Expert Group Meeting discusses approaches to gender mainstreaming in development programming

In accordance with the proposed programme budget of UN Women for the biennium 2012-2013, approved by the General Assembly, the UN Women Coordination Division organized an international Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on “Approaches to Gender Mainstreaming in Development Programming: Being Strategic and Achieving Results in an Evolving Development Context” (30 April-3 May 2013, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic). 

Seven external gender experts and 20 gender specialists of the UN system (FAO, ILO, UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, WFP, UNAIDS, UN-DESA, the World Bank, and UN-Women HQ and UN Women country staff) attended and actively participated in the EGM. Participants prepared substantive and analytical papers related to gender mainstreaming throughout the programming cycle.

The main purpose of the meeting was to articulate new strategic directions of gender mainstreaming in the context of development programming at country level for the UN system, the development community, Member States and CSOs and to establish UN Women’s vision in this area. The EGM focused on proven as well as innovative ways to meaningfully, strategically and sustainably orient policy priorities and programmatic responses related to gender equality and women’s empowerment in national development strategies and in thematic sector policies and programmes.

The various sessions of the EGM covered:

• The interface of gender equality programming with the global policy context and the development cooperation environment
• Systematically applying strategic planning and programme approach principles for gender mainstreaming in national development strategies
• Improving the relevance and types of analysis for gender equality programming
• Integrating gender equality in programme-results-frameworks and evaluations
• Allocating budget for substantive gender mainstreaming in development programming; and  gender-responsive budget initiatives

On the basis of the EGM conclusions, UN Women is currently preparing a policy overview of gender mainstreaming in development programming at the national level, in consultation with a network of UN gender focal points (IANWGE and UNDG), as an update to the 2002 UN overview note on gender mainstreaming (https://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/e65237.pdf).

• Expert group meeting report
• For the agenda, background papers and experts papers, stakeholders can visit the UN Women extranet for this meeting