KSH 2 - Communities of practice for inclusive gender equality: reflections and lessons learned (5th Working Paper)

The creation of Communities of Practice (CoPs) was one of the strategies developed by the INSPIRE project to promote and strengthen gender equality policies in universities and research centers. This document systematizes the reflections and lessons learned from two geographically diverse Communities of Practice with converging objectives: the Widening Inclusion and Gender Equality (WIGE) CoP and the Latin America and Caribbean (-LAC) CoP . The WIGE CoP, coordinated by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, brought together 18 academic institutions from eight countries in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe. Its main task focused on strengthening universities’ knowledge and skills in monitoring and evaluating Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) and advocating for the effective incorporation of gender perspectives and participatory, context-sensitive working methods, moving beyond mere formal compliance with regulatory requirements. The LAC- CoP, coordinated by the UNESCO Regional Chair Women, Science, and Technology in Latin America based at FLACSO Argentina, was composed of 10 universities from eight Latin American countries. This community focused on deepening understanding of the enabling conditions and obstacles facing gender policies in universities to ensure their sustainability in a politically adverse context. Through dialogue and collaborative exchange, it capitalized on the universities’ previous experiences to strengthen the institutionalization of the gender perspective and address the structural resistance that hinders gender equality in academic units. The systematization of the work process carried out by both CoPs, presented in this document, generated a set of reflections and significant lessons to continue contributing to the development and sustainability of gender equality policies in higher education; it also helped identify future challenges for the continuity of these spaces for dialogue and peer exchange. The two initiatives also demonstrate that collaborative exchange and collective reflection are essential for interpreting complex data, addressing institutional challenges, and envisioning sustainable forms of cooperation in the field of research and innovation.Below, we share the reflections and lessons learned from each CoP, as compiled by their members, along with the main conclusions and challenges identified.