Project:
Scientific Monitoring of the Introduction of the Gender Mainstreaming Strategy within the Ministry for Environment and Nature Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia as Exemplified by the National Park Eifel
Project head:
Team in ISOE:
Dr. Doris Hayn
Gudrun Seltmann (till 02/2005)
Cooperation:
Angela Fuhrmann, Konzeptentwicklung–Prozessbegleitung–Moderation (Büro für Nahverkehr)
Funding:
Duration:
04/2004-09/2005
finished
Hayn, Doris (2006): Gender mainstreaming in National Parc Eifel, Germany. In: Food and agriculture organization of the United Nations (FAO) (Hg.), Time for action. Changing the gender situation in forestry. Rome, 130-134 Download
Scientific Monitoring of the Introduction of the Gender Mainstreaming Strategy within the Ministry for Environment and Nature Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia as Exemplified by the National Park Eifel
The strategy of gender mainstreaming (GM) has been implemented by the administration of the federal states as an integrated guiding principle to be applied in federal state politics and administration, and concrete implementation measures have been initiated. This endeavor has been pursued by the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia since November of 2002. The Ministry for Environment and Nature Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (MUNLV) formed the "Task force gender mainstreaming within the MUNLV" and commissioned the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) with the pilot project "Introduction of Gender Mainstreaming in the National Park Eifel (in particular education and public relations)". ISOE contributed to the project with its long standing experience in monitoring and consulting the implementation of gender mainstreaming into environmental politics as well as with its approved expertise in the field of gender mainstreaming in nature protection.
It was the objective of the project to not only counsel the "Task force gender mainstreaming within the MUNLV" in their efforts to implement gender mainstreaming within the Ministry, but also to scientifically monitor and counsel the forestry office of the National Park Eifel during the implementation process of gender mainstreaming. The central aim of the introduction of gender mainstreaming in the National Park Eifel, which was established on January 1, 2004, was to compile a conceptual basis for the sub-fields education, public relations and social-scientific research. The long-term objective for this concept was to support a gender-sensitive organization of the activities and the public appearance of the National Park. For this purpose ISOE developed and tested adequate instruments, which enable the employees of the National Park to permanently incorporate gender aspects into their activities. In addition to developing "Guidelines to a Gender-Sensitive Design for Public Relations" and "Conceptual Milestones for Gender Equity in Education", guidelines for the consideration of gender related questions were also devised for the area of social-scientific research.
The combination of various types of knowledge were of crucial importance to the development of these instruments. The scientists therefore recorded and analyzed pre-existing work and experience of the National Park employees. Literature research concerning, for instance, different perceptions of "nature" among women and men and their dissimilar interests in experiencing and appropriating nature rounded off this part of the project. Furthermore, the ISOE’s scientists scrutinized concepts and experiences from various German National Parks in order to collect and edit scattered knowledge, which had not yet been put into writing, and which had been gained over many years by experts working in this field. The overall objective of the project was to identify the concepts and images of nature and of gender constructions that should form the basis for public relations and educational offers. An experts’ colloquium concluded the pilot project in order to communicate the compiled results to a broad community of specialists.
Supported by the ISOE, the "Task force gender mainstreaming within the MUNLV" revised the instruments developed for the National Park with regard to their transferability for the long-term application in other fields of activity within the Ministry. In addition, ISOE counseled the individual ministerial departments in the implementation of guiding projects. These guiding projects have been the first steps towards an implementation of gender mainstreaming within the respective fields of activity in the departments. For that purpose, proven gender mainstreaming instruments such as the Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) developed by ISOE were applied. Apart from that, the counseling of the task force also included activities regarding the communication of this subject as well as the institutional and organizational establishment of gender mainstreaming within the MUNLV.
Literature:
Hayn, Doris in collaboration with Seltmann, Gudrun und Guttmann, Julia (2005):The Pilot Project "Gender Mainstreaming in the National Park Eifel" – the Development of Implementation Instruments Report in the context of the implementation of gender mainstreaming in the Ministry for Environment and Nature Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (MUNLV) of North Rhine-Westphalia Summary/Draft, (pdf-file, 196 kb)
Hayn, Doris (2006): Gender mainstreaming in National Parc Eifel, Germany. In: Food and agriculture organization of the United Nations (FAO) (Hg.), Time for action. Changing the gender situation in forestry. Rome, 130-134 Download