Strengthening Gender Equality through Town Twinning: Case of Osnabrück
Gender inequality is a concept that requires a collective battle that transcends borders, individuals, and societies. While there are individual steps to take and awareness to build regarding gender equality, fundamental change requires collective development and understanding. Progress can be achieved at the local level through the participation and efforts of municipalities and civil society organisations. At this juncture, it is instructive to consider the case of Osnabrück. In Osnabrück, gender equality work is carried out by the city administration in cooperation with various civil society actors, including associations, migrant organisations, and specialised counselling centres.
Several projects documented on the city’s portal are explicitly aimed at women, girls, and queer people and also include people with a migrant background. In 2012, Osnabrück prioritised gender equality in its local policies by joining the European Charter for Equality Between Women and Men. The city committed to developing a tailored Equality Action Plan to promote equal rights through concrete, locally adapted measures. The primary purpose of the plan is to integrate gender equality across all city policy areas and to make Osnabrück an inclusive, fair, and sustainable city. In light of the Osnabrück Action Plan, strengthening gender equality through town twinning has been a remarkable achievement.
Osnabrück maintains dynamic and regular cooperation with its eleven twin towns (Angers, Çanakkale, Derby, Evansville, Gmünd, Greifswald, Gwangmyeong, Haarlem, Hefei, Tver, Vila Real), which is reflected in concrete initiatives. Those partnerships have been undertaken to develop cultural understanding, promote economic cooperation, and increase mutual interaction, particularly among young people. Despite the wide variety of activities under Osnabrück’s town twinning program, including business connections, educational exchanges, and cultural programming, there is no publicly available evidence of initiatives focused specifically on women or gender. This absence highlights a missed opportunity to include gender equity as a core component of twinning collaborations.
Similar approaches could be adopted to integrate gender equality themes into future town twinning activities, for example, by promoting women-led cultural initiatives or inclusive art projects. It is possible to create quotas that give preference to women or to use positive discrimination when it comes to disadvantaged groups’ involvement in initiatives, events, and exchanges. While these initiatives promote intercultural learning and active engagement in public diplomacy among young people, they have not been systematically expanded to address gender equality. City ambassador programs and cultural exchanges frequently lack gender equality standards and outreach methods that emphasise the involvement of women and girls, especially those from underrepresented groups or with immigration backgrounds.
In addition to town twinning initiatives, Osnabrück supports projects focusing on minority groups who have experienced discrimination, particularly women and girl children. For instance, at the local level, Mädchenzentrum Osnabrück, empowHer Network, and Osnabrück University can be considered examples of institutions and organisations that support women and other disadvantaged groups. Mädchenzentrum Osnabrück, in collaboration with the Sterntaler Campaign for Girls, seeks to secure donations to support the work of the Girls Centre, which assists girls and young women in crisis or emergencies. Through the campaign, around €30,000 is raised each year to fund services such as counselling, support, and safe spaces for girls in need since 2002. EmpowHer Network is a platform that strengthens solidarity among female professors and academic administrators, and an organisation that aims to reduce barriers to leadership and share experiences through regular networking events. Additionally, the University of Osnabrück supports projects that contribute to gender equality through the Women’s Promotion Pool. The aim is to reduce the underrepresentation of women and to promote promising projects in women’s and gender studies through targeted financial support, such as scholarships.
The Madame Courage Scholarship is an example of local-level support for disadvantaged individuals. The Madame Courage Osnabrück scholarship program is funded by the Sozialdienst katholischer Frauen e. V. Osnabrück and is carried out in cooperation with the Equal Opportunity Offices of Osnabrück University and Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. It aims to support single-parent students who have no other financial resources by providing a temporary grant to help them complete their studies.
If we examine the other steps taken in Osnabrück regarding gender-based discrimination, we observe that the Osnabrück Gleichstellungsbüro has implemented concrete measures for women. The Office is a key unit in Osnabrück that institutionally monitors and guides the implementation of gender equality. While supporting the gender mainstreaming approach, which ensures that equality principles are upheld in all municipal policies and services, the Office also provides individual counselling services to women and other groups. However, due to a lack of specialists and insufficient language support, the Osnabrück Gleichstellungsbüro is unable to provide the necessary support to the society of Osnabrück and cannot reach its full potential.
For further developments, projects should be designed to guarantee women’s full and equal participation in all areas of society, amplify their voices, and enable them to make meaningful contributions to social life. Various funding sources, such as EU funds, should support joint seminars, exchange programs among women’s NGOs, and intercultural equality projects. Partner cities should co-develop mentoring programs, leadership workshops, and cultural exchanges specifically designed for young women, with a focus on civic engagement, local governance, and digital empowerment. These programs can also support migrant and minority-background women through inclusive outreach. For example, the Sister Cities for Gender Equality Future Lab held in Marburg can be considered an equality-themed approach within the framework of European Twinning Programs. They were focused on women’s political representation, combating gender-based violence, and promoting gender equality in culture, sharing good practices and inspiring initiatives. Outcomes included a fundraising campaign for a women’s shelter in Sfax, staff training on gender-based violence, and mentoring programs for female politicians. Such model projects could encourage Osnabrück to develop similar partnerships. A standardised gender-sensitive monitoring framework across all international partnerships should be established.