Gender Mainstreaming in Development

Introduction:

According to the ECOSOC, gender mainstreaming is a strategy for making women's

and men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and social spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. This definition covers:

1. Process

2. Output

3. Goal

In simple, gender mainstreaming is the strategy of attaining gender equality.

Importance of Gender Mainstreaming:

1. It puts the people at the heart of the policy making.

2. It leads to the better government.

3. It involves both women and men and makes full use of human resources.

4. It makes gender equality visible in the mainstream of the society.

5. It takes into consideration of the diversity among men and women.

Conditions required for Gender Mainstreaming:

a.     Political will

b.     Specific gender equality policy

c.      Gender Disaggregated Data

d.     Gender Studies

e.     Stakeholder involvement

f.       Gender expertise

g.     Accountability mechanisms

h.     Implementation plan

i.        Resources

j.        Structures

Tools of Gender Mainstreaming

1. Define tools

a. Gender Studies

b. Gender Analysis

c. Gender impact assessment

d. Gender Stakeholders Consultations

2. Plan Tools

a. Gender Budgeting

b. Gender Procurement

c. Gender Indicators

3. Check Tools

a. Gender Monitoring

b. Gender Evaluation

4. Act tools

a. Gender Equality training

b. Gender sensitive institutional transformation

c. Gender awareness rising

d. Gender budgeting

Adopted from: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/what-is-gender-mainstreaming