A Study not to miss

For the first time a complete study, about action that can contribute to realizing gender equality and women’s empowerment, in the realm of sustainable tourism.

You can find all in Vocational Training & sustainable tourism, a Madrid Carlos III University Project, under the leadership of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), resulting in a joint initiative with the Banesto Cultural Foundation.
As an example, "Tourism as an opportunity", the paper written by Daniela Moreno Alarcon and Lucy Ferguson (also members of our Forum!), is a perfect theoretical synthesis, and the only existing specific deep study, of the examples we give in the Projects and Travel sections of this website.

Here we extract some of the most important passages:

<<The six axes on which we group the action guidelines to achieve gender equality in sustainable tourism initiatives:

• Carry out an identification phase that is sensitive to gender.

• Ensure that vocational training challenges gender roles and stereotypes,

• Specify measures to ensure equality in participation, management and decisionmaking.

• Consider the sexual division of labour as a category of analysis.

• Undertake actions to identify the roles and stereotypes that impede equality among

people.

• Carry out an extensive training in gender and women’s rights>>.

<<As such, undertaking training activities related to gender constitutes the principal constant for the recommendations and guidelines previously discussed, which seek to

achieve gender equality and to empower women. This training should not go only be

for women or the individuals engaged in the tourism initiative. To achieve a positive

impact, it should also be directed at:

• workers employed in the initiative, including the team responsible for its coordination

and management,

• members of the community where the initiative is based,

• institutions that conduct vocational training in tourism for the initiative, and

• donor intuitions related to the initiative.
The gender training should be adapted to each particular context and be conducted

by a specialist, preferably with a background in tourism. It should cover at least the following subjects:

1. Basic concepts in gender equality and women’s empowerment.

2. The legal framework of national and international protection of human rights, such

as international regulations related to women and gender equality, as well as the

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW,

1979), the Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action (1995) and the Millennium

Development Goals (2000).

3. Relations between development, sustainability and gender.

4. Decent work from a gender perspective: gender roles, sexual division of labour, etc.

5. Promotion of the leadership and independence of women.

6. Gender sensitive budgets, i.e. those which use the following key questions as a reference:

• Does the budget cover gender needs?

• What impact does the budget have on gender equality and women’s empowerment?

• Does the budget take into account activities that increase gender equality in a consistent manner?

• Does the budget include or make visible reproductive activities that are essential to

the development of productive activities?

• Does the budget consider an intermediary and final evaluation of the initiative,

measuring its strengths and/or weaknesses related to gender?>>.