Contribution of Monitoring and Evaluation for a Reflexive Gender Equality Policy

The paper discusses the relevance of monitoring and evaluation for a reflexive gender equality policy based on experiences with the structural change project TARGET – Taking a reflexive approach to gender equality for institutional transformation. The approach for developing and implementing a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) developed within TARGET goes beyond the formal adoption of a gender equality policy by emphasizing an iterative and reflexive process towards equality at the institutional level as well as the establishment of a community of practice (CoP) for gender equality within the institution. Hence, structural change is the result of increased institutional willingness and capacity to identify, reflect on and address gender bias in a sustained way. Monitoring and evaluation are integral components of a comprehensive GEP cycle and play a pivotal role in fostering a reflexive equality policy. They achieve this by supporting the development of gender competence among members of the CoP and by establishing the foundations for an evidence-based gender equality discourse within the institution. To capitalise on this potential, the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation must be aligned with this objective. It is essential that both follow a feminist paradigm and be implemented in a participatory manner. Specifically, this entails that monitoring should not only record the proportion of women in different groups of employees and students, or participation in measures, but also reflect power relations and structures. The CoP should be involved in the design of monitoring and data collection. In addition, the use of monitoring for evidence-based gender equality discourse within the institution should be planned already at the design stage. This supports the development of gender competence among relevant stakeholders within the institution, thereby contributing to the establishment of a shared understanding of gender equality issues and objectives. Ideally, evaluation builds on monitoring, is also participatory in nature, and aims to empower disadvantaged groups within the institution. An externally supported and co-creative process of developing evaluation questions and the evaluation design increases the use of the evaluation results. The article describes the approach developed in TARGET and illustrates its implementation using selected examples of good practice.