The Scottish Women’s Budget Group (SWBG) has been chosen by the Anti-Poverty and Inequality Committee to work with community representatives – to advise the Council on what’s needed to tackle gender inequality in Aberdeen using a Citizen’s Assembly type approach.
SWBG will initially recruit a diverse range of 6-10 women to form a steering group and undertake a community wide research project to identify ways to combat gender inequality and poverty.
Aberdeen City Council Co-Leader Councillor Christian Allard said: “The council is committed to developing innovative approaches to tackling poverty, especially where it results from gender inequalities.
“It remains particularly important that we work closely with third sector organisations such as The Scottish Women’s Budget Group to reach the aims of this committee.”
The work of the steering group will include:
• exploring gender inequality and how this links to poverty
• developing community sessions to hear from the wider community about the issues they are experiencing
• agreeing which issues the group will explore in the data gathering phase
• analysing the data collected and identify themes
• developing initial solutions using gender budgeting approaches and agreeing how these findings will be presented
• developing a wider community session to present initial findings and further develop the suggested actions/solutions ensuring that these are informed by the community
• launching the findings and actions/solutions needed to address the identified issues
SWBG also aim to run 6 smaller community sessions, working with a wider range of community groups such as Grampian Women’s Aid, Rape Crisis Grampian and Action for Children.
By working with community groups already working in Aberdeen and who have the trust of the communities they support, SWBG will hear from a diverse range of women including those from seldom heard groups to ensure the needs of these groups are met.