Ensuring a Gender-responsive approach to Decent Work – Jordan According to the ILO report Women at Work: Trends 2016, millions of women are losing ground in their quest for equality in the world of work, with significant gender gaps including in employment, pay, job quality, social protection, and with respect to care responsibilities. As highlighted in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, much more needs to be done to ensure decent work for women. In this context, the ILO/Sida Partnership Programme (Phase II, 2016-17) will focus on key policy areas to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. This work operationalizes the cross-cutting policy driver on gender equality and non-discrimination, leading to results under the Programme and Budget 2016-17. The project will advance the inter-related priorities of the ILO’s Women at Work Centenary Initiative, which represent key aspects of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda namely: increasing women’s access to work; making work pay; women, work and care; and combatting violence at work. It will provide targeted, results-oriented support to ILO constituents in Cambodia, Cote d’Ivoire, Jordan and in the Inter- American region. Country Programme Outcome: JOR152 - Improved working conditions of women in the labour market The ILO and the Government of Jordan have a long-standing partnership in promoting gender equality in the workplace. Jordan has ratified the ILO Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) and the ILO Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), Since the establishment of the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 2011, national efforts have been strengthened to eliminate wage discrimination and look into the main barriers that impede women from entering the labour force. A multi-pronged approach is being deployed to improve regulatory frameworks, mainstream pay equity in national agendas and change perceptions and attitudes towards women workers’ entitlements. This is being achieved through strengthening capacities of government, workers’, employers’ and civil society organizations, lobbying and building alliances with policy makers and private sector. Raising awareness on gender sensitive human resources policies at work, including workplace solutions for child care, is key to the promotion of gender equality in the workplace. The ILO, in partnership with the NCPE and the well-established national non-governmental organizations AHEL and SADAQA, will continue to capitalize on the achievements to date and will work at the policy level and will continue action at the grass-roots level. The project will work to promote fair remuneration systems and non-discrimination policies in the female-dominated education sector in Amman and Irbid, and will advocate for access to day-care facilities for working parents in private institutions that employ at least 20 women. The project will empower workers in the private sector by strengthening their negotiation skills and helping them to campaign and claim their right to pay equity and child care. Meanwhile, gender-blind human resources systems will be addressed and private sector schools and companies will be engaged in collective dialogue towards better wages and working conditions.