Impact Assessment in the German federal states

The methods of Impact Assessment (IA) are being used ever more widely in most federal states in Germany. Some federal states have created organizational units to deal with specific issues regarding IA. In Bavaria, for example, IA has been adopted in the State Chancellery as part of the norm checking process, although it is predominantly cost impact that is assessed. Brandenburg [German link] has decided in favor of establishing IA in a norm checking department in the State Chancellery. Berlin [German link] has set up an independent norm checking commission. In North-Rhine Westphalia, the Scientific Service of the State Parliament administration deals with IA in association with the German Administrative Sciences College in Speyer. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has decided to establish a norm checking department in the Justice Ministry which is intended, according to the state government’s Draft Law concerning Modernization of the Administration in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, to examine not only necessity, effectiveness, financial viability, etc., but also the impact on women and men. See p. 167 of the “Law concerning Modernization of the Administration in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern" [German link].

Some federal states have also developed their own GM tools for Gender Impact Assessments for their legislative processes.

Saxony-Anhalt is one of the first states to have developed a Gender Check in the form of a Working Aid [German link]. Every document put before the Cabinet, including legislation, must include a gender equality policy report stating whether and in what way an assessment of gender equality policy impacts has been carried out.

In Lower Saxony the “Guideline on Taking Account of the Principle of Equal Treatment of Women and Men in Cabinet Documents” [German link] (Working Aid: “Gender Mainstreaming in Cabinet Documents”) is used in prospective legislation.

In August 2002, the State of Saxony added the item “Relevance for equal treatment policy” to the Cabinet Rules of Procedure in the section “Content of Cabinet Documents” and developed an internal “Checklist for the assessment of the relevance of Cabinet documents for equal treatment policy”. You can read details of Gender Mainstreaming in Saxony’s legislation in the document “Gender Mainstreaming in the Free State of Saxony – Concept for the Implementation of Gender Mainstreaming at Various Levels and in Various Fields” [German link].

In Berlin, a cross-departmental working group has drafted a Gender Checklist [German link] and a Working Aid [German link] in the form of sample questions. According to a Senate Decision [German link] of March 8, 2005, the impact on both sexes of all Senate documents must be assessed with effect from July 1, 2005 (Gender Check).

The state of Rhineland-Palatinate has drawn up assessment criteria applicable to proposed legislation in the form of a Checklist [German link].