Are you looking for ways to bring a greater focus on equity into your decision-making?
Equity Impact Assessments can help!
An
Equity Impact Assessment
is a set of questions to help groups examine how their current or proposed policies, practices, programs, budgets and decisions impact equity. Equity Impact Assessments can be used to guide decision-making, raise public awareness about local equity conditions, promote advocacy, and improve partnerships between sectors.
Example Equity Impact Assessment Questions
- What potential positive and negative impacts does this proposed policy, budget, practice, or plan create?
- Which local groups of people or neighborhoods will be most advantaged and disadvantaged by these impacts?
- How can you ensure positive impacts and eliminate or minimize negative impacts for those experiencing the greatest inequities?
Why use Equity Impact Assessments?
Many routine policies and decision-making processes unintentionally create advantages for some and marginalize or produce disadvantages for others.
Unless we intentionally consider how our planning and decision-making processes could advantage and disadvantage people in the community, we risk perpetuating local inequities. An Equity Impact Assessments can help by providing practical questions you can use in any planning or decision-making processes to ensure efforts are promoting equity.
