Ms Eilidh Dickson:

I thank the Chairman and the committee for inviting me over from Scotland this afternoon. Engender is Scotland’s feminist policy organisation. We work to give effect to women’s equality and rights at local, national and international levels, to increase women’s access to power, safety, and resources, and to make visible the impact of sexism on women, men and society. With over 25 years’ experience in gendered policy and advocacy, we are ambitious in our desires to build a Scotland which secures equality for all women, and which works collaboratively with international and Scottish partners. We work across a wide range of national policy portfolios to advocate for women’s economic, social, and political equality with men, including social security, justice, public space and political representation. Our Gender Matters roadmap, published in 2017, sets out a series of measures that, with political will, can be taken by the Scottish Government and other bodies in order to move towards women’s equality in Scotland by 2030.

Internationally, we also represent Scotland on the UK Joint Committee on Women, through which we work closely as a member of the European Women’s Lobby, EWL, and in 2018 we worked to consult with women in Scotland and across the UK as part of the shadow report to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW. To that end, we worked with sister organisations both locally and across the UK and internationally as part of our Gender Matters Internationally portfolio to highlight women’s inequality as a global concern.

Engender became involved in the Towards a New Common Chapter initiative in 2018 through our links with women’s sector organisations in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Engender was asked to host a Scottish event for the project as part of its fourth stage in 2019, which focused on building support for the draft charter in community organisations in England, Wales and Scotland. At this grassroots session, women’s organisations based in Scotland were presented with the draft and we offered our thoughts on its scope and relevance to our experiences and priorities. Engender was then invited to the evaluation session in Belfast in March 2019.

We value the process of the New Common Charter and its potential to further expand the networks we have relied on so far, and continue to do so, as well as its potential to encourage grassroots collaboration on projects of shared importance, particularly women’s equality. In the context of Brexit and the potential for further devolution, partnership working enables us to learn from one another’s activities and successes.

We appreciate the opportunity to share space for discussion with communities, grassroots and other civil society organisations with shared ambitions and from other sectors in a forum which promotes collaboration, sustained engagement and critical expertise.