3 CASO SCOZIA INGLESE low - Rete Pari Opportunita

1.IntroductionThis report stems from research undertaken byLaura Polverari and Rona Michie of theEuropean Policies Research Centre, University ofStrathclyde (Glasgow) for the project “W.IN.D. -Women In Development”. The project deals withthe identification and dissemination of effectiveways to promote gender equality in local economicdevelopment.Funded under the Fifth Community ActionProgramme for Gender Equality and led by theItalian Department for Equal Opportunities andHuman Rights, the study entails comparativeanalysis of four international case studies – onItaly, Malta, Cataluña and Scotland – with the aimof identifying good practice examples and drawingcomparative lessons for future action in this area.As one of the partners of the research consortium,EPRC was in charge of the elaboration of a casestudy on Scotland to identify and analyse: (i)practical experiences with strategies to supportthe participation of women in local developmentprocesses, and (ii) practical experiences withstrategies to support the introduction of theprinciple of gender mainstreaming into localdevelopment processes.The case study entailed a mix of desk- and fieldresearch,conducted in the period January-March2007, namely:• preliminary desk-research on the genderequality issue in Scotland;• preliminary desk-research on Scottish policiesfor gender equality;• preliminary desk-research on projects implementedin Scotland for the support ofwomen’s participation in local developmentprocesses and of gender mainstreaming intolocal development processes;• the selection, mainly through desk-research,of good practice examples for field investigation;• the undertaking of seven face-to-faceinterviews with officers from the organisationsresponsible for the selected projects; and,• the drafting of the present case study report,inclusive of preliminary conclusions andrecommendations.The content of the case study was finalised aftera workshop with representatives from the casestudy projects and other Scottish organisationsinvolved in gender equality, includingrepresentatives from: the Scottish ExecutiveEquality Unit, Equal Opportunities CommissionScotland, Fitzgerald Associates and others. Theresearch team would like to thank all those who1