What is Gender Mainstreaming?
Gender mainstreaming has been adopted internationally as a strategy to achieve gender equality. It involves the integration of a gender perspective in the preparation, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, with an overall aim to promote equality between women and men and to fight against all forms of gender-based discrimination.
During the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, gender mainstreaming was recognised and highlighted as a critical and strategic approach to achieving gender equality commitments. The resulting Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action mandates all stakeholders in development policies and programmes, including UN organisations, member States and civil society actors, to take action in this regard.
The 1997 agreed conclusions of the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) defined gender mainstreaming as: “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 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 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.”
As such, gender equality is the overarching and long-term development goal, while gender mainstreaming is a set of specific, strategic approaches as well as technical and institutional processes adopted to achieve that goal. Gender mainstreaming integrates gender equality in national public and private organizations, in central or local policies, and in services and sectoral programmes. In the long run, it aims to transform discriminatory social institutions, laws, cultural norms and community practices, such as those limiting women’s access to property rights or restricting their access to public space.
Mainstreaming Gender within ESCAP
ESCAP continues to promote gender equality and the human rights and empowerment of women and girls by promoting gender mainstreaming through the full implementation of the System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-SWAP 2.0). Particular focus is put on gender-responsive performance management and strategic planning, and enhancing the collection, availability and use of sex-disaggregated data.
Commitment to gender equality remains a priority at the highest level of ESCAP. At the global level, gender equality considerations are regularly mainstreamed into all key decision-making bodies, from the Senior Management Group to the Executive Committee convened on a weekly basis, as well as into flagship initiatives such as the “Call to Action for Human Rights” and the Common Agenda. Moreover, ensuring adequate funding for gender-related programming is the key objective of the High-level Task Force on Financing for Gender Equality.
Our Work on Gender Mainstreaming
At ESCAP, we are committed to mainstreaming gender in the work of all our divisions, subregional offices and regional institutions, as well as in our organisational culture.
The ESCAP Gender Equality Policy (2019-2023) details ESCAP’s commitment to the realisation of gender equality and the empowerment of women in all its areas of work and in the equal representation of women in its staff. The Policy is accompanied by the ESCAP Gender Equality Implementation Plan (2019-2023) which aims to operationalize policies and commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women. The plan outlines the responsibility and accountability mechanisms to implement ESCAP’s policies and commitments. The Policy and its accompanying Gender Equality Implementation Plan have been fully aligned with the UN System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Complementing the Gender Equality Policy, ESCAP developed its Gender Parity Implementation Plan (2021-2023) to achieve equal representation of women and men in ESCAP.
ESCAP continues to regularly monitor and report on the implementation of its gender equality policy. Following the UN-SWAP requirements, ESCAP ranks its activities according to the Performance Indicators that are common to the UN system. In line with the UN-SWAP 2.0, the ESCAP Report for 2023 reflects key results contributing to the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The summary, analysis and key insights from this report are included in the ESCAP UN-SWAP 2.0 Report Card.
Moreover, ESCAP reports annually on the gender mainstreaming efforts made by its different divisions, sub-regional offices and regional institutions. Our latest Progress Report on Gender Mainstreaming thus highlights the institutionalized policies, mechanisms and plans that integrates gender mainstreaming into ESCAP’s organizational culture, structures, and processes. It also provides evidence of direct and indirect interventions promoting gender equality in its work.
Induction Modules on Gender Equality
Gender knowledge is key to promoting gender equality and the successful implementation of gender mainstreaming in Asia and the Pacific. At ESCAP, we are committed to mainstreaming gender in the work of all our divisions, subregional offices and regional institutions, as well as in our organisational culture.
To this end, we offer induction modules on gender equality to provide national and local institutions as well as any person interested in gender equality a comprehensive understanding of the principles, concepts, commitments and challenges related to gender equality in Asia and the Pacific. The induction modules aim to create awareness, foster inclusive commitments to gender equality and provide practitioners and stakeholders with a deeper understanding of gender issues.
What are the Induction Modules on Gender Equality?
The gender induction modules are 15-minute online courses that allow anyone to access insightful introductions and general knowledge of relevant topics related to gender equality and gender mainstreaming. They allow learners to access gender-related content at their pace and from anywhere at any time. Each gender induction module is interactive and includes a video or animation and audio to enhance the learning experience.
The aim of the gender induction modules is to make participants more aware of the relevance of gender in their work and to help them identify the appropriate tools to be used when mainstreaming gender.
Our gender induction modules provide participants with the relevant knowledge, skills and values that allow them to contribute to the effective implementation of the gender-mainstreaming strategy in their field, organisation, institution or country. In order to effectively mainstream gender in Asia and the Pacific, adequate theoretical knowledge about gender is key to identifying gender inequalities and gender gaps in any field of study or policy implementation.
The Asia-Pacific Gender Induction Modules serve to:
- Understand concepts and key conventions related to gender equality in Asia and the Pacific
- Explain the importance of fostering SDG 5 to promote inclusive and equitable sustainable development
- Create awareness of gender stereotypes and biased associated with gender roles
- Enhance gender knowledge to advance gender mainstreaming in policy strategies and plans at a national level
- Encourage the evaluation of national programmes from a gender perspective