1. MULTI-LEVEL GOVERNANCE FOR THE ACHIEVEMENT OF EQUALITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION How to ensure thatdifferent governance levels combine to achieve goals of equality and non-discrimination

2. STARTING POINT Fifth Equality Summit in Poznan, Poland – Recognised the key potential of regional/local authorities to advance equality and non- discrimination. – Acknowledged the challenge to establish equality as a national standard for governance and to address the limited commitment to equality and capacity to implement equality strategies at regional/local levels. – Identified the importance of partnerships for governance between local/regional and national levels.

3. CONTEXT Economic and financial crisis – reduced financial resources, public sector reform that limits time and resources for implementation of policies to advance equality, and the replacement of human rights thinking with municipal financial thinking. Issues in governance arrangements – movement towards greater decentralisation from national level and fragmentation of policy areas.

4. CONDITIONS Commitment issues can include: – Under-developed commitment, – De-prioritised commitment, – Unevenly spread commitment, – superficial commitment. Capacity issues can include: – Limited knowledge and skills to achieve equality and non- discrimination goals. – Limited interest, knowledge and skills to engage with stakeholders. – Limited knowledge and skills of stakeholders to engage with policy process.

5. GOVERNANCE LINKS FOR EQUALITY Culture factor – Influence deployed by developing a shared value base, common understanding and agreed goals across all levels of governance. – Political/administrative leadership, partnerships between levels of governance and with other stakeholders, national plans, training, communication, networking and processes to develop the thinking that shapes policy.

6. GOVERNANCE LINKS FOR EQUALITY Finance factor – Influence deployed by attaching criteria to funding or providing funding for specific issues. – Budgets, funding criteria, and pilot projects. Legal factor – Influence deployed by regulation, rule or enforceable standard. – Duties imposed on public authorities in equality legislation, equality mainstreaming, agreements between levels of governance, guidelines and technical assistance.

7. GOVERNANCE LINKS FOR EQUALITY Monitoring factor – Influence deployed by monitoring and processes of verification. – Targets, indicators, evaluation and sanctions. Administration factor – Influence deployed by specific organisations taking to make links between governance levels. – Equality bodies, NGOs, social partners, knowledge centres, networking and functions accorded at different levels of governance.

8. CONCLUSIONS Commitment and capacity issues. Importance of links between levels of governance for commitment and capacity. Governance links shifting from notions of control to notions of influence in context of more networked governance arrangements. Challenge to deepen understanding of and implementation of culture factor approach.

9. THANKS The publications of the Network of Socio Economic Experts are available on: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/expe rts/index_en.htm