Tea For Two

Flýtilyklar

Valmynd
Meginmál
Deildarval

Minutes Reykjavik

-Illustrating equality-

PROGRAMME RELATING TO THE COMMUNITY FRAMEWORK STRATEGY ON GENDER EQUALITY

Minutes of the final conference and the fourth meeting of the Steering Committee

Reykjavik, November 16, 2007

Participants:

Kjartan Ólafsson Iceland

Svala Jónsdóttir Iceland

Tryggvi Hallgrímsson Iceland

Katrín Anna Guðmundsdóttir Iceland

Lily Abadjieva Bulgaria

Tatiana Georgieva Bulgaria

May Endresen Norway

Sinikka Mikola Finland

Isto Karjalainen Finland

Marjut Pietiläinen Finland

Maria Ifou Greece

Katerina Karapa Greece

Steering committee meeting, November 16

The meeting began with a welcome to Iceland by Sinikka Mikola and then an introduction of all the participants.

Status of the project

Svala Jónsdóttir discussed the status of the project. All data collection was complete, and the maps had been finished and could be displayed in the website. The final conference was scheduled for the afternoon of the same day.

Data collection and indicators, dissemination of the results

Kjartan Ólafsson introduced the discussion about the data collection, maps, and indicators. He discussed how the participant countries had managed to gather the data and where it had been difficult. He also discussed the presentation of the data, and showed the maps and the website. Then he went on to discuss how the results would be disseminated in each country. There was a lively discussion regarding these issues with participation from all the partner countries.

Final conference, afternoon

The final conference took place in the afternoon of the 16th of November and started at 1 PM. The minister of Social Affairs, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, unfortunately was unable to attend, so her political assistand, Hrannar Björn Arnarsson, gave the opening speech in her place.

After the opening speech, Svala Jónsdóttir from the Center for Gender Equality, introduced the project. Then, Kjartan Ólafson from the University of Akureyri Research Institute went over the project's results and introduced the maps and the website. May Endresen from Norway discussed Gender equality in Norway in light of the Tea for two project.

Mikola Sinikka from the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, and Marjut Pietiläinen from Statistics Finland discussed Gender Equality at the Local Level in Finland in the light of statistical indicators. Maria Ifou, Mayor of Farsala in Greece, went over the project results in Greece and talked about Equality Issues for Women in Greece. Finally, Lily Abadjieva from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy in Bulgaria, discussed Gender Policy in Bulgaria and the impact of the Tea for two project.

Following these presentations was a coffee break, and after that Katrín Björg Ríkarðsdóttir from the Town of Akureyri talked about the Tea for two project from a user's perspective. Katrín discussed how the project originated and how the equality representatives in municipalities in Iceland had for years felt the need for a tool that could measure gender equality at the municpal level.

The afternoon's agenda was finished with a panel discussion, led by Dagur B. Eggertsson, mayor of Reykjavík. Kjartan Ólafsson, Kristín Ólafsdóttir from the Town of Kópavogur, Iceland, Isto Karjalainen from the City of Kupio, Finland, May Endresen, Katerian Karapa from the City of Tamineon, Greece and Tatiana Georgieva participated in the panel, which discussed measuring gender equality at the local level and how the experience from the project could be used in the future. There was much interest in continuing to measure gender equality at the local level and all the participants were positive about the results of the project and its value for future development.

The final conference ended at 5 PM.

Opening speech (.pdf)

TFT project in a nutshell (.ppt)

Competing in gender equality (.ppt)

Norway presentation (.ppt)

Finland presention (.ppt)

Greece presentation

Bulgarian presentation (.ppt)

Reception, dinner and informal meeting

After the conference, there was a reception hosted by the Ministry of Social Affairs in Iceland. The steering committee along with the foreign participants and Icelandic hosts then went to a dinner, where discussion about the project and future cooperation was continued.