The objective of the EQUAL Community Initiative is to develop new methods for preventing social exclusion, discrimination and inequality on the labour market through transnational cooperation. This is linked to the improvement of employment and human resources, with special attention to supporting the entry into working life of those in the weakest labour market position and the difficult-to-place unemployed. One major goal is to formulate measures for increasing the competence, life management, life quality and independence of individuals.

In the programme period from 2000 to 2006, the EQUAL Community Initiative will be run nationwide in Finland with the exception of Åland.

The EQUAL Community Initiative is being run through Development Partnerships where various actors pool resources. The partners identify a discrimination and inequality problem under a particular theme involving groups in the weakest labour market position. The aim is to find a workable solution to the problem by adopting a comprehensive and innovative approach.

A Development Partnership is a project which is delimited in its goals, functions and duration. It is based on a working programme and an agreement between the parties involved. A project can include subprojects on individual activities related to the overall project goals.

The principle of partnership is paramount: all parties involved must be genuinely committed to cooperation and to following the jointly approved strategy in order to attain the desired goal. The steering group must include a representative of each partner and of any subprojects.

Partnerships can be regional or sector-specific, depending on their goals. In regional partnerships, the parties in a certain region (a city, a rural area, a local administrative district or a commuting area) pool their resources to solve a shared problem. In sector-specific partnerships, the parties act together to eliminate inequality and discrimination in a particular field of business. Sector-specific partnerships can also focus on a specific target group.

The partnerships are based on far-reaching networks, with the aim of combining viewpoints to find new methods. They also involve parties important for achievement of the goals in each particular case, such as NGOs, labour market organizations, companies (particularly SMEs), local and regional authorities, educational institutions and research institutions. Development Partnerships are demand-driven, responding to the real needs of target groups, employers and working communities. The initiative’s aim is to ensure that those who really are in the weakest position on the labour market benefit from it.

Transnational cooperation between Member States is a fundamental part of the EQUAL initiative. The purpose of transnational cooperation is to generate added value and new viewpoints for partners working with the same or a similar problem.

The focus in cooperation is on shared development and personnel exchange. Partners can exchange information on their projects, their expertise and their goals, pursuing similar objectives independently.