As a result, even though the European Commission's guide on how to prepare the plans clearly stated the importance of recognising and addressing women and vulnerable groups, in conformity with the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights, most of the NRRPs lack concrete measures targeting vulnerable groups and address different inequality grounds in cursory terms only. The failure to address gender+ vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in the policy design process means that there is a risk that the NRRPs will not only fail to achieve their set goals, but that their measures will further aggravate the situation of these groups.
Mainstreaming the gender dimension in research activities and outcomes is a topical challenge related to excellence. The gender dimension in research activities requires an ethically sound process in creating high-quality results. Major research funding organisations are increasingly interested in analyses of the gender dimension in research, thereby challenging researchers to review their research plans accordingly. The Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) aims to tackle this challenge. The GIA is not a strict methodology but rather an approach to be further co-designed by local GIA communities of practitioners (CoPs) to ensure its fit into each academic research setting in aiming to improve equality and quality of the knowledge produced. The GIA approach also effectively supports Horizon Europe’s mission-oriented work, in which European research and innovation missions have the objective of delivering solutions to some of the greatest challenges that our world is facing, all of them having gender impact. The GIA guidelines introduce the approach as an institutional and operational set-up. They describe the institutional structures, processes, and resources needed for successful application of the GIA approach, and identify the key stakeholders within a university that are central for its institutionalization and operationalization — the GIA CoPs. Further, the guidelines propose institutional structures needed for gender impact assessment operations to make them standard procedures in an institution. Local GIA CoPs are in a central position to ensure a perfect fit of the GIA within a particular institutional setting as well as its sustainability.
