Transcript Gender Mainstreaming in Practice

Sharing Experiences
JPO Training Workshop, Maputo, 14 May 2009
Ondina da Barca Vieira
UNIFEM , Mozambique
Outline
 Gender at a Glance
 Concepts at a Glance – Gender and Mainstreaming
 Gender Mainstreaming in Practice – an example
 Summary of Steps to Mainstream Gender
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Concepts at a Glance - Gender (1)
 Gender discourse starts in the 80´s as opposed to Women´s
discourse (focus on women only )
 It is a relational concept dealing with issues of women and men
in which due to historical reasons the status of women remain
unchanged. Women are still in disadavantage in relation to men
with less access to development resources and benefits,
information and decision making etc
 Social construct – we are born male or female and are grown up
to become men and women with assigned roles at the
household based on men’s superiority which are transferred
into the public sphere and influence position and distribution
of resources
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Concepts at a Glance - Gender (2)
 Gender recognises that women and men have different needs and
interests which need to be addressed differently – knowing what
they are is fundamental to deliberately ensure that our
interventions have a tangible impact in promoting equality
between men and women;
 Addressing the constraints and barriers that prevent women from
fully exercising their rights, developing their potential and to
exercise duties is fundamental to achieve gender equality ;
 Ultimately, gender equality is about enabling women and men to
choose , which is what Human Development is all about!
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Human development defined as:
being “ … about creating an environment in which people can
develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in
accord with their needs and interests.”
“ Development is thus about expanding the choices people have to
lead lives that they value.”
“ Fundamental to enlarging these choices is building human
capabilities —the range of things that people can do or be in life.
The most basic capabilities for human development are to lead
long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the
resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to
participate in the life of the community. Without these, many
choices are simply not available, and many opportunities in life
remain inaccessible.” HDR 2005
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Concepts at a Glance (3) - Mainstreaming
A strategy adopted in Beijing as the primary tool for
promoting gender equality worldwide. In July 1997, the
ECOSOC defined it as:
 "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.”
a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of
women and men an integral part of the design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and
programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres.
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How to go about Supporting Mainstreaming
of Gender into a programme or sector?
DO GENDER RESPONSIVE PROGRAMMING (FORMULATION,
PLANNING, BUDGETING, MONITORING AND PROVIDE FOR
EVALUATION!)
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GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN THE MINISTRY
OF INTERIOR – An example
1) Familiarized with the key internationsl (global and regional),
national and sector gender tools :
UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination Against Women; the reports submitted by the
country and the concluding remarks;
African Protocols, Declarations and
Constitution, National Development Plan, Government Plan
the National Gender Policy/Strategies and Plan on the
Advancement of Women. The National Plans in particular
follow a model where the main gender related priorities per
sector/area are identified
Sector gender policy, strategy and action plans
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THE STEPS TO GENDER MAINSTREAMING (1)
2) Through step 1, identified The gender issue which fall
within the mandate of our “agency” in the sector:
In our case, according to a UN supported Government
Survey on Violence Against Women in 2004 as well as
information and data from other sources, around two
thirds of women do experience a form of violence during
their lifetime. Only 17% of those who experienced
physical abuse reported to the police. One of the
reasons behind the under reporting of the cases was
the inadequacy of the police assistance – individual
safety is a right and the state has the duty to protect.
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THE STEPS TO GENDER MAINSTREAMING (2)
3) Engaged with the sector seeking to jointly identify the reasons
behind the limited services by the police:
- The services to the women victims of violence in the police stations
are provided by police officers, a large majority of which are men,
all of them not trained to adequately deal with such cases;
- The police station did not have the necessary infrastructure to
adequately assist the victims of violence (women victims of violence
reporting in the same place, as any other case; no privacy; waiting
alongside with criminals etc, etc);
- The issues where not discussed by the management because the
gender focal person had no access to the sector decision making
fora;
- Absence of an institutional framework to deal with gender issues
within the sector and, legal framework to address Violence against
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women
THE STEPS TO GENDER MAINSTREAMING (3)
4) Worked with sector to identify the actions and design a costed
action plan with a clear monitoring framework to address the
causes of the inadequate services to the victims of violence:
- Development of police protocols of assistance to women victims
of violence
- Provide on-the-job training to the police officers on human and
women´s rights and familiarize them with the protocols of
assistance
- Introduce a module on human rights and violence against women
in the police academy
- Promote women’s enrollment in the police academy
- Promote development of management skills among women to
facilitate their access to decision making positions and
development of a sector gender strategy to provide for this.
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THE STEPS TO GENDER MAINSTREAMING (4)
5)
Address the actions which fall under the mandate of your “agency”
developing a specific intervention or as part of one of the
programmes (mainstreaming). Advocate with the sister agencies to
support the implementation of the actions which falls within their
respective mandate.
In our case, we took it to support the sector through the technical
process of ensuring that the gender related actions are reflected in
the sector plans and budgets (mainstreaming) for sustainability of
the interventions in the long run.
While agencies such as UNICEF and UNDP are supporting on-the-job
training for the police officers and human rights training in the
police academy, establishment of cabinets to provide services to
victims within the police stations and special police facilities (the
short to medium term)
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Summarizing
The steps to gender mainstreaming in a programme/sector:
1) Familiarize yourself with the key gender tools
2) Through analysis of data and information on a particular
area/sectos, identify the emerging gender issues to be
addressed
3) Engage with the national partner, advocate as necessary
to identify the causes of the gender issue at stake
4) Work with the sector to identify the actions to address the
issues, develop a costed action plan and set a monitoring
framework
5) Reflect the issues into the programme/project of your
agency and link up as necessary with other agencies for
a holistic approach to the gender issue
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A word of advice …
-
Mainstreaming gender is both a technical and political issue. Seek
for technical advice while building your skills. Often you have to
advocate for gender issues and related actions to be taken on
board in
the interventions with resources allocated for
implementation of your “agency” within the agency and with the
national partners;
-
Try as much as possible not to concentrate on gender training for
bureaucrats. Prioritize actions which will result in changes in the
service delivery to women and men with potential to reduce
gender inequalities;
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Apply a capacity development approach to gender equality. CD
defined by UNDP as ‘the process through which individuals,
organizations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain the
capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives
over time”.
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And Finally Please Note that...
 Mainstreaming gender often requires interventions
beyond the mandate of your agency or your resource
envelope. In this case, always remember that you are
not alone, the UN is a family, rely on sister agencies mandates and resources (skills, competences,
resources) - to address the gender issues you identify
in a given area. Take it as an opportunity to
strengthen joint programming or programme, to
advance the UN reforms.
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UNCT Performance Indicators for
Gender Equality and Women’s
Empowerment – Gender Scorecard
 An assessment of Gender Mainstreaming at the level
of the UNCT
 Mozambique was the first country to conduct this
exercise
 Ground breaking work
 Overall scoring was 3 in a scale 0-5
 Areas with lowest scores: Partnership and Policies and
Capacities
 An accomplisment of the UNCT as a whole
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