Guidelines on Gender Mainstreaming in Alternative Development

UN Gender Policy
Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications of any planned action for both women and men. The strategy seeks to ensure that women and men benefit equally by integrating their experiences and concerns into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.
Background
In the early 1990s UNODC Alternative Development Projects began to include a women and development component. Gradually it became clear that by treating women as special beneficiaries in alternative development projects, women's issues often became mere appendages to development interventions. While the current policy environment advocates involving women, it does not necessarily promote gender mainstreaming in policy programmes, project planning and implementation. In line with the mandate given in the Action Plan, UNODC is making an effort to improve the gender focus of alternative development projects. The guidelines on Gender Mainstreaming in Alternative Development are the first step towards this goal.
Experiences in the field
The guidelines are based on the findings and lessons learned regarding women's issues and gender mainstreaming in selected UNODC alternative development projects. Gender experts have studied project documents and visited project sites in Bolivia, Laos, Pakistan and Peru. During the course of field visits, current practices, barriers and constraints with respect to gender were assessed.
Goals
Based on the findings of the expert mission and the outcomes of a gender workshop at UNODC Headquarters in Vienna, a number of goals have been adopted that apply to UNODC Alternative Development programmes:
To provide equitable access to alternative development resources and opportunities to both individuals and groups of women and men.
To take measures to ensure women and men's equitable access to and full participation in power structures and decision-making in alternative development programmes.
To contribute to the UN goal of reaching gender equality in staffing, particularly in higher management positions.
To include gender assessment as part of the situation analysis for each alternative development project document.
To generate and disseminate gender-disaggregated data through monitoring and evaluation of alternative development projects.
To define the implementation and monitoring requirements concerning gender in the contractual agreements with executing, implementing and cooperating agencies.
Implementation
UNODC provides the following recommendations for implementation of gender mainstreaming in four key areas:
UNODC policy and operations at the country level: Surveys on the drug situation, country profiles documents and other basic documents should contain information on the gender situation. Gender disaggregated data should be part of standard reporting requirements.
Alternative development strategies and business plans: Identification of priorities and alternative development strategies should be based on gender disaggregated data collected in the preparation of Country Profiles or when conducting drug surveys.
Formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of UNODC alternative development programmes and programme modules: For each step of the project cycle a list of key questions has to be addressed to ensure gender mainstreaming.
UNODC staffing policy and management of alternative development projects: Gender awareness should be improved through training of target groups of villagers, government counterparts at district and provincial levels, project staff and visiting consultants. Gender focal points could also be established in selected field offices.
DEFINITION OF GENDER MAINSTREAMING
The concept of bringing gender issues into the mainstream of society was clearly established as a global strategy for promoting gender equality in the Platform for Action adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing (China) in 1995. It highlighted the necessity to ensure that gender equality is a primary goal in all area(s) of social and economic development. In July 1997, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) defined the concept of gender mainstreaming as follows:

"Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in any area and at all levels. It is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres, so that women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal of mainstreaming is to achieve gender equality."
Mainstreaming includes gender-specific activities and affirmative action, whenever women or men are in a particularly disadvantageous position. Gender-specific interventions can target women exclusively, men and women together, or only men, to enable them to participate in and benefit equally from development efforts. These are necessary temporary measures designed to combat the direct and indirect consequences of past discrimination.
Transformation by Mainstreaming
Mainstreaming is not about adding a "woman's component" or even a "gender equality component" into an existing activity. It goes beyond increasing women's participation; it means bringing the experience, knowledge, and interests of women and men to bear on the development agenda.
It may entail identifying the need for changes in that agenda. It may require changes in goals, strategies, and actions so that both women and men can influence, participate in, and benefit from development processes. The goal of mainstreaming gender equality is thus the transformation of unequal social and institutional structures into equal and just structures for both men and women. Basic Principles of Mainstreaming
Responsibility for implementing the mainstreaming strategy is system-wide, and rests at the highest levels within agencies, according to Carolyn Hannan, Director of the UN Division for the Advancement of Women. Other principles include: • Adequate accountability mechanisms for monitoring progress need to be established. • The initial identification of issues and problems across all area(s) of activity should be such that gender differences and disparities can be diagnosed. • Assumptions that issues or problems are neutral from a gender-equality perspective should never be made.
• Gender analysis should always be carried out.
• Clear political will and allocation of adequate resources for mainstreaming, including additional financial and human resources if necessary, are important for translation of the concept into practice.
• Gender mainstreaming requires that efforts be made to broaden women's equitable participation at all levels of decision-making.
• Mainstreaming does not replace the need for targeted, women-specific policies and programmes, and positive legislation; nor does it do away with the need for gender units or focal points.