JÄMI A Swedish Commission for Gender Mainstreaming

Abstract

In July 2008 the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research was commissioned by the government to set up a program to support governmental agencies in their work with gender mainstreaming. To complete the mission that lasted until the end of 2010, Program Jämi was organised. This report is an English summary of Jämi’s findings, conclusions, and recommendations. The Jämi program was a temporary assignment, with the task to create conditions for long-term support for gender mainstreaming in governmental agencies. In order to create continuity and avoiding reinventing the wheel, coordination with ongoing work and other programmes launched at the same time and with similar settings, were crucial. The need for consultation with other organizations concerned was already pointed out in the government’s decision. Together with her staff the program director, Annika Olsson, PhD, went beyond consultation to close and regular collaboration with the other partners. Through this collaboration three important things were achieved. First and foremost, the fact that economic and other resources could be used in a more efficient way. Secondly, collaboration was a strategy to gain approval for initiatives taken and securing their survival even after the programme was completed. The most significant factor, when it comes to organizational management, like implementation of gender mainstreaming, is perhaps that collaboration forces you to reflect. A lesson learned from Jämi is the need for reflection on issues like what is general and what is specific for my organisation? How can bench marking help us to improve and what can be learned from others? One of the reasons why the government gave the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research this assignment rested on estimation that there is a gap between earlier knowledge gained by research and ongoing and practical gender mainstreaming work in agencies. A bridge between researchers and practitioners could strengthen the knowledge in gender mainstreaming; important findings from Jämi are the remaining need for such a bridge, and also for more research in this field. It is our hope that this report will give the reader a useful overview on gender mainstreaming in governmental agencies in Sweden. We also hope that it can inspire to international collaboration when it comes to research as well as practical work.