Inclusive National Planning

Integrating gender equality commitments into national plans builds an enabling policy environment for inclusive and sustainable development. A gender responsive national development plan mainstreams gender in the situation analysis, thematic and sectoral sections, and monitoring and evaluation framework. This requires strong alignment with national strategies and action plans on gender equality as the overarching policy and planning framework for national gender equality commitments.

Our solutions

UN Women supports countries to create gender responsive national, sectoral and local plans. This work focuses on developing and costing national action plans on gender equality to identify priority actions and quantify financial requirements for implementation. While many countries have made progress in this area, capacity strengthening is needed to maintain and strengthen the inclusion of women’s priorities at all levels of planning.

UN Women supports countries to create national action plans for gender equality based on robust gender analysis and with clear, time-bound targets. This has contributed to integration of gender equality in national development plans. In Honduras, UN Women collaborated with the National Women’s Institute and the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation to strengthen gender equality priorities in the Country Vision (2010–2038) and National Plan (2010–2022) in alignment with the Second Gender Equity and Equality Plan (2010–2022). In Senegal, UN Women supported increased alignment between the Stratégie nationale pour l’égalité et l’équité de genre (2015–2025) with the Plan Senegal Emergent (2014–2035) as well as the action plans of the Ministries of Water and Sanitation and Environment.

Costing national action plans for gender equality generates data to inform government planning and budgeting processes. In Bolivia, an eight-step costing exercise supported integration of gender equality measures and corresponding costs into sectoral operational plans and budgets in line with the national Equal Opportunities Plan (PIO). It also supported sectoral ministries to identify specific activities and indicators to drive implementation of the PIO.