Gender-Certification: Home Page

TRANSNATIONAL ASPECTS

This project has been developed and completed thanks to the shared commitment of 11 European partners in:

ITALY
BULGARIA
GERMANY
SPAIN
UK
PORTUGAL

The strength of the partnership is in the great diversity of kind of activities and competence, therefore the expertise that was brought into play.

Active partners in the project include:

An Equal Opportunities study and research centre – PROGETTO DONNA, Project Promoter
An employers' association through a delegation dealing with women’s employment and entrepreneurship – APID
A workers trade union through a delegation dealing with women’s employment and work- UIL
A certification agency operating throughout Europe – AFAQ
An association dealing with training of adult women – GbQ
A business organization consultancy with specific experience in gender issues – METHA SISTEMI
A business organization consultancy with specific experience in quality systems and training – ENTENTE UK
An Italian Region through its Equal Opportunities Councillor – REGIONE UMBRIA
A UK Chamber of Commerce delegation in Bulgaria – MYCCI
A European association that works in Diversity Management - IEGD
A company producing educational software – BYWEB

All these different experiences and skills have been fundamental for the creation of all project products, into which the various knowledge and proposals flowed, adapted and amalgamated.

As can be seen easily from the ‘Steps' document, distribution of tasks has been very coherent with respective skills and each product has involved cooperation with those partners who had most expertise in the various contents and objectives.

If the fact that ISO 9000:2000 Standards are international and substantially the same across Europe was an element that has made it easy to define a shared point of departure, however, the development of the training modules, has required a range of expertise from three different contexts: enterprise management organization, gender issues and Quality System management. These are contexts that are not always expressed in the same way and with the same intensity in the various countries. So we sought a shared level of contents and methodologies, given that the diversities have not required particular specifications.

The central moments of this project were two transnational meetings:

in Bologna, Italy, when the project started, in order to achieve greater reciprocal knowledge, to clarify project objectives and paths, tasks and working methods
in Rousse, Bulgaria, after the first training modules draft was drawn up, in order to discuss and clarify the relative critical aspects that had emerged

During the two years of work together, Progetto Donna has coordinated the work of the partners, acting as a point of reference, sorting and circulating ideas, proposals, partial products.

Each partner has undertaken to disseminate the project , and will continue to do so well after the official closure of the project, because this is a highly innovative project that requires lengthy application and awareness-raising of the stakeholders at different levels, which overall is an especially delicate and arduous task as it aims at a cultural change.

There have been no real critical moments in the schedule or for the implementation of the various activities, nor for the involvement and participation, which have been both at high level.