UNDP Gender Equality Strategy

20082011
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are about inclusive development. Despite the progress that has been made, six out of ten of worlds poorest people are still women and girls, only 16 percent of the worlds parliamentarians are women, two thirds of all children shut outside the school gates are girls and, both in times of armed conflict and behind closed doors at home, women are still systematically subjected to violence. Gender equality and womens empowerment are human rights that lie at the heart of development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. This is why gender equality and womens empowerment are an integrating dimension of UNDPs four main areas of work, namely poverty reduction, democratic governance, crisis prevention and recovery and the environment and sustainable development. Between 2008 and 2011, UNDP will be guided by its Gender Equality Strategy, which is designed to do the following: Assist national institutions in developing countries to design their policies, plans and budgets in such a way that the needs of poor women and men, boys and girls are addressed equitably. Empower women to participate in all branches of the state, the private sector and civil society and to influence the decisions that will determine the future of their families and their countries. Support government institutions and womens organizations to collect, analyze and use better quality information and statistics on gender equality and womens empowerment, because only with the right facts can a country determine the best way to solve a problem.

The empowerment of women and achieving gender equality permeates everything we do our policies, programmes and investments
K E M A L D E R V I S , UNDP A D M I N I S T R A T O R

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UNs global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP is on the ground in 166 countries, working with people on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners. In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women.

For more information on UNDPs Gender Equality Strategy please contact us at: UNDP Gender Team Bureau for Development Policy One United Nations Plaza New York, NY, 10017 USA Tel: +1 212 906 5081 http://www.undp.org/gender

EMPOWERED and EQUAL

GENDER EQUALITY STRATEGY 20082011

United Nations Development Programme

POVERTY REDUCTION AND ACHIEVING THE MDGS

Where men and women have equal opportunities and freedom, economic growth accelerates and poverty rates drop more rapidly for everyone. Reducing inequalities between women and men is therefore critical to achieve the first MDG of cutting by half the number of people living in absolute poverty by 2015. With this aim, UNDP works with national partners to: Design national development strategies, plans and budgets that respond to the needs of both poor women and men, while helping women to better influence and shape these policies. Promote womens and girls economic rights and opportunities, including investing in womens entrepreneurship. Build capacities to address the gender dimensions of HIV/AIDS through laws, policies and budgets. Strengthen national statistical and planning offices capacity to collect, analyse and use gender statistics.

When we look at the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), theyre not just gender-related. Gender inequality is often the root cause of the problem. JOAN HOLMES, FOUNDING PRESIDENT, THE HUNGER PROJECT

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE
There are two main elements to UNDPs work when it comes to democratic governance and gender equality. Firstly, UNDP strives to ensure that women have a real voice in all governance institutions, from the judiciary to the civil service, so that they can participate equally to men in public dialogue and decision-making. Secondly, UNDP assists national partners to design public services that meet the needs of poor women and men, girls and boys equitably. From the national to the most local levels, UNDP works to: Increase the number of women in public office and enhance womens leadership by helping to reform electoral processes, make political parties more accessible and accountable to women, strengthen parliaments and the civil service, and support womens networks. Promote judicial reform to ensure equal legal protection to poor women and men. Enhance government capacity to deliver public services, especially at the local level, that benefit both poor women and men equitably. Support countries to ratify, implement, and report on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Work with regional, national and local governments, institutions and civil society organizations to reduce gender-based violence.

CRISIS PREVENTION AND RECOVERY

If a society is stable and secure it is more likely to achieve the MDGs, and in times of crisis, communities that equitably plan for and address the different needs of men and women are better prepared to recover from conflict or natural disasters. Despite the devastation than crises can wield, the period of rebuilding afterwards offers a great opportunity to create more inclusive governance institutions and to transform societies. For these reasons, UNDP has defined the following Eight Point Agenda to empower women and enhance gender equality in crisis prevention and recovery efforts: 1. Strengthen womens security in crisis: Stop violence against women. 2. Advance gender justice: Provide justice and security for women. 3. Expand womens citizenship, participation and leadership: Advance women as decision-makers. 4. Build peace with and for women: Involve women in all peace processes. 5. Promote gender equality in disaster risk reduction: Value womens knowledge and experience. 6. Ensure gender-responsive recovery: Support men and women to build back better. 7. Transform government to deliver for women: Include womens issues in the national agenda. 8. Develop capacities for social change: Work together to transform society.

Battles are fought on womens bodies as much as on battlefields. It is not so much that women are targeted in some deliberate way but their vulnerability makes them easy targets for anger, for frustration, and for people wanting to cripple or paralyze other segments of the community in which they live. K A T H L E E N C R A V E R O , UNDP S D I R E C T O R
FOR

CRISIS PREVENTION

AND

RECOVERY

ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The worlds poorest and most vulnerable people are dependent on their natural environment to earn a living and feed their families. Six out of ten of those people are girls or women, who also shoulder the burden of tilling land, grinding grain,carrying water and cooking over smoky stone fires. When natural resources are depleted, or the impacts of climate change hit, poor women use their local knowledge and experience of the environment to survive and adapt, knowledge that should be harnessed as a vital source of information to shape inclusive national environmental policies. With this in mind, UNDP works to: Support governments to ensure that the needs of both women and men are included in environment and energy policies, plans and budgets. Enhance the capacity of governments to deliver modern energy and environment services to poor women and men equitably. Help womens networks to participate effectively in the decisions taken at the national, regional and global level that affect the environment, including decisions on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Improve access to environmental finance for women entrepreneurs and community-based womens organizations. Collect and use womens local knowledge to protect, sustain and manage biodiversity and natural resources.

Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking. WANGARI MUTA MAATHAI,
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST AND

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

WINNER

TACKLING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Up to half of all women have experienced violence behind closed doors at the hands of their intimate partners, while systematic sexual violence against women has characterized almost all recent armed conflicts as a tool of terror. The problem of gender-based violence, which most often manifests itself as violence against women and girls, is pervasive in all regions of the world and remains a serious obstacle to achieving gender equality and womens empowerment. Tremendous progress has been made in establishing international standards and enacting national laws to address gender-based violence but, as of yet, no decrease is evident. The United Nations family, including UNDP, is working together through the UN Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) to fight gender-based violence, paying special attention to engaging men and boys in making violence against women something of the past.

INSIDE UNDP: A CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION

To achieve gender equality and women's empowerment, UNDP believes it is essential to bring about a cultural transformation in the way the organization conducts its own business. UNDP aims to set an example and initiate change from within by staffing equal numbers of women and men at all levels and by ensuring that the needs of women and men are addressed in the workplace and in programming. To make this happen, stronger accountability frameworks are being put in place, supported by improved knowledge sharing and communication. UNDP will track, monitor, and report on results in a clear and transparent manner.