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Good practice examples

As a strategy for achieving gender equality, gender mainstreaming involves a process of incremental change in policies, strategies and activities. The long term objective is that attention to gender equality will pervade all policies, strategies and activities so that women and men influence, participate in, and benefit equitably from all interventions. Documenting good practice in mainstreaming gender equality entails recording positive steps made towards achieving this goal. Although the policy, project or activity may not yet be perfect from a gender equality perspective, it is still possible, and important, to record positive steps in the right direction.

Good practice examples should document how gender equality concerns were made central to policy-making, legislation, resource allocation, planning implementation and monitoring of projects and programme. They should, if possible, document the transformational aspect of mainstreaming -the impact that consideration of gender equality aspects has in terms of changes to goals, strategies, actions, outcomes and impacts.

A taskforce within the Interagency Network on Women and Gender Equality worked to develop an inventory of good practice examples on gender mainstreaming taken from the United Nations system. See:  

Documenting good practice examples on the mainstreaming strategy

A good practice example of gender mainstreaming could be actions which lead to a positive change in:

• Policies; 
• Strategies / approach;
• Advocacy efforts;
• Legislation;
• Research and other analytical work;
• Statistics- greater sex disaggregation, improved gender analysis of data, or identifying gaps in the data base;
• Development of indicators and improved monitoring;
• Medium-term plans and budgets;
• Procedures and processes.

A good practice example could also document positive organizational changes necessary to promote gender mainstreaming, such as: 

• Competence development on mainstreaming; 
• Establishment of a gender unit or focal point with a clear mandate and necessary resources to promote and support mainstreaming;
• Indication of management commitment to mainstreaming;
• Establishment of accountability mechanisms; 
• Development of guidelines, manuals, and other tools to support mainstreaming:
• Establishment of a resource base of relevant gender equality expertise for mainstreaming.

Documentation of organizational change to support the mainstreaming process must go beyond simply describing the changes implemented to a discussion of the anticipated and achieved impacts of the changes. In the case of development of guidelines, for example, there should be discussion of the usage of these guidelines and the impact on day-to-day work.

Good practice examples can also be documented on changes made to develop national environments conducive to the implementation of the mainstreaming strategy. These could entail: 

• Provision of training on mainstreaming for line ministries; 
• Developing the capacity of the national machinery to advocate for mainstreaming.

Suggested format for documenting good practice examples

A format for documenting good practice examples has been discussed. 

The good practice example (2 pages only) should follow the format below.

1. Background on the overall intervention in which the good practice process/ activity takes place.
2. The reason changes in relation to gender equality were required- related to achievement of social justice/human rights and/or effective achievement of the goals of the programme.
3. The objective of the process / activity being recorded as good practice.
4. The strategy adopted to achieve this objective.
5. The outcome - specific changes as a result of the process /activity, and how these relate to the objectives set.
6. The factors contributing to / hindering the success of the process / activity.
7. Any ways in which the good practice activity could have been improved.
8. Plans to follow-up the good practice activity and the potential / constraints in relation to moving forward.
9. Any other lessons learned from the process.
10. The possibility for replication or spin-off effects.

If relevant, the following information could also be provided: Further documentation on the example (if anything exists) and contacts for further information.

Good practice examples

Examples of good practice will be documented overtime. A "bank" of good practice examples will be developed.