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The Action plan to promote equality and prevent ethnic discrimination 2009 – 2012 called for the Ministry of Children and Equality to set up a forum for equality data composed of key data users (selected ministries and their agencies, in addition to the Equality and Anti-Discrimination-Ombudsman) and data generators (including Statistics Norway).
The objective of this Forum is to achieve a more comprehensive and systematic approach to the collection of data that may shed light on equality and discrimination on different grounds and across different areas of life. The forum further serves: to raise awareness about the need for robust and comprehensive equality data; to coordinate measures in the field of equality; to exchange knowledge and expertise; and to establish connections with sectors in which equality should be mainstreamed as one of their objectives, such as education, health, labour and other welfare sectors.
The Forum meets regularly once every semester and is also convened on an ad hoc basis for specific purposes, such as for consultations on the Directorate´s new statistical web pages on equality before its launch.
Members of the forum include: the Directorate for Health, the Directorate for Education, the Directorate for Integration and Diversity, the Labour and Welfare Administration, Statistics Norway, and the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombudsman.
Over time, there has been a shift to prioritise work with the ministries’ agencies, rather than the ministries themselves, and to a more ’hands–on’ approach of the working group. The forum has, for example, been an arena for discussing the development of statistical web pages, linking data and questionnaire design.
The forum considers data issues with respect to all discrimination grounds prohibited by national legislation, namely, gender, ethnicity, skin colour, religion, belief, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and life stance. Other relevant issues may be, for instance, national origin, descent, language and part-time/temporary work.
Manifestations of multiple and intersectional discrimination may also be discussed.
Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs, Norway (Bufdir) / Barne-, ungdoms- og familiedirektoratet
Email: postmottak (at) bufdir (dot) no