The Brussels Binder Beyond (BBBeyond): Giving Women in Europe a Voice

ended

Effective policy comes from original ideas and equal representation of the diverse population it represents. Yet, 51% of the European population is currently ill-represented in policy, and more broadly in public debates, because of their gender. Brussels Binder Beyond (BBBeyond) thrives to bring awareness to this lack of diversity, while raising the profile of women experts in policy. Our consortium is made of two renown think tanks - Bruegel and The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), as well as of the Brussels Binder (BB). BBBeyond builds on the initial BB initiative (www.brusselsbinder.org) – a Brussels-based and crowd-funded database of women policy experts which aims to increase gender balance in public fora. BBBeyond expands on the BB project insofar as it will promote equality and diversity by inviting female speakers into the public eye, by promoting their expertise and by increasing awareness of the issue. Using the BB, we aim to extend the sphere of influence of BBBeyond, by reaching out to organisations in other member states so as to further promote the use of similar practical tools. Our aim is to create not only a repository of women experts databases in Europe, but also a positive and solution-focused environment that fosters debate, knowledge transfer and best practices exchange among like-minded organisations. Our project will a) Grow a Europe-wide expert community online; b) Gather stakeholders around the issue c) Raise awareness of the initiative; d) Enhance the BB functionalities and exponentially increase its use; e) Develop quality control tools, and recommendations for knowledge transfer and good conduct; f) Advocate for innovative convening. This benefits relevant actors directly: women policy experts receive increased visibility, conference organisers have an easy way to improve the diversity of their panels’ composition, and policy-making communities - and therefore EU citizens, gain from new perspectives and fresh analysis.