GEKO - Gender Sensitive Cooperation in Cross-Border Regional Development

In 1999 the European Union declared gender mainstreaming as a main goal of their politics within the treaty of Amsterdam. Therefore GEKO aimed at implementing gender mainstreaming in the EUREGIO Weinviertel-South Moravia-West Slovakia in order to:

• train regional stakeholders and citizens in gender mainstreaming
• develop a gender sensitive organisation structure for the EUREGIO Weinviertel-South Moravia-West Slovakia
• prepare a gender sensitive strategy for the future development of the EUREGIO
• develop key projects for implementing gender mainstreaming in practice

Women are important actors within a cross-border organisation because (due to mobility difficulties), they are generally more strongly anchored in a region than men and they are often capable of bringing equilibrium to chaotic situations. The capabilities of women; especially their understanding of the different mentalities and possession of important language competencies make them important key personel when working within the context of cross-border cooperation. Unfortunately, the daily tasks best suited to the competencies of women such as the boards of national organisations and politicians are still -to this day- dominated by men.