Post-Brexit Funding for Equality and Human Rights
The Equality and Diversity Form (EDF) has published a report, Shared Prosperity, Shared Rights (pdf), making the case for an effective replacement of EU funding that supports equality and human rights.
The report finds:
- The EU provided billions of pounds of investment for human rights and equality projects between 2007-2013 and from 2014-20. Programmes in the European Social Fund (ESF) and European Regional Development Fund with a strong focus on equality and human rights are worth over £5.55 billion to the UK
- There are as yet no plans to replace the separate Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) programme. A third of REC-funded projects directly support people in the UK
The report makes twenty recommendations for post-Brexit funding, including:
- Provide successor funding, both for the ESF and other funds critical for equality and human rights including REC
- Build equality drivers into all future funds, including the proposed Shared Prosperity Fund
- Ensure that equality and human rights remain part of domestic priorities in practice, and that domestic priorities take devolution into account
- Facilitate networks and transnational working.
Image credit: Matti Mattila, Flickr