Developing Dublin-Belfast links around HR issues and policy

The EQUAL Programme in Ireland proposes to develop a mainstreaming strategy in co-operation with the mainstream Northern Ireland Authorities and the Special EU Programmes Body. It is intended that North/South Co-operation will broaden the range of projects from which learning could be extracted and facilitate mutual learning through sharing of knowledge, successful practices, etc.

In light of this, Equal at Work developed links with a number of employment organisations – employers and policy makers – in Belfast. Meetings were held on an ongoing basis with representatives of Belfast City Council, the Belfast Area Partnerships, the Department for Employment and Learning, Belfast City Hospital, Royal Hospital, Futures Project, NICVA, and other organisations from the community & voluntary, public and private sectors. These links were informal and centred around the exchange of information. It was hoped that, over time, these links would be formalised and made sustainable.

In December 2002, a Joint Dublin-Belfast Working Group was established to develop informal links, based on the resources and timeframe available, and to investigate approaches and funding sources to facilitate the exchange of information on employability issues. The mission statement of this Working Group was “To identify, share and jointly promote good practice in the field of human resources with the aim of enabling equality of access to and progression in sustainable employment”.
This Working Group met every three to four months until late-2003 to progress this activity. However, as the Project was unable to access funding to support activities under this dimension of the Project, further meetings were suspended after this date.

During 2003, the Dublin-Belfast Working Group undertook to prepare a catalogue of employability projects operated by working group members and to carry out a comparative analysis of equality legislation North and South. The following documents emerged from this Working Group:

• Catalogue of Employability Projects in Belfast in 2003
• Catalogue of Employability and EQUAL Projects in Dublin & Ireland in 2003
• Summary of Equality Legislation in Northern Ireland
• Summary of Equality Legislation in the Republic of Ireland

Despite having not met since late-2003, the Project has continued to maintain its links with the Belfast Working Group through email and by attending events hosted by member organisations. Members of the Dublin-Belfast Working Group are hopeful that funding can be found at a later date, possibly under EQUAL 2, to pick up and pursue their work programme.