Network of East-West Women, Poland

Total Budget:                       75 080 euros

Total request from Fund:    43 880 euros

Gender equality in the CEE and CIS has been adversely influenced by a declining economic situation, human rights abuses due to military conflicts and/or rising fundamentalism which has marked the transition of the newly independent states from an authoritarian regime to democracy; from a planned economy to one dependent on market forces. Violence against women in this region, abuse of their reproductive rights, discrimination in the labour market and low participation of women in decision-making has become a serious issue in the recent years.

Despite a common history, there exists a great distinction between gender-based NGOs in the New Member States (EU-10) and in the rest of the CEE/CIS region. The Network of East-West Women (NEWW) has been trying to use commonalities and common experiences of both groups of countries for mutual benefit. NEWW, with members both in the NMS and CIS, serves for more than a decade as an information resource and a coordinator for lobbying and advocacy campaigns.

NEWW is concerned that the EU commitments to gender equality are being diluted by the new trend to merge gender equality with non-discrimination, equal opportunities, or human rights themes. As a response to this, the EU Gender Watch was established in 2006 with the support of the Presidency Fund and was created by NEWW as a network of organisations to monitor gender and development issues from the perspective of the EU and that of developing countries in the CEE/CIS.  In the course of implementation of this project, gender equality advocates in CEE/CIS raised concerns over the gap between the European Union’s commitment to advance gender equality and its translation into practice in the region. Reports based on studies conducted in from Georgia, Tajikistan and Ukraine as a part of this project highlighted these concerns.

At the end of its one-year implementation, the project has reached a crucial stage as the Network is broadening its focus towards achieving transparency in EU development aid with specific reference to gender issues. The Network in the second phase of this project, shall continue to highlight gender concerns of the CEE/CIS region and monitor EU commitments to advance gender equality and lobby for its translation into policy, action, and allocation of resources are reflected in EU development assistance to countries of the region (in the new instruments as well as in ODA).

To achieve this, workshops and “training the trainers” session shall be carried out to multiply the knowledge of development aid utilization which would enable gender-based NGOs from the region to develop skills that would enable to familiarize themselves with current debates on EU Development Policy and the Financial Perspective 2007 – 2013, and to be able to carry out research, monitoring and later on lobbying and advocacy actions and campaigns to ensure the inclusion of a gender perspective in development policies of the EUthem

This project includes extensive networking with NGDOs within Poland and at the EU-level as well. At the national level, NEWW Poland is a member of the Polish NGDO platform, “Grupa Zagranica”, which  joins CONCORD  in 2007 and other European NGDO networks to participate in EU-wide initiatives to monitor the Official Development Assistance (ODA). NEWW-Polska sees its role in contributing to the “gender element” in this analysis. NEWW Polska also plans to cooperate with The Polish Green Network, another Platform member and  also a recipient of aid from the Presidency Fund to monitor the national development policy. The EU Gender Watch Secretariat will continue to network with WIDE, EUROSTEP and EEPA. The EU-CIS Gender Watch project will also strengthen and expand existing CEE/CIS regional networks and create new ones where lacking.  NEWW will collaborate with all existing regional networks like Gender Policy Network (former Network Women’s Program of OSI), ASTRA (a network on reproductive rights), KARAT (a lobbying network) or La Strada.


The desired results of this project would be the engagement of civil society in advocacy efforts to ensure that EU commitment to advance gender equality is reflected in EU development assistance to countries of the region (new EU instruments for years 2007-2013, as well as in ODA of the donor countries).