Gender Mainstreaming: Making It Happen

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• Gender Mainstreaming Making It Happen

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Why are we concerned with gender equality?

• Made progress on womens capabilitieseducation
  and health
• By 2004, two thirds of 181 countries achieved
  gender parity in primary school enrollment
• Since 1970, average life expectancy for women
  increased by between 15 and 20 years in
  developing countries

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Why are we concerned with gender equality?

• Much less progress on womens access to economic
  opportunities
• In low-income countries, womens employment rate
  shrank from 53 in 1980 to 49 in 2005, while
  mens employment rate remained steady at 86.
• In all developing countries, women still earn on
  average about 22 less than men after taking into
  account differences in observed skills.

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Why are we concerned with gender equality?

• Development more effective by integrating gender
  issues and concerns
• Engaging women as agents of change benefits women
  and promotes development
• It is both just and fair

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What is gender mainstreaming?

• Gender mainstreaming (GM) adopted at the Beijing
  Conference 1995
• GM encompasses all aspects of planning,
  implementing and monitoring any social,
  political, or economic action.

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What is gender mainstreaming?

• Commonly used definition (UN ECOSOC1997)
• Mainstreaming..is the process of assessing the
  implications for women and men of any planned
  action, including legislation, policies, or
  programmes, in all areas and at all levelsThe
  ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.

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Gender mainstreaming in practice

• Common understanding of the term is that involves
  changes in both
• internal organizational processes and
• external operational procedures
• Focus in the first decade mainly on internal
  processesless on operations

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An alternate approach in gender mainstreaming

• Pragmatic, entrepreneurial, results-based
• Strategic, selective and relevant
• Focuses on operations programs
• Aims at obtaining results on the groundwhat can
  be done to meet needs of low-income people

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An alternate approach in gender mainstreaming

• Strategic actions
• focused on relevant and potential high-impact
  issues
• driven, not by process of mainstreaming, but by
  the operational issue/problem and need to find
  solutions for it

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An alternate approach in gender mainstreaming

• Strategic actions
• focused on relevant and potential high-impact
  issues
• driven, not by process of mainstreaming, but by
  the operational issue/problem and need to find
  solutions for it

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An alternate approach in gender mainstreaming

• Requires gender expertise to
• determine course of action to address the
  selected operational issue
• offer expert issue and/or sector-specific gender
  recommendations
• provide hands-on technical assistance
• design ME systems to identify problems
  trouble-shoot mid-stream, document impacts and
  results

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An alternate approach in gender mainstreaming

• Also requires
• accountability for results/impacts ME process
  and outcome indicators
• leadershipwill, commitment and openness to
  innovation

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Conclusion

• Alternate approach different in focus
• On operations/outcomes
• Selective about development issues/problems
• Generates tailored gender responses
• On development effectivenessmaking a difference
  in the lives of low-income women and men