Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities - implementation and monitoring. Experience in Latvia Inese Vilcane Social inclusion department Senior expert 2nd November, 2016

Mission of the Ministry of Welfare is: to stabilize the condition of a person in the situations of social risk to reduce the possibility that the social risk would occur by facilitating honest legal labor relationships, healthy and safe work conditions gender equality thus creating the opportunities to everybody to secure a sufficient life quality themselves in any given situation

Responsibilities of the Ministry of Welfare

Equal Opportunities and Non-discrimination In the programming period of 2014–2020 the implementation of the horizontal principle are envisaged in the proposed regulations – gender equality, non-discrimination and accessibility – will be coordinated within as the horizontal principle “Equal opportunities” (HP EO)

Legal Framework of HP EO United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (entered into forced in Latvia on 2010) Regulation on EU funds concerning to Promotion of equality between men and women and nondiscrimination (Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013, Article 7) Regulations by the Cabinet of Ministers regarding the implementation of the EU funded measures, project selection criteria's and monitoring Guidelines and explanatory materials

Rights of persons with disabilities and social inclusion Gender equality Rights of persons with disabilities and social inclusion Non-discrimination based on age Ethnicity non-discrimination

Gender Equality promoting financial freedom of women and to promote equal opportunities at labour market harmonization of working and family life of both genders improvement of health indicators for men and women lessening gender roles and stereotypes educating specialists and society on significance of the gender equality principle and integration into all spheres of life integrating gender aspects in the sectoral policies (education, health, environment, business activities, etc.)

Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Social Inclusion accessibility of education and employment for persons with disabilities improvement of accessibility of the physical environment, transportation, ICT and other public buildings accessibility of the services supported by EU funds for persons with disabilities (health care, social service)

Non-Discrimination Based on Age reducing an unemployment of persons in older working age and promoting employment, offering active labour market policy activities advancing life-long learning, improving and mastering necessary skills for labor market providing information and consultations in the area of labour safety promoting healthy life style for all ages Increase participation by older working-age persons in the labour market and volunteering

Ethnicity Non-discrimination inclusion in social life social security promotion of employment promotion of healthcare support for job finding and at the workplace learning national language lifelong learning

Integration HP EO in Policy Planning and Implementation papers general objectives for whole OP implementing instruments OP implementing and monitoring system within OP SOP impact for each specific OP objective (direct positive, indirect positive, no impact) monitoring indicators for each OP objective RCM specific actions to be supported within the projects achieved indicators PI specific activities indicators PA – Partnership Agreement for the European Union Investment Funds Programming Period 2014 – 2020, OP – Operational programm “Growth and Employment” SOP – supplement to Operational Programme «“Growth and Employment» RCM- Regulations of Cabinet of Ministers PI – project implementers

Monitoring system of HP EO (I) European Commission Managing Authority (MF) HP EO Coordinating Institution (MW) Central Finance and Contracting Agency (CFCA) Projects implementers (PI)

Monitoring and Evaluation Monitoring the project implementation sites (by CFCA, project level) Monitoring report on the impact of EU funded measures to HP EO (by MW, program level),(2017., 2019., 2022.) Evaluation to determine the HP EO impact of the implementation and contribution to the promotion of the gender equality, rights of persons with disabilities and inclusion, non-discrimination (contracted evaluators)(2017., 2019., 2023.)

The Monitoring Report monitoring of HP EO indicator values achieved assessment of EU funds investment impact of achievement for the objectives HP EO identifying the most important challenges and risks for HP EO implementation developing proposals for improving the efficiency of HP EO Information based on Cohesion Policy Funds Management Information System (administrated by CFCA)

Monitoring and evaluation cycle 2014-2020

Implementation of HP EO by MW methodological support of Stakeholders on implementation of HP EO (manual, seminars, consultations) consultations with experts on environmental accessibility on ERDF) and CF co-financed project implementation sites the training video of the best practice examples on ERDF and CF co-financed projects guidelines on Universal Design and recommendations for the improvement of Building regulations information and training of the Stakeholders

Evaluation on Gender Equality and Horizontal priority Equal Opportunities (2013) The main Recommendations from the Evaluation: Specific HP EO measures for women and men to promote equality, combat discrimination and to ensure accessibility, based on the analysis of the situation in each area, defined HP EO indicators for each specific objective within the Operational program identified Proposals for project selection criteria to promote HP EO Recommendations on the necessary guidance material with respect to the integration of HP EO in various National Strategies

Thank you for attention! Inese.Vilcane@lm.gov.lv Information on the horizontal priority Equal Opportunities on the Web site of the Ministry of Welfare http://sf.lm.gov.lv/lv/vienlidzigas-iespejas/2014-2020/