Development of a Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Policy for Volkshilfe Austria

On behalf of Volkshilfe Solidarität, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights, under the project management of Sabine Mandl, is developing a gender, diversity and inclusion policy for the federal office of Volkshilfe, Volkshilfe Solidarität and Volkshilfe Forschung in Austria. A gender, diversity and inclusion policy enables organisations and companies to create an inclusive, equitable and human rights compliant environment for their employees and target groups they work with.

With this gender, diversity and inclusion policy, Volkshilfe Austria is committed to respecting and promoting internationally recognised human rights in all its activities. The focus of the development of the policy is on the participatory involvement of the parties concerned.

Methods:

To determine the status quo, the project team uses various qualitative and quantitative methods:

• Research and analysis of existing policies and measures on gender, diversity and inclusion of Volkshilfe.
• Conducting an online survey with employees on gender, diversity and inclusion
• Comparison with state-of-the-art policies and identification of gaps as well as development of guidelines for further development.
• Drafting of an inception report
• Discussion of the inception report and incorporation of feedback in the policy.

Based on an inception report, a draft gender, diversity and inclusion policy is developed with definitions of terms and core principles, as well as priority action areas, structures and mechanisms for the implementation of gender, diversity and inclusion within the organization and in the project management cycle. The draft is then discussed with Volkshilfe management staff in a workshop. The resulting feedback will be incorporated into the final version of the policy.

Country: Austria
Persons involved: Karin Lukas, Sabine Mandl
Contact person: Sabine Mandl
Lead Organisation: Volkshilfe Solidarität
Partner organisations: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights
Project start: 01/2022
Project end: 04/2022
Programme Line LBI-GMR: (In-)Equalities and Non-Discrimination