Created in 1996, Engender brings together people with complementary skills and experience who work together on projects of common interest. Engender is based in Brussels and combines a geographic spread covering several nationalities, seven working languages and experience in most regions of the world. Engender is a non-profit association under Belgian law.
The unique character of Engender is its dynamic confrontation of different disciplines, languages, culture and ideas. All members of Engender are independent consultants, with their own areas of expertise and work. While high-level academic qualifications are a feature of the group, Engender is not concerned with “pure” research, but rather with the policy and practice of social and economic development.
Two themes are considered to be particularly important: equality and participation. These two complementary themes underpin much of the work of Engender’s members, who believe strongly that development in any field can only succeed with the fullest participation of all actors – both women and men – in the groups or populations concerned. Engender tries to maximise the use of participatory techniques and methods in its work, including objective-oriented participatory planning. Many of Engender’s members are trained facilitators of participatory workshops and action-learning processes.
Common areas of interest, which form the basis of Engender’s activities, are:
- Project planning and (change) management.
- Monitoring and evaluation, elaboration of indicators.
- Social inclusion and social policy.
- Equality between women and men and gender mainstreaming.
- Diversity in intersectional policy making.
- Civil dialogue and stakeholder participation.
- Local and regional development.
The types of projects undertaken by Engender include:
- Research and studies aimed at influencing national or European policy development and improving practice on the ground.
- Coordination and methodological support of evaluations of European and international projects and programmes.
- Guidelines, manuals and tools for policy makers and practitioners.
- Organisation seminars and workshops.
- Training, moderation, facilitation.
- Presentation at conferences and participation in expert meetings.