Manual on Gender Equality for Finnish municipalities
The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (AFLRA) has made a manual for municipalities describing the importance of their role in promoting Gender Equality.
By presenting general information on the legal framework and concrete examples on methods to use, the guide provides support to decision-makers. It also contributes to increasing the awareness on how gender equality can be integrated in municipal activities and thereby contributes to the welfare of citizens.
The advantage of signing the European Charter for Equality of women and men in local life is especially mentioned as a way of taking a public commitment to equality. The Charter is also presented as a tool that can be used by municipalities when taking decisions in the area of equality.
The manual also provides specific information on how to work with Equality in the following areas:
- Equality in decision-making and presents statistics stating the underrepresentation of women in the decision-making level in municipalities in Finland.
- Equality in steering documents and in the budget of the municipality and underlines the importance of highlighting women and men, girls and boys explicitly in steering documents since decisions can have different impacts on women and men, girls and boys and also integrating the gender impact in budget decisions, i.e. working with “Gender budgeting”
- Equality in provision of services and explains the necessity to identify differences in needs in order to improve quality and be able to offer services on equal basis
- How to do gender assessment
- How to work with Safety and Prevention of Gender-based Violence
For more information please consult the guide on the following links:
AFLRA has also published a more detailed guide for the local government officers on how to implement the Charter, for the moment it exists only in Finnish:
Link to guide on how to implement the Charter in Finnish
