Questions/Answers

In the year 2018 the Central Contact Point for Gender Mainstreaming, Equal Treatment, Human Rights and Integration has been incorporated in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism. This Central Contact Point is in charge of the above-mentioned cross-sectoral matters for the Ministry as a whole and has therefore been assigned directly to the Director-General. The GGMI acts on the one hand as a contact point for all requests and concerns of the staff members related to the topics gender mainstreaming, equal treatment, human rights and integration. On the other hand, the central contact point cooperates with the respective staff member in charge of the implementation and/or coordination of these topics. (see attached Activity report 2018 - 2019 and sheet with enlisted current activities) The Members of these existing structures – the Working Group Gender Mainstreaming, the Working Group for Equal Treatment Issues, the Integration Officer and the Human Rights Coordinator – carry out their activities in addition to their main activities in the Federal Ministry and are supported in technical and administrative terms by the two full-time staff members of the Central Contact Point and the head of the working group for equal treatment and the head of the working group for gender mainstreaming. The Central Contact Point coordinates internal and external requests, collects the knowledge in the fields to be supported and about the respective activities and makes it accessible on a permanent basis. By means of various events, measures and projects the Central Contact Point wants to promote comprehensive awareness raising of staff members for gender justice, fairness and a respectful way of dealing with each other.

The Central Contact Point supports the Ministry with the implementation of the Gender Mainstreaming Strategy, the requirements of the Federal Equal Treatment Act and the Internal Plan for the Promotion of Women. In all events, projects and measures of the Central Contact Point the gender aspect, the awareness of a culture of anti-discrimination and the situation of women are taken into consideration. The objective is to sensitize staff members for equality issues and anti-discrimination in such a way that they can act, within the framework of their work, in a gender-equitable way and are able to identify discrimination of women.

SDG 5. Target 5.1 and 5.5 The Central Contact Point deals within the framework of its work primarily with the improvement of the equality between women and men and contributes thus primarily to meeting Target 5 Gender Equality. For example by means of events, articles in the online staff magazine, training courses, flyers as well as within the framework of cooperation with Directorates of the Ministry, the Central Contact Point sensitizes for discrimination against women and girls, which is to contribute to meeting Target 5.1. Furthermore, the compliance with Target 5.5 is supported by means of monitoring and controlling the implementation of the Federal Equal Treatment Act (Bundes-Gleichbehandlungsgesetz) and the Internal Plan for the Promotion of Women (Interner Frauenförderungsplan). The Plan for the Promotion of Women stipulates an annual increase of the share of women, in particular in management positions and in Directorates where women are still underrepresented.

The incorporation of the Central Contact Point emphasized the importance of the supported fields, in particular Gender Mainstreaming. In this way, it is ensured on a permanent basis that gender equality is promoted at the Ministry. On the one hand, this should have a positive effect on the staff members themselves, on the other hand, it should influence their work for the population in the fields of agriculture, rural development, forestry, sustainability, water management, mining, telecommunications and tourism. Synergy effect strengthen an optimal way of reaching the goals in fields, where the promotion of women must be of great importance.

In the year 2019 the gender pay gap between male and female staff members in public service amounted to 9 %. With the Plan on the Promotion of Women and internal measures we are trying to counteract this trend. The Central Contact Point for Gender Mainstreaming, Equal Treatment, Human Rights and Integration can keep, within the framework of the Austrian administration, the level in the fields of gender mainstreaming, promotion of women, and equal treatment high by means of its specific structural incorporation at the Ministry and by means of the effective, coordinated support of important interdisciplinary matters, and is a shining example at federal level. Moreover, many measures of the Central Contact Point refer to vulnerable groups. Thus, for example the topic of old-age poverty of women was dealt with in the course of an event, various articles drew the attention of the people to the situation of the people on the run or in crises regions.

Due to the Austria-wide competence of the Ministry for the fields of agriculture and rural development, forestry and sustainability, water management, mining, telecommunications, regional policy and tourism, the measures taken by the Central Contact Point for Gender Mainstreaming, Equal Treatment, Human Rights and Integration, in particular the permanent sensitisation of the staff members for equality and anti-discrimination, are effective in these fields.

Our measures address all so-called remuneration groups within our Ministry and make no difference regarding the educational level or field of responsibility. The initiatives of the Federal Ministry, and thus also of the Central Contact Point for Gender Mainstreaming, Equal Treatment, Human Rights and Integration have an Austria-wide impact in the fields falling within the sphere of competence of the Ministry, in particular on people in rural areas.

The creation of the Central Contact Point was preceded by a long process of sorting out how the topics of Gender Mainstreaming and Equal Treatment could be sustainably integrated in the Ministry with the respective staff. Before the creation of the Central Contact Point the issues of Gender Mainstreaming and Equal Treatment where dealt with by different persons, these persons carried out their work in addition to their full-time work. A technical or administrative support for the topics of Gender Mainstreaming and Equal Treatment did not exist at all, or only occasionally, so that the scope of action was clearly limited. Moreover, there was the problem of transfer of knowledge in case of a change of staff, a there existed no fixed, permanent structure for the above-mentioned topics. Under the then new government 2018 this structure could be achieved in the form of the Central Contact Point. Due to the staffing with a head, a deputy head, a technical full-time employee and an administrative part-time employee the support of equal treatment issues at the Ministry, in particular in the form of the support of existing working groups for Gender Mainstreaming and Equal Treatment Issues, has been ensured. The thematically related fields of human rights and integration have also been dealt with by the Central Contact Point since then, and since 2019 also the field of disabilities. In 2020 an additional full-time staff member was employed who deals with human rights issues in technical terms. In 2020 a report on the activities of the Central Contact Point in the years 2018-2019 was written in order to make the work transparent and to document it.

The biggest obstacle was to convince the top management level of the fact that equality and equal treatment are so important that also resources have to be made available for this purpose. In 2018 a form was found with the creation of the Central Contact Point, which guarantees a preservation of the total accumulated knowledge, and which enables by means of the available support, a considerably higher number of actions. The volume of work of the Central Contact Point has increased rapidly, a fact, which made it indispensable to hire another full-time employee in the year 2020.

In fact, this form of support of gender mainstreaming, equal treatment, human rights and integration does not exist in any other Ministry. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Regions and Tourisms has broken completely new ground in this respect and has attached thus great importance to the field of topics dealt with. The Central Contact Point bundles the knowledge on the topics within the Ministry, serves thus as an information hub for staff members and external contact persons, and supports the networking of colleagues and projects, which enables synergies.

The idea and the initiative for the Central Contact Point for Gender Mainstreaming, Equal Treatment, Human Rights and Integration goes back to committed colleagues from the Ministry.

During the corona-pandemic our work primarily takes place by means of the use of digital technologies. Until the pandemic face-to-face events were held, however, with the beginning of the pandemic the events were converted to online formats. Moreover information material on the topics of sexual harassment, corona and gender, international action and memorial days, have been increasingly spread via the employee newspaper and the intranet. In this way also the agencies, which are mostly not located in the capital, could be reached. Furthermore, an online exhibition on Gender Mainstreaming and an online conference for the compliance officers were organised.

We do not yet know anything about a concrete implementation in other Ministries or fields. However, in the course of the regular exchange with other Ministries the concept of the Central Contact Point has been very well received. The activity report in German and English aims at promoting exactly this by means of informing interested colleagues or organisations about the work of the Central Contact Point, and by offering them the opportunity to contact it.

Since the beginning of the existence of the Central Contact Point, and since it has started to present itself within the framework of regular exchange with other Ministries it has become clear that it would be a concept from which other Ministries could profit as well. The fields of gender mainstreaming and equal treatment must be supported in all Ministries, however often staff members fulfil these tasks in addition to their main professional function. As soon as persons are employed exclusively for these topics, there is a much wider scope of action, from the organisation of events to participation in project groups and new strategies and plans, up to other measures for sensitizing people. By means of merging the fields of topics gender mainstreaming, equal treatment, human rights and integration in an organisational unit located at a structurally high level, subordinate to the Director-General, the importance of these fields of topics is raised. This means sending a signal and setting an example for the whole Federal Government.

It is thanks to individual highly committed colleagues who have been working in the fields of gender mainstreaming and equal treatment in addition to their main occupational tasks for years that the Central Contact Point has been implemented. However, it was finally the cooperation of various strategically important directorates, in coordination with the top management, which enabled an actual incorporation of these fields with respective staffing.

Due to the integration of the Central Contact Point in the allocation of responsibilities and in the staff scheduling, and the staffing with technical and administrative personnel the support of gender equality has been secured. Of special importance is, however, the documentation of the projects in order to make this knowledge accessible on a permanent basis. Continuity is promoted, as the competence and the networking of the staff members is permanently growing and enables a better and better implementation of gender mainstreaming. The financial security for projects depends immediately on the priority given to the fields by the management level.

Yes

For the purpose of documentation, promotion and transparency and for networking an activity report on the work of the past two years has been written in German and English. This report was compiled by the members of the Central Contact Point by themselves. (see evaluation annex) In the report there are contributions on the work done so far by the members of the Central Contact Point as well as by colleagues closely cooperating with the Central Contact Point or supported by the Central Contact Point.

The enclosed activity report is a form of qualitative evaluation. The number of projects, which either were carried out directly by the Central Contact Point or by the structures supported by it, such as the Working Group Gender Mainstreaming, the Working Group for Equal Treatment Issues, the Human Rights Coordinator or the Integration Officer, could be seen as a quantitative indicator. Moreover, the work is being permanently informally evaluated within the team. At events and conferences the feedback of the participants is gathered by means of questionnaires.

The activity report shows clearly the broadly based approach of the work of the Central Contact Point and the importance of networking with other cooperation partners within and outside the Ministry. Moreover, it has turned out that the visible commitment of the management level is of central importance for the staff members in order to implement gender mainstreaming and equality issues. The events and activities are additionally evaluated by means of questionnaires and taken into consideration with future measures. The feedback supports the further development of the Central Contact Point, and it has to be stated at this point that we have experienced a lot of appreciation for our commitment by a great number of positive feedback from different stakeholders.

Being a cross-sectoral matter the Central Contact Point is directly subordinated to the top management of the Ministry. The members of the Central Contact Point have established broadly based networks within the Ministry, with other Ministries, with relevant structures, such as the Interministerial Working Group Gender Mainstreaming / Budgeting, the Interministerial Working Group for Equal Treatment Issues, the Equal Treatment Commission and others.

The Central Contact Point for Gender Mainstreaming, Equal Treatment, Human Rights and Integration has developed out of the commitment and the preliminary work of the gender mainstreaming and the equal treatment officers of the Ministry of the past few years, with the support of the personnel directorate, the personnel development directorate, and the budget directorate in cooperation with the respective members of the staff representatives and the Office of the Federal Minister.

An important insight was that especially in a small team the cooperation, as well as a high level of independence, sense of responsibility, own initiative, and commitment of every individual member are essential. Openness vis-à-vis others, as well as a way of actively approaching colleagues, institutions etc., have resulted in a broadly-based network, a great knowledge about the fields dealt with, and in the structural and staff-related integration within and outside the Ministry. Flexibility and optimism are also indispensable in order to remain successful in particular in fields such as gender equality and to address actively the needs of staff members and to respond to short-term changes and/or events. What is also important is the presence within the Ministry and outside the Ministry, be it in the form of events, articles, reports, flyers, training courses and projects. A risk, related to the wide range of topics dealt with by the Central Contact Point, is of course overstretching, that the capacities of a small team are exceeded by the workload. In this case, the setting of priorities and good communication within the team and/or with colleagues from the Ministry and/or the creation of new human resources in time are essential.