African Center for Gender and Development





Gender mainstreaming programme in the ECA Introduction In 1996, as an institutional response to the Beijing and Dakar mandates and commitments to mainstream gender, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) adopted the goal of gender equality as a development objective. Gender mainstreaming became one of the primary areas in the new strategic directions for ECA. The gender policy statement of 1996 instructs all divisions to include gender perspectives in all their outputs to member States. These legal instruments guide the work of ECA Divisions and Sub-regional Offices and commit ECA to achieve identifiable and measurable gender equitable outcomes and impacts. Within ECA, the African Center for Gender and Development (ACGD) is the regional structure that deals with gender issues and the advancement of women within the United Nations system in Africa. In this capacity, it works with national and sub-regional structures engaged in the advancement of women and gender equality. The ACGD plays a catalyst role by fostering the mainstreaming of gender in the strategic orientation of ECA and its outputs and activities. To this effect, it has developed a programme for gender mainstreaming in the ECA. Objectives of the Gender Mainstreaming Programme Anxious to build the capacity of its various Divisions and Sub-regional Offices, so as to mainstream gender in all their activities, ACGD launched a special training programme in 2005, using in-depth and custom -designed training in gender analysis, and gender-aware policy and programme formulation. The ultimate goal of the Gender Mainstreaming Programme is to ensure that ECA delivers outputs and result-based accomplishments that are gender sensitive. Its specific objectives are as follows: • To sensitize staff on the importance of gender in their work and to development in Africa; • To build capacity of staff and management to gender mainstream processes, structures and outputs to member States; • To develop guidelines and checklists to assist ECA Divisions, SROs, and IDEP to gender mainstream processes and outputs to member States; • To provide technical backstopping to other divisions and SROs; • To integrate gender issues into planning, coordination and implementation frameworks in the ECA; • To enhance the capacity of Member States to track progress made in implementing conventions on gender equality and women's advancement that African countries have ratified; • To bridge the knowledge gap with regard to progress achieved in this area. Activities Under This Programme * Capacity building workshops to raise awareness of gender issues, and build capacity of staff and management in using gender-mainstreaming tools have been run for professional staff. . They provided a good opportunity to i ntroduce gender concepts and approaches, analyze ECA thematic areas from a gender perspective and discuss gender sensitive indicators based on the priority outputs of divisional programme budgets for 2006-2007. Another string of workshops will target Programme Managers and the SROs. * Assisting in producing gender mainstreaming policy and strategy for the ECA. * Producing a Gender Source Book that will comprise the following: (i) concepts and approaches on gender, (ii) framework for mainstreaming gender into ECA outputs; (iii) guidelines on gender and thematic research (covering topics like Gender, Trade and Regional integration; Gender, Economic and Social Policy; Gender and Sustainable Development; Gender and Governance; and Gender and ICT). * Producing and providing guidelines on mainstreaming gender perspectives into conferences and meetings to ensure that gender issues are addressed. * Setting up of a systematic backstopping and accountability mechanism for gender mainstreaming in ECA outputs Expected Results The Programme on gender mainstreaming will accomplish the following: • Build an institutional culture in which gender mainstreaming is part of the life of the ECA. • Develop a corporate policy and strategy that will underpin the practice of gender mainstreaming in the ECA. • Produce outputs to member States that take into account gender concerns.