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Government institutions are accountable for integrating gender equality into policy making

 

SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

  • Do legal and policy documents that govern public institutions state concrete objectives for integrating gender perspectives in policies and services?
  • Have institutions developed action plans at the institution level to implement the government-wide gender equality policy and monitor organisational performance?
  • Have institutions the capacity, support mechanisms (e.g., gender advisors, gender focal points, gender units) and resources to integrate gender equality perspectives in their daily policy and programme related activities?
  • Are senior management and staff members held accountable for integrating gender equality perspectives in their daily policy and programme related activities?

 

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

 

Achieving gender equality is a shared responsibility: In addition to central gender equality institutions (see section above for more information on the roles and responsibilities of central gender equality institutions) all government institutions and agencies must fulfil their role in advancing gender equality. As a first step in effective governance of gender equality, Centre of Government institutions (e.g., the Cabinet Office, Ministries of Finance) can be mandated to verify and ensure that line ministries and agencies mainstream gender in their policies, initiatives and budgets. Line ministries and agencies can be held responsible for both promoting gender equality policies and mainstreaming gender equality within their sphere of activities, policies and budgets.

Undertaking an assessment of institutions' standing for implementing gender mainstreaming (generally with the support of central gender equality institutions or gender experts) is an important step in fulfilling their responsibility for achieving gender equality results. This assessment can also help establishing a baseline for future monitoring of gender mainstreaming performance. Based on these assessments, institutions can then develop the most appropriate work plan and tools to implement and monitor gender mainstreaming. During the planning and implementation phase, it is crucial to ensure that gender equality objectives are governed based on how government institutions and work plans are generally governed. For example, in Sweden, a 2015 audit of Sweden National Audit Office (NAO) on sustainability of gender equality initiatives found that ''(…) one difficulty in achieving sustainable results is that the Government’s specific gender policy initiative in many respects has been separately organised in relation to the agencies’ ordinary operations." The same audit also showed that gender equality results that are linked to or built into the ordinary system or structures as a rule have better chances of becoming permanent.

Gender equality and mainstreaming support mechanisms can help government institutions in fulfilling their responsibility for gender equality and mainstreaming. While these support mechanisms can be in various forms (e.g., gender focal points, gender units, gender advisors, etc), their effectiveness will depend on their high-level location within their institution, functions, resources and reporting mechanisms. For example, gender mainstreaming efforts within institutions will be more effective if focal points are tasked to support senior managers in carrying out their responsibility to implement gender mainstreaming in the substantive work programme as opposed to giving exclusive responsibility of gender equality to the focal points. An important dimension in ensuring the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming efforts is to make a clear demarcation between gender mainstreaming support units at the sectoral policy level and at the level of human resources management (e.g., tasked with ensuring gender balance in recruitment and promotion, policies related to work-life balance, ensuring a gender-sensitive work environment, etc). Confusion of these two different positions can seriously hamper the realisation of gender equality through public policies and services. Finally, gender equality competences should be developed and fostered among policy makers and within government at all levels, to ensure sustainability and effectiveness in the implementation of a country’s gender equality and mainstreaming strategy.

ACTIONS TO CONSIDER

  • Ensure Centre of Government institutions are committed to the country’s gender equality and mainstreaming strategy and they are able and willing to challenge line ministries and agencies which are not mainstreaming gender in their work;
  • State concrete gender equality and mainstreaming objectives in documents that govern institutions;
  • Translate the whole-of-government gender equality objectives to ministerial and departmental plans to outline how ministries contribute to its achievement
  • Introduce specific indicators (at performance and outcome levels) to ensure that senior management holds the responsibility for achievement of institutions' gender mainstreaming objectives;
  • Ensure that gender support mechanisms bring questions of gender equality and mainstreaming to the executive table and support the executive in exercising its leadership on this issue;
  • Incorporate gender equality objectives in the individual staff performance assessment objectives
  • Clearly demarcate responsibilities between providing support for internal gender mainstreaming (e.g., in human resources management) and gender mainstreaming at the policy level (e.g., gender mainstreaming in policies, budgets, services);
  • Provide line ministries and agencies with sufficient capacity (e.g. trainings and knowledge) and resources (budget and staff) to implement gender initiatives and analyse the gender impacts of their work
  • Ensure gender-disaggregated statistics and data are collected on the impact of policies and programmes on gender equality
  • Promote the development of gender competence at all levels of government through trainings, awareness campaigns and dissemination of data and information on gender impact of public governance and policies
  • Gender expertise – also in specific policy areas (i.e. gender in justice; gender in agriculture; etc.) – is available and accessible to support gender mainstreaming efforts across government institutions.

 

PITFALLS TO AVOID

  • Line ministries, gender focal points, Centre of Government institutions do not have clear roles, mandates, resources and capacity for implementing gender mainstreaming and equality within key institutional actors;
  • The whole-of-government gender equality objectives are not translated into ministerial and departmental plans;
  • The whole-of-government gender equality objectives are translated into ministerial and departmental plans but they are not (adequately) resourced and they are not linked to staff (including senior managers) performance indicators and outcome indicators;
  • Necessary gender expertise is not available/accessible;
  • Line ministries and other government institutions targeted with gender mainstreaming do not collect data on the gender impact of policies and programmes.

 

COUNTRY EXAMPLES

 

Spain

The Institute of Women and for Equal Opportunities (IWEO), created by Law in 1983, has among its duties, to encourage and carry out cross-sectional implementation of the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination.
In order to make gender mainstreaming part of all public policies, the Spanish Act 3/2007 of 22 March 2007 for effective equality between women and men (Spanish Equality Act), introduced the cross-sectional dimension of the principle of equal treatment and opportunities which must inform actions taken by all public authorities and be integrated by public Administrations in the adoption and implementation of their legislative provisions and in the definition and budgeting of public policies. To ensure effective gender mainstreaming, article 77 of the Spanish Equality Act, created equality units in all ministries. All ministries, within the scope of their areas of competence, assign to a single management body duties relating to equality between women and men, particularly:

  • providing gender-relevant statistical information;
  • conducting surveys to foster equality between women and men in ministries’ areas of activity;
  • providing advice to the Ministry’s competent bodies for the elaboration of the gender impact assessment report; improving employees’ understanding of the scope and meaning of the principle of gender equality by proposing activities;
  • overseeing compliance of this Act and the effective implementation of the principle of equality.


Spain’s Instituto de la Mujer y para la Igualdad de Oportunidades (Women’s Institute and for Equal Opportunities) has trained staff who work in equality units which are now the focal points for monitoring the progress of gender equality and mainstreaming measures across government.


Source: OECD (2014), Women, Government and Policy Making in OECD Countries: Fostering Diversity for Inclusive Growth