SIMONA TOPOLINJAK

After graduating with a degree in history and political science, she enrolled in postgraduate studies in political science at the Faculty of Social Sciences and worked as a young researcher under the mentorship of Dr. Danica Fink Hafner. In 2011, she received her PhD from the FDV on factors in the implementation of EU policies in the field of gender equality.

Since 2013, she have been employed by the City of Ljubljana in the workplace of the Under-Secretary of state at the Department of Health and Social Care. Covering various things, her last major project was the preparation of a new social welfare development strategy in MOL from 2021 to 2027, which has just been adopted by the City Council. In 2014 she was appointed equal opportunities coordinator in MOL. In this way, she coordinate the preparation and implementation of the activities of the Action Plan “Gender Equality in MOL”. Although mol already had good gender equality action plan (e.g. quality childcare, quality services for the needy) before the adoption of the Action Plan the adoption of the Action Plan (2016-2018, second 2019-2022) to improve the situation of women and to establish a gender equality society. A number of improving the situation of women and establishing a gender equality society. A number of awareness-raising activities were carried out, and in 2018 MOL also published a booklet For Gender Equality in Ljubljana, where she contributed most of the text.

In the field of LGBT+ she coordinate the LGBT-friendly project, which aims primarily to work towards awareness raising. She participate in the publication of the booklet Rainbow Ljubljana, which was published in MOL in cooperation with the NGO. She is a MOL representative in the rainbow cities network.

For LGBT+ activities, MOL also received two awards, namely the European Public Sector Award (EPSA 2015) and the Emerging Europe Awards, where their LGBT project was kindly recognised as the best equality-friendly initiative of 2019.

She present good practices to MOL at various conferences at home and abroad.