- Published:
- Tuesday 4 March 2025 at 5:00 pm
Research published today reveals insights about gender impact assessments (GIAs) in rural and regional councils and hospitals.
The Commission and Right Lane Consulting did the study between May and November 2024. The researchers heard from about 44% of councils and 30% of hospitals in regional and rural Victoria and consulted other relevant stakeholders.
The findings show that while there are good GIA practices happening, there are some challenges too. Key strengths include:
- access to communities of practice to share and learn about GIAs
- visits from the Commissioner that raise awareness about GIA requirements.
Key challenges include:
- people don’t always know when or how to do GIAs
- there isn’t a clear system for managing GIAs and they are not embedded in daily work
- hospitals and councils don’t have enough money or resources
- leaders don’t always support GIAs or fully understand what GIAs require
- GIA resources from the Commission are not easy to use or tailored.
The report recommends actions that the Commission, councils and hospitals, and peak bodies should take to improve GIA practices.
The Commission is already underway with several actions to address recommendations in the report. These include:
Working with leaders:
- More visits to regional organisations
- Stronger messages to leaders about GIAs
- Presentations to key leadership forums.
Improving GIA resources:
- Developing tailored GIA tools for local government and the health sector
- Reviewing the GIA toolkit
- Refreshing the website structure to be more user-friendly
- Releasing new video case studies.
Further implementation of the recommendations will depend on funding and resource availability.
Updated