Gender Policy Dialogue and Advocacy with Member States The project aims to advance gender equality in the Commonwealth through activities that would strengthen capacity and influence policy-making and decisions of member states’ policies, frameworks and programmes to effectively promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.  The project is to support implementation of initiatives on the Commonwealth’s four priorities on Gender Equality for 2017 and beyond, i.e. (i) women’s economic empowerment; (ii) women in leadership; (iii) ending violence against women and girls; and (iv) gender and climate change, other Commonwealth commitments to gender equality within the framework of the Strategic Plan 2017/18 – 2020/21, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The project will enable the convening of the annual consultation of the Commonwealth’s National Women’s Machineries (NWMs) during Spring or alternative dates when the United Nations convenes its Commission on the Status of Women in New York.  The consultation will focus on reporting on the member countries' progress on the four priority areas on gender equality, the Secretariat’s work on research and advocacy, capacity building, knowledge sharing, and on plans and outcomes of the Commonwealth Women’s Forum (CWF) held at margins of CHOGM, the 12th Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meetings (WAMM) and plans for the 13th WAMM to be held in 2022.

Gender inequality perpetuates poverty and results in the vulnerability of societies due to income disparities, discriminatory laws and practices, gender stereotyping, gender discrimination and gender based violence, all of which prevent women and men from obtaining their equal social, political and economic human rights. The international commitments including the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), UNSCR 1325, the UN Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), and regional protocols on gender equality, have not yet been fully realised.    The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs provides another opportunity to advance gender equality.

Gender mainstreaming encompasses all aspects of the project cycle from 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. Through gender mainstreaming, greater awareness is created on how gender equality can contribute significantly to improved development outcomes.  The Secretariat through its Gender Section and other units/sections has projects and research activities that promotes women’s empowerment in a number of areas.  Some of these will be shared at the annual consultation of the NWMs, the CWF and 13th WAMM. 

This project will contribute to all the strategic outcomes of the Strategic Plan and the cross-cutting outcome: Gender mainstreaming: gender equality and the empowerment of women integrated in the Secretariat’s policies, frameworks, programmes and projects.
Through the planned project work streams, priority focus and strategic/intermediate outcomes and outputs, the Secretariat will provide evidence-based knowledge on addressing some of those persistent challenges of gender equality and share with member states.   These will include:
contributing to monitoring commitments to the Commonwealth’s four priorities for gender equality in relation to the SDGs;
advocating for non-discriminatory and gender responsive policies, laws and services in member countries; 
strengthening women’s political and economic development, particularly women’s leadership in public and political life at all levels of decision-making;
encouraging good practice, equitable systems and sustainable leadership; 
strengthening women’s access to justice focusing on violence against women;   
knowledge-sharing on economic costs of violence against women and girls;
consolidating strategic partnerships within the Commonwealth family of associations as well as intergovernmental organisations, development partners, donors, international non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, and networks to promote gender equality and particularly the recommendations from 11WAMM; and 
strengthening implementation and accountability to Commonwealth gender priorities by member states.