EQUAL - a summary

Funded through the European Social Fund, EQUAL will test and promote new means of combating all forms of discrimination and inequalities in the labour market, both for those in work and for those seeking work, through transnational cooperation. It will also include action to help the social and vocational integration of asylum seekers.

Principles:

Partnership: including public authorities, representatives of workers and employers, the equality commissions, education and training communities, the voluntary and community sectors and the management authorities for the countries.

Thematic approach: to explore new ways of tackling the problems common to different types of discrimination and inequality, rather than focusing on a specific group.

Transnationality: to work in cooperation with partnerships from other Member States, learning lessons, developing new methods and approaches to training and job creation.

Empowerment/participation: those targeted for support will have the opportunity to influence the design and evaluation of proposed activities to help them.

Innovation: including new methods of delivery, new systems or innovative actions to address gaps identified in key reports, from, for example, the Social Exclusion Unit.

Dissemination and mainstreaming: to help inform policy developments at a national and european level.

The NI EQUAL programme document is broken down into five chapters, covering the following:

• labour market analysis
• policy context
• other factors that have shaped the programme
• implementation strategy
• delivery, monitoring and evaluation
• implementation.

EQUAL will bring together key players into Development Partnerships (DPs) in a geographical area or, in exceptional circumstances in a sector of need when the requirements justify it. The different sectors of public administration, nongovernmental organisations, social partners and the business sector (in particular SMEs) will work in partnership, pooling their different expertise and experience. DPs will choose one of the two thematic areas and will operate on either a local, regional or national level, depending on the focus of each partnership.

Central to the work of each DP will be its links with at least one partnership from another Member State and possibly non-Member States as appropriate, and its involvement in a network of others dealing with the same theme across Europe. DPs will participate in the dissemination and mainstreaming of good practice. Special arrangements will apply to mainstreaming in a North/South context in Ireland.

Funding: The total UK allocation is €376m for 2000-2006. Distribution among the UK territories will give NI a budget of €11m at December 2000 prices. (Indexed to 2001 the GB allocation is €387.91m and the NI allocation is €11.69m). These contributions need to be supplemented by national funding at a ratio of 35% national to 65% European Social Funding.

EQUAL will fund activity under the following four actions:

Action One: setting up Development Partnerships and transnational cooperation - 5% of the budget
Action Two: implementing the work programmes of the Development Partnerships - 72% of the budget
Action Three: networking, good practice and impacting on national policy –15% of the budget
Action Four: technical assistance to support actions one, two and three - 8% of the budget.

Actions One and Two are sequential. Member States will be expected to be in a position to start Action Three at the earliest point that results are available from Development Partnerships for dissemination. Action Four will provide support through out the period of the programme. A NI Monitoring Committee will oversee EQUAL in its delivery, monitoring and evaluation. The Department of Higher and Further Education Training and Employment will coordinate both the implementation and delivery of EQUAL acting as both the Managing and Paying Authority. There will be a common evaluation strategy with GB in line with European Commission guidance.

To see the EQUAL Operational Programme visit www.eugrants.org/