Definitions

CDG-topborder1

Gender Mainstreaming The Challenge - The Benefits - Definitions

Definitions

Gender Mainstreaming Mandate from the Beijing Platform for Action

“….governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes, so that, before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men, respectively.”

see paragraphs:

79     education
105   health
123   violence against women
141    conflict
189    power and decision-making
202    institutional mechanisms
229    human rights
238    media
252    management of natural resources
273    children and youth

Platform for Action, Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995

United Nations Definition of Gender Mainstreaming:

Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in any area and at all levels.

It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated.

The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.

E/1997/66. Section IA. Adopted by ECOSOC 18 July, 1997

The Swedish International Development Agency

(Gender mainstreaming is) a strategy that situates gender equality issues at the center of broad policy decisions, institutional structures and resource allocations, and includes women’s views and priorities in decision-making about development goals and processes”.

Mainstreaming: a strategy for achieving equality between women and men. SIDA 1996 P.3

The Commonwealth Secretariat

Gender Mainstreaming is one of the key strategies advanced the in the (Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development 1995). Gender mainstreaming involves a number of activities:

	Forging and strengthening the political will to achieve gender equality and equity, at the local, national, regional and global levels;
	Incorporating a gender perspective into the planning processes of all ministries and departments of government, particularly those concerned with macroeconomic and development planning, personnel policies and management, and legal affairs;
	Integrating a gender perspective into all phases of sectoral planning cycles, including the analysis, development, appraisal, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, programmes and projects;
	Using sex-disaggregated data in statistical analysis to reveal how policies impact differently on women and men;
	Increasing the numbers of women in decision-making positions in government and the private and public sectors;
	Providing tools and training in gender awareness, gender analysis and gender planning to decision-makers, senior managers and other key personnel; and
	Forging linkages between governments, the private sector, civil society and other stakeholders to ensure a co-ordination of efforts and resources.

Because gender mainstreaming is a broad spectrum strategy that cuts across government sectors and other social partners, it requires strong leadership and coordination.

Gender Management System Handbook. 1999 P.10

American Council for Voluntary International Action (InterAction)

(Our) experience ….. consistently highlights the significance of four important elements in transforming gender blind organizations into gender responsive ones:

	Political Will – evidence when top-level leadership publicly support gender integration, effectively communicate the organization’s commitment to gender equity, commit staff time and financial resources, and institute needed policies and procedures.
	Technical Capacity – evidenced in increased staff skills in gender analysis, adoption of new systems for gender disaggregated data, and the development of gender-sensitive tools and procedures;
	Accountability – evidenced in institutional incentive and requirement systems that encourage and reinforce behaviours within individuals and within and organization as a whole; and
	Organizational Culture – evidenced in a gender-balanced staff, a gender sensitive governance structure, and the equal valuing of women and men’s working styles.

The Gender Audit: a process for organizational self-assessment and action planning. 1999. p.2

The UNDP Capacity Building Programme for Gender Mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming is putting policy into practice. It is taking account of gender equality concerns in all policy, programme, administrative and financial activities, and in organizational procedures, thereby contributing to a profound organizational transformation.

Specifically, gender mainstreaming means ensuring that staff fully understand the relevant policy and its context, and have the capacity to implement it, in order that they can bring the outcomes of gender sensitive policy analysis, including socio-economic analysis, into the core decision-making processes of the organization.

UNDP Learning and Information Pack on

Gender Mainstreaming, 2001. p.16

Council of Europe

Gender mainstreaming is the (re)organisation, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making.

Gender mainstreaming means that gender equality becomes a full part of common policies. It implies a broader and more comprehensive definition of gender equality, giving value to differences and diversity. At the same time, it stresses the need to (re)organize, improve, develop and evaluate policy processes and thus make it possible to challenge the male bias that characterizes society and the structural character of gender inequality.

Final Report of the Group of Specialists on Mainstreaming, Strasbourg, 1999.