Innovation Case Study: Mitchell Shire Council Gender Impact Assessment App
Mitchell Shire Council
Powering Gender Impact Assessments Through Smart Local Government Tech
Launched in November 2023, Mitchell Shire’s Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) App supports compliance with the Gender Equality Act 2020. Built on PowerApps for mobile and desktop, it streamlines assessments and approvals. Now embedded in Council decision-making, it is improving gender equity outcomes and is shared widely across Victorian local governments and major organisations, promoting broader adoption statewide.
2025 MAVlab Innovation Awards Finalist:
The Smooth Sailing Award for Service Optimisation and CX, supported by LANDATA® operated by SERV
Project statistics:
- Initial project team: 3 people including SharePoint Administrator, Gender Equality Officer and Community Development Team Leader
- Additional involvement:
- Council’s Gender Equality Action Group (5 members) supported with app testing
- 60 staff in senior leadership roles across the organisation submitted feedback to evolve the app during a pilot phase.
- Timing and milestones: Idea originated after implementation of Council’s Gender Equality Action Plan, co-development began early 2022. The internal launch was late 2022 followed by extensive user testing mid-2023.
- Official launch: November 2023.
Project goals:
- Improve gender equality outcomes through evidence-based decision-making
- Streamline data collection and analysis of gender impacts across Council services
- Ensure compliance with the Gender Equality Act 2020
- Embed inclusive design and gender-lens processes across departments
- Empower staff with accessible, user-friendly tools
- And, foster collaboration with external partners and the wider sector.
Challenge and context:
The Gender Equality Act 2020 requires Victorian councils and other defined entities to assess the gendered and diverse impacts of policies, programs and services on the everyday life of community. However, early implementation revealed fragmented, manual processes that lacked consistency, transparency and accessibility across departments.
Council faced challenges in understanding when and how to conduct Gender Impact Assessments, leading to gaps in compliance and diminished impact for diverse community groups — particularly women, non-binary people and culturally diverse residents. The challenge was compounded by limited resources, time constraints, varying levels of digital literacy among staff, and the need for a scalable, intuitive solution.
After multiple discussions internally and with surrounding LGAs, Council recognised that the same challenges were being felt across the sector: outdated templates, inconsistent processes, and time- and resource-intensive workflows. As Mitchell is a growth council and resourcing is limited, the original process wasn’t feasible. It became clear that innovation was needed to operationalise gender equity at scale by embedding it in everyday processes without adding administrative burden.
Innovation and solution:
Council developed the Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) App, the first custom-built digital solution of its kind in Victorian local government. The app was co-designed with internal staff, community development officers and Council’s internal Gender Equality Action Group, and provides a digitised way to complete the Gender Impact Assessment process.
It includes guided questions and help sheets, automated workflow approvals, a save-and-return feature, and educational prompts, making gender equity considerations seamless and accessible for all employees. The app ensures compliance with the Gender Equality Act while enhancing accountability and transparency.
In collaboration with Women’s Health Goulburn North East (WHGNE), and in consultation with Council’s internal Gender Equality Action Group, GIA workshops were delivered to Council’s Senior Leadership Team. These sessions included training in gender equality and the link to preventing gender-based family violence. Council recognised the importance of a top-down approach to building knowledge of the GE Act and the obligations involved, creating a leadership team that is proactive and well-informed about processes to implement across their departments.
Alongside the GIA App, a GIA intranet page has been developed to support employees. The intranet page holds case studies, videos, datasets and information sheets, a “Do I need a GIA?” flowchart and the GIA criteria document. It also hosts the Completing Gender Impact Assessments learning module, which was co-designed with WHGNE to align with Council’s processes.
The app’s mobile-friendly design ensures it can be used across community and office environments, making it highly inclusive. This approach moves beyond static templates or training alone, embedding equity into everyday action.
More broadly, the app and intranet page have paved the way for other defined entities under the GE Act to align their internal processes for ease of use and successful implementation. The Gender Equality Officer has met with over 35 defined entities to share Mitchell’s processes and implementation journey — from planning through to delivery — including best-practice approaches to gender equality work more broadly.
Its success has also inspired a broader roadmap, including future modules for cultural safety and disability inclusion, demonstrating how Council technology can be implemented successfully to support compliance, achieve transformative impacts and strengthen community and partnership trust.
Impact and outcomes:
Since launch, the GIA App has transformed how Council approaches gender equity:
- A large number of completed GIAs across a diverse range of Council departments, including Social Planning, Governance, Leisure Services and Maternal and Child Health.
- 56 Senior Leaders attending in-person GIA workshops, and 77 employees completing the online learning module Completing Gender Impact Assessments.
- Recognition by the Municipal Association of Victoria with a Highly Commended Award.
- Shared with 66% of Victorian LGAs, eight health organisations (including the Royal Women’s Hospital), a water authority, the TAFE sector, TAC, the Victorian Building Authority and other defined entities under the Gender Equality Act 2020.
- Promoted across the Victorian local government sector.
- A recent GIA conducted during development of the new Council Plan ensured the integration of the strategy “Prevent family violence and violence against women” by identifying opportunities to challenge gender stereotypes, promote respectful relationships and embed primary prevention across all Council priorities and actions.
Internally, the increase in completed GIAs shows that employees feel more confident in producing successful and well-considered assessments that reflect the social impacts on community.
The app provides opportunities for data insights to inform Council decisions, budgets and strategic planning, ensuring greater inclusivity and transparency.
The work completed across the organisation — including the app, knowledge building and advocacy — ultimately has a flow-on effect for priority community groups, enhancing the daily lives of everyone. The more GIAs completed through the app, the better and fairer the outcomes become across communities. Examples include sensory guides and social stories for physical spaces and groups across Council, inclusive and welcoming spaces at youth events, and women-only swim programs at leisure centres.
Council will continue to update the GIA App to align with emerging priorities under the Gender Equality Act and continue sharing the resources developed with other defined entities under the Act.
Scalability:
The app has been shared with a large number of defined entities via MAV networks and Communities of Practice, including the Gender Equality Officer presenting on two separate panel discussions to promote the app.
The GIA App was designed in PowerApps (making it easy to share) with a streamlined approach to completing and reporting on GIAs. It can be easily adapted for other local governments and defined entities to reflect their department structures, data sets and help sheets.
It supports broader UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly:
Goal 5: Gender Equality – The GIA App supports Council more broadly with the implementation of the GEAP 2021–2025 and will continue to build and promote equitable practices across policies, programs and services to improve the daily lives of community.
Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities – The GIA App, intranet page, learning management system and help sheets allow users to think beyond gendered impacts and consider the diverse needs of community. The long-term impacts of internal capacity building and cultural change will progress equitable service delivery and reduce inequities faced by community members.
Since sharing the app, other LGAs are progressing their own versions, drawing on Council’s implementation processes and learnings to apply within their own organisations. Council is proud of its efforts to progress lasting change and support other entities in advancing their own equity efforts.
Its success has also inspired a broader roadmap, including future modules for cultural safety and disability inclusion, demonstrating how Council technology can be implemented successfully to support compliance, achieve transformative impacts and strengthen community and partnership trust. Council has committed to sharing learnings and contributing to sector-wide digital equity through cross-council/entity collaboration and open knowledge exchange.