W4RES began with a deep dive into the framework conditions and regional specificities of eight diverse yet representative markets in Europe (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, and Slovakia), assessing enablers and barriers to RHC uptake. Building on gender-disaggregated insights from market actors and stakeholders as well as successful cases of women leading RHC projects, we have developed a suite of flexible and cost-effective support (Business, Technical, Capacity Building, Raising Awareness) measures with high reapplication potential, which we deployed to cut down project development timings and efforts as well as to sidestep legal, institutional and financial challenges, setting in motion feasible and sustainable business models that fit to the dynamics of the RHC market. In parallel, we conducted raising awareness campaigns to foster demand for RHC whilst boosting female involvement in the RHC sector.
Concurrently, we have developed the W4RES Observatory to facilitate engagement, international cooperation and open innovation among RHC stakeholders. This digital focal point aggregates meaningful intelligence and tools in one place, supporting their dissemination and fostering their use for scaling-up the involvement of women in RHC, while offering a digital hub for community engagement for more gender-responsive RHC solutions and enabling framework conditions. After two rounds W4RES supported in total 56 initiatives / projects in the RHC sector, which are already tapping on the potential of women to implement their plans.
Along the way, a gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation framework gauged the performance and impact of our measures, providing us with the intel required to turn them from solutions fit for a set of challenges to integrated solutions that can address diverse policy and market needs across Europe.
We have shared insights with relevant actors via a targeted policy roundtable in July 2023 in Copenhagen (Denmark) and debated on how policy can contribute to the creation of an enabling environment that can foster the uptake of RHC and scale-up the involvement of women in the process. This led to us to a refined Replication Guide and Toolkit and a series of policy recommendations and briefs on improving national and EU frameworks, while also making a case for the added value and benefits of our approach for driving the uptake of RHC in local markets (establishing regional hubs, offering support services, building gender competence, etc.).
