WINNET Europe – European Association of Women Resource Centres

About
WINNET Europe

WINNET Europe, the European Association of Women Resource
Centres, was formed in year 2006 by national, regional and local Women
Resource Centres (WRCs). WINNET Europe has in year 2007 member organisations
in 21 of the 27 EU Member States.

The Swedish WRC model has been successfully disseminated in the last ten
years leading to the start-up and running of around six hundred organizations
all around Europe. Women Resource Centres serve as key tools to for women’s
active participation in regional development and growth, innovation and
entrepreneurship as well as in building sustainable and gender equal regions
in the European Union.

The Association’s mission is, in a collaborative effort among
national, federal / regional and local organisations in EU Member States, to
support and reinforce the activities of resource centres for women and or
other similar women organisations to work to advocate that:

·
Women claim their share of society’s
resources

·
Women’s competence is utilised in society

·
Women’s and men’s efforts are valued equally
in society

WRC in
the regions of Europe actively participate in partnerships and some of their
key thematic focus areas are
1. Gender Equality Perspectives in Regional and Local Policies
2. Women Entrepreneurship and SME Development
3. Gender Equality Perspective on Innovation and ICT
4. Social Inclusion and Women’s Opportunities on the Labour Market

The mission of WINNET Europe is to: 

·
strengthen the role of Women Resource Centres
(WRCs) as key actors of regional growth and support the participation of
women in regional development increasing thereby Europe’s competitiveness and
achievement of the Lisbon Strategy goals;

·
assist the implementation of the objectives
of the European Union in the employ-ment and social affairs area, as set out
in the Roadmap for equality between women and men (2006-2010) and the
European Pact for Gender Equality and the European Social Agenda;

·
enhance a gender equality perspective in
coordinated strategic use of European, national and regional resources;

·
be actively involved in policy making
processes and communicate women’s experiences in EU Member States and the
candidate countries;

·
increase women’s influence and participation
in the labour market and the society as a whole, on European, national and
regional level;

·
contribute to create new permanent jobs for
women by supporting women’s own ideas, innovation and entrepreneurship;

·
promote the empowerment of women and their
social inclusion

·
enhance women’s use of ICT and their active
participation in the Information Society.

Key
WINNET Europe activities involve
• Lobbying and presentation of Position papers
•Awareness raising campaigns about women’s and WRCs role in regional growth
and sustainable development
• Benchmarking and monitoring of the implementation of gender equality in
regional development
• Giving evidence through daily work to good examples of improving
governance
• Involvemtn in multi-stakeholder dialogue seminars and workshops
• EU monitoring in the Commissions priority areas in regard to regional
development and growth
• Initiating and co-ordinating EU projects
• Joint actions of WINNET Europe members to eliminate gender
stereotypes.
WINNET Europe
• Supports the start-up and running of WRCs in new EU Member States and
acceding countries
• Leads quality certification of WRCs through EU harmonization, transfer of
knowledge and training
• Actively supports the goals of the UN Global Alliance for Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) and takes an active role in the work of the
Internatinal Taskforce (ITF) on Women and Information and Communication
Technology.

WINNET Europe in co-operation with other key actors operates
• In the EU and worldwide: EU Commission DG Region, DG INFSO &
Media, EWL, SAWEN, UN GAID, ITF, CWIT
• On an national level: public authorities, research institutes, PPPs
• On a regional level: regional administrations, regional chambers of
commerce, regional employment boards, universities, PPPs
• On a local level: local administrations, local employment boards,
local chambers of commerce, universities, PPPs

The Annual General Meeting – AGM is the Association’s highest
decision-making organ which elects the Board of WINNET Europe consisting of
the president, eight full members and eight proxies. The President of WINNET
Europe Ms.Britt-Marie S Torstensson was elected at the AGM on the 29th of
January 2007 in Brussels.

The Association’s Secretariat is in Gävle, Sweden. The work of the
Association is assisted by Central Sweden’s regional office in Brussels. The
Association is managed with the assistance of the Secretariat and the virtual
office in WINNET Europe’s innovative network portal – www.winneteurope.eu –
serving as a communication platform between the members of the Association
and the European Commission and its institutions and other global, national,
regional and local stakeholders.

The work of the WINNET Europe Association is assisted by a Scientific and
Political Advisory Committee which consists of 50 % national, regional and
local politicians from the EU Member States and 50 % researchers.

Britt-Marie S Torstensson
President WINNET Europe