Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment The Commonwealth Secretariat promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment as core values enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter, and the Secretariat’s Gender Policy.  Guided by this Policy, the Secretariat aims to ensure that gender is mainstreamed in its own internal policies, structures, processes, systems, operations and programmes of assistance. In this way, it works towards the achievement of gender equality as a means of supporting democracy, peace, sustainable development and poverty eradication in member countries. 

While the Gender Policy provides a strong mandate and institutional framework for gender mainstreaming, implementation has been challenging. Gender mainstreaming encompasses all aspects of planning, implementing and monitoring any social, political or economic action and can therefore be utilised as an effective tool to achieve greater gender equality and more equitable and sustainable development results. 

The mainstreaming of the gender perspective is not an end of itself but is a strategy towards development goals, one of which is improved gender equality. Sustainable development aims at enlarging the choices for women and men without compromising the choices available to the next generations.  In line with the concept of social development, promoting the inclusion of the poor, vulnerable and excluded groups (especially youth and women) and strengthening social cohesion and the capacity for collective action towards development provides entry points for gender equality and empowerment inclusive interventions.  

Through gender mainstreaming, greater awareness is created on how gender equality can contribute significantly to improved development outcomes.  Training on gender issues and analysis (e.g. so there is an understanding of how women and men are impacted differently within projects and what can be done to ensure that their needs are being met and inequalities are mitigated) will ensure more effective and gender sensitive programme implementation. 

The importance of gender mainstreaming has been consistently emphasised in CHOGM communiqués. Efforts in the Secretariat have been made in the past in this regard, but there is recognition that the Secretariat should do more to institutionalise, renew and deepen the practice. The Secretariat is aiming at making significant progress in this new plan period to achieve gender equality in diverse areas of its work as well as help member states mainstream gender in their policies, frameworks and programmes.   

In May 2016, a thorough review was undertaken of past and current information with respect to gender mainstreaming, gender training and remaining gaps in these spheres within 
the Secretariat. The findings of this extensive desk review was supplemented by consultations with staff.  A number of key points to be highlighted in the context of capacity development for gender mainstreaming: 
(i)  Report1 identified the need for compulsory training on gender equality and basic gender awareness for all staff.
(ii) The gaps in gender training provision highlighted in 2007 and 2011 were echoed in the 2016 End Term Review Plan of Action for Gender Equality. This review highlighted the importance of staff fully appreciating what ‘gender equality’ entails, in particular the need to involve men and boys in this process. It also recommended the importance of allocating resources to gender training and capacity development. 

(iii)  The gender mainstreaming needs analysis conducted in 2014, recommended:
Train everyone on basic gender vocabulary and make gender knowledge more accessible.
Design gender training that is relevant to participants and supports them to discover the implications of gender for their work and projects. 
Support staff to feel comfortable with the gender agenda by encouraging them to innovate and experiment (even in small steps) in relation to gender mainstreaming and gender equality.

In order to address the above findings/recommendations and other key priorities related to gender mainstreaming in the Secretariat, the project will focus on capacity building, knowledge sharing and other activities specific to the pursuant of the recommendations of Gender Audits of the Secretariat, the Evaluation of the Plan of Action on Gender Equality (2005-2015), and recommendations from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGMs) and integral Commonwealth Women’s Forum, the Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meetings (WAMM), the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Strategic Plan 2017/18-2020/21.  

The project activities have been carefully prioritised to address elements of “gender mainstreaming” that will support the capacity development of staff to understand and apply tools of gender analysis to their work; and for the Secretariat to have a systematic mechanism for progressing and tracking gender mainstreaming in the Secretariat. 

The project is envisaged to provide:

Secretariat staff with learning opportunities to have a basic understanding and awareness of key gender concepts, themes and gender mainstreaming processes to assist with policy development and project/programme planning for greater gender equality. 
Staff are able to operate with greater sensitivity and awareness of gender equality and diversity in their daily interaction with others. 
Projects and programmes demonstrate gender equality principles in design, delivery, monitoring and evaluation. 
Secretariat culture displays signs of being more open and responsive as gender equality and diversity principles become more integrated.

The first two are the achievable outcomes of a well-planned and well-executed course. Outcomes three and four are more specifically related to the on-going capacity development in gender mainstreaming process in the Secretariat. Thus, their fulfilment can only be measured in tandem with success in the broader process at work in the Secretariat.

Successful gender mainstreaming within the Secretariat should result with the Secretariat executing projects and programmes in member states that:
advocate for non-discriminatory and gender responsive policies, laws and services; 
strengthen women’s political and economic development, particularly women’s leadership in public and political life at all levels of decision-making;
encourage good practice, equitable systems and sustainable leadership; 
strengthen women’s access to justice focusing on ending violence against women and girls;   
facilitate research and advocacy on gender and climate change, to integrate a gender perspective into policy and decision making;  
consolidate strategic partnerships within the Commonwealth family of associations as well as inter-governmental organisations, development agencies, donors, international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and networks to promote gender equality and particularly the outcomes of 11WAMM; and strengthen implementation and accountability to Commonwealth gender priorities by member states.