CROSS-CUTTING DIMENSION 1 M

Gender equality and inclusion

Gender equality and inclusion is one of the Program’s fundamental guidelines

Below, you’ll find information on the diagnosis, strategy and achievements of the Program in terms of gender equality and inclusion.
Gender equality and inclusion this required greater commitment and accountability from the partner institutions due to the changes that needed to be made in institutional culture and in the people from the communities involved in training in each country.
The Program worked with ministries, secretariats, and private institutions working on GE in the extractive sector, and with TVET institutions in 11 regions of the four PA countries.

Gender Equality diagnosis

An analysis of the preliminary overall gender diagnosis, which was carried out during the planning phase of the PA-EFE Program, showed that there were considerable gaps with respect to women’s opportunities in training and employment. This diagnosis was expanded on by the institutional partnerships in each of the partner institutions at the local level. These reports showed that at the start, almost no attention was being paid to this issue. None of the institutions had gender equality and inclusion policies in place, and almost none of the people in management or leadership positions were aware of the approach, let alone its application in training.
In parallel, information from the NGO Women in Mining in the four countries showed that women’s participation in the extractive sector was low, especially in positions of greater responsibility, and that options for generating their own income are limited by stereotypes around professions and occupations. Women also continue to play the primary role in caregiving and housework, which ends up being an obstacle to their training and integration into the labour market.

It's something to be proud of!

8% more national stakeholders

in the four countries sensitized to gender issues (up from 49% to 57%).

25 policies implemented

within the framework of the Program take gender equality into consideration.

124 persons

who earned diplomas in positive masculinity.

11 institutions have GE committees,

strategies, policies, and procedures to work from a gender equality perspective and contributing to the empowerment of women, surpassing the target of 7.

82% of women

very happy with the academic success services.

The Strategy of Gender Equality

Within this context, the Program established a gender equality mainstreaming strategy aimed at working with all partners in the countries’ institutions at both the national and local levels, and to include this approach in all actions. This challenge involved complex processes of exchange, dialogue, capacity building, and cultural change, as well as the participation of various stakeholders in all actions.
The strategy recognized that education for employment is a basic requirement for access to better living conditions and for stimulating vocational education of young men and women. This, in turn, was based on the understanding that their success depended on the design of public policies and training programs that met their requirements and needs.
The strategy was therefore developed with two objectives in mind:
– to foster multi-stakeholder work at the national and local levels, promoting dialogue among countries and institutions working for equality; and
– to recognize the differences in the policies of each country and institution, finding shared identities, progress, and obstacles, in order to learn from each of these and mainstream their actions from a gender equality perspective.

Testimonials

What was the impact of the Gender Equality activities organized through the Program on your work?

“The activities have been very interesting, since at times we have looked at gender from the perspective of what to do with women. But we have forgotten that men also play an important role in creating conditions of equity and non-violence. So, I think we need to work towards a culture of peace, in which men and women respect and value each other in our different dimensions and characteristics, and where we can complement each other.”

Billie Del Pino Rivas

Consultant, Institutional Partnership Project B12

MAIN OUTCOMES

Promoting Dialogue among the Four PA Countries

The Program aimed at improving inter-sector and inter-country dialogue, and opened up spaces for exchange, reflection, and skills development among officials from different sectors. This led to impressive results, especially in light of the need for peer-to-peer exchange and the positioning of the issue in the actions of all ministerial sectors in the countries.

One of these results was the systematization of policies and best practices and the strengthening of capacities of civil servants.

Four phases of work were specified; these were aimed at identifying GE and inclusion policies, documenting and disseminating best practices, and improving dialogue among the four PA countries at the national level.

  1. identifying key GE policies in each country, as well as key interviewees, especially from the extractive sector and other partner ministries;
  2. promoting participatory documentation through the experiences and testimonials of the persons responsible for implementing these policies;
  3. disseminating the results; and
  4. developing skills in partner ministries on GE policy design, aiming at driving change in their sector.

In the final phase, four workshops were held in which 154 officials from 39 public agencies, including ministries of finance and planning, participated. As a result of the group work, each workshop identified around 63 issues that need to be addressed in public agencies in order to mainstream gender equality.

Masculinity workshops

Another effort that made significant contributions to effecting changes in institutional cultures in the countries at the national and local levels was the masculinities workshops, which aimed to develop a vision of equality based on male identities and the promotion of a culture of peace. A total of 70 officials and 190 management, administrative, and teaching staff from the partner TVET institutions participated. These were delivered over 10 training sessions; through the analysis of gender identities, stereotypes around being a man or a woman were changed, as was the perception of GE not only as an appeal by women, but also from the perspective of male identities. The testimonials show this, as both instructors and management-level staff acknowledged the impact of the changes in their perception of equality and inclusion.

GE committees and institutional policies

The gender equality strategy focused largely on coordination among partner training institutions in the four countries and Canadian partners. The strategy was mainly aimed at influencing institutional policies, forming GE committees as a necessary driver for institutional transformation, and supporting the partnerships led by Canadian institutions to drive substantive change.

As a result, the training institutions were able to support and approve 29 actions around policies and plans that mainstream gender equality and inclusion in partner institutions. One example that should be pointed out is the awareness-building process in institutions, which resulted in substantial changes at the strategic and political level. It can be said that the Program was a milestone in the work of training institutions, since it positioned GE and inclusion as a factor for quality.

Communication products

Another of the Program’s actions was aimed at supporting partner institutions’ communication strategies from a GE perspective, by supporting projects to promote educational programs without discriminating against women. More than 20 communication products were launched in the promotion campaigns for educational programs and calls for applications in 12 partner institutions.

“I Am a Woman, I Am a Technician” Campaign - Chile

Through an agreement between CEDUC UCN and Women in Mining (WIM), Chile launched the “I Am a Woman, I Am a Technician” communication campaign, within the framework of the PA-EFE Program. This campaign was created as a result of an analysis of the characteristics of employment in the mining sector and the differences in women’s educational choices in educational programs in the sector and the stereotypes that affect the selection of careers. The campaign contains ten capsules in which women who work in the extractive sector, who are successful, and who are accomplished as individuals and professionals, discuss topics such as sustainable mining, myths about women’s participation in mining, female leadership in the extractive sector, and innovation and technologies in the industry.

Stakeholders committed to achieving the SDGs

Paula Daniela Rivera, Student in Supervision in mining processes, Centro Minero Regional de Boyacá, SENA, Colombia

Richard Alexander Caicedo Rico, Head of the Academic Development Office, Unidades Tecnológicas de Santander (UTS), Colombia

Johanna Janeth Torres, Teacher, Instituto Honorio Delgado Espinoza, Arequipa, Peru
Valdomero Echeverri Zavala, Student in Renewable Energies, UTLD, Mexico

Miski Peralta Roja, Head of the Professional Technical Higher Education Division, Ministry of Education, Chile

Documents and resources

CROSS-CUTTING DIMENSION 2 N

Environmental sustainability

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