1. 3rd edition of the ‘Gender Mainstreaming in Practice: a Toolkit’ comissioned. By December 2006, the draft covering implementation of gender mainstreaming in 10 steps, basic principles of gender equality, gender analysis guide and 13 policy areas in separate chapters was ready for translationinto Russian and further editing and printing processes. The process of preparing the 3rd edition was consultative, with a participation of internal and external experts: including a core team of 20 people; consultations and reading groups containing 18 BRC and BDP and BCPR as well as UNIFEM and UNFPA experts; 18 internal and external regional and thematic experts on the peer review to ensure the quality from a regional and technical perspective (experts from RC Bangkok, UNFPA, BRC, and RBAS); 40 people/institutions Cos, NGOs and experts participating in the collection of case studies and examples from the region:
2. Cooperation was set up between the Human Justice and Justice, Local Governance and Gender Sub practices to initiate sub practice collaboration and synergies. The first activity to bring the practices together was a joint sub regional community of practice event focused on practical experiences in programming efforts joining the three areas. It was hosted by the CO in Armenia in June 2006 in and included focal points from all three practice areas. Based on a demand for tools to replicate the implementations of the existing tools and scale up the efforts in the joint programming a draft toolkit to collect and distribute these was conceptualized and consulted in a workshop around the same areas in Chisinau in November 2006.
3. UNDP was on the steering committee and task force on the UNECE implemented and World Bank funded project to enhance capacities of national statistical system to develop and distribute gender statistics for policy making. UNDP has an instrumental role to ensure that the capacity building efforts link to country programmes that can work together with the NSOs on the policy side. During 2006, UNDP has participated in drafting of a training manual “developing gender statistics: A practical guide’. In collaboration with the human development sub practice a paper was given at the international working meeting in Geneva in September ‘Gender Aspects and Minority Data: An Illustrative Case of Roma Women in Southeast Europe’.
Achievements 2007
1. By the end of 2007, the gender s/p was in the process of developing a new multi-year regional project in line with drafting a new regional gender strategy, aimed at the enhancement of both UNDP and external capacities for gender mainstreaming. The formulation of the project/strategy will be finalized in early 2008.
2. A BRC-internal Gender Mainstreaming Financial Incentive Scheme was established in spring 2007 to foster the integration of gender into projects from different practice areas with technical support from the gender s/p. Due to the limited number of suitable projects that was submitted to the scheme, only one project from the poverty practice (Trade Policy for Human Development in Central Asia) could be selected. The funds were utilized to explore how trade impacts on women and men (research study).
3. The Discussion Paper on Trafficking and update of the report on Trafficking in Human Beings in the CIS, exploring trafficking and human development connection, have been prepared. The new version of the report will be finalized in 2008.
4. In line with the set targets, advisory services were provided to more than 10 country offices to integrate gender equality goals in programming. Support was provided either through advisory, project formulation missions (eg to BiH, Kosovo, Macedonia) or through learning during regional activities, most importantly through workshops on gender analysis and the use of other tools for GM within the context of a Regional Community of Practice Meeting in Yerevan, October 2007. “Gender Mainstreaming in Practice” Toolkit was published and translated into Russian. The Toolkit is designed as the tool for the GM training and for integrating gender into all practice areas of UNDP.
Achievements 2008 (by 20 July 2008)
1. The regional Gender Steering Committee has tasked Gender Unit with development of a regional Gender Equality Strategy in July 2007. The GES was presented to the GSC in March 2008 and endorsed by the Committee in June 2008. It describes in concrete terms how the Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS (RBEC) will contribute towards the gender equality outcomes defined for the organization as a whole in its global Strategic Plan (SP) and the parallel and complementary UNDP Gender Equality Strategy (GES) 2008-2011.
2. To work towards the goals of the RBEC GES, the BRC Gender Unit has developed a project on Implementation of the RBEC Gender Equality Strategy 2008-2011 that outlines in more specific terms how the strategy will be implemented. Within this four year project a set of local and regional activities is envisaged to be implemented together with national partners.
3. Based on the “Gender Mainstreaming in Practice” Toolkit, published in 2007, a “How to Guide”, describing steps that COs should follow to develop a Gender Strategy and a check-list to evaluate the functional effectiveness of the chosen approach has been developed. The final version of materials was designed jointly by the participants of the ToT organized for the GFPs and COs staff in April 2008. The materials include a list of steps to follow to develop a Gender Mainstreaming Strategy/Gender Action Plan as well as a variety of GM tools/materials that could be used directly or tailored to the needs of specific COs. Basic information on training methodology for the future trainers/duplicators is also included. This “GM Package” has been distributed among COs/GFPs and placed on the BDP Gender Platform.
4. CO support: In line with the set targets for 2008, advisory services were provided to more than 5 country offices to integrate gender equality goals in programming. Support was provided either through advisory missions (eg to Turkey and BiH) or through learning during regional activities, most importantly through the training on GM and project formulation activities. The process of developing a sub-regional project on implementation of the GES and UNDP Eight-Point Agenda on Gender Equality in Crisis Prevention and Recovery in the Western Balkans was initiated at sub-regional conference on gender organized by the BiH CO in Sarajevo in November 2007.
The project intends to mainstream both gender equality and crisis prevention and recovery considerations. As such it is focused on implementation of the RBEC Gender Equality Strategy (R/GES) in the context of the Framework for Cooperation between BCPR and RBEC. The substance of the project is guided by the UNDP Eight-Point Agenda for Gender Equality in Crisis Prevention (8PA), specifically Point Three, which is provided in the box above.
5. The revised report on Human Trafficking and Human Development in the CIS, offering information on trafficking situation in the region and proposing a human development approach to the issue of trafficking for labour exploitation was finalized in April 2008. The report was disseminated among the GFPs and placed on the BRC Gender Platform.
