promoting gender equality through unicef-supported policy ... · in developing countries, girls...

Operational Guidance

Promoting Gender Equality through UNICEF-Supported Policy Advocacy and Partnerships for Children’s Rights

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 3

1. STRaTegIC INfORmaTION: COlleCTION aND aNalySIS .................................................. 6

1.1 The importance of household surveys ........................................................................ 7

1.2 Expanding the reach of gender-relevant data............................................................. 8

1.3 Multidimensional child poverty analysis. ..................................................................11

2. geNDeR-ReSpONSIve pOlICy aDvOCaCy ........................................................................ 14

2.1 Basic elements of policy advocacy ........................................................................... 14

2.2 Policy instruments ...................................................................................................... 18

a. Poverty reduction strategies and national development plans .......................... 18

b. Social and gender budgeting ................................................................................19

c. Child and gender-sensitive social protection ....................................................... 21

2.3 Framework concerns .................................................................................................. 25

a. Economic crisis ....................................................................................................... 25

b. Climate change ....................................................................................................... 26

c. Migration ................................................................................................................. 27

3. lawS aND paRTICIpaTION .................................................................................................... 28

3.1 Legislative reform ....................................................................................................... 28

3.2 Participation for women and children ....................................................................... 32

4. CONClUSION .......................................................................................................................... 34

ReSOURCeS ................................................................................................................................. 36

CONTENTS

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This Operational Guidance on Focus Area 5 provides programme staff with basic information, practical tools and real-world programme examples that can inform advocacy for gender-responsive social and economic policies. Setting new policy directions, through advocacy grounded in evidence and gender-balanced participation, is an integral step towards overcoming the barriers of gender and age that sustain patterns of discrimination and inequity.

Focus Area 5 of UNICEF’s Medium-Term Strategic Plan – advocacy and partnerships for children’s rights – facilitates the transformative process required for achieving gender equality. It recognizes the centrality of data and research, social and economic policies, laws and participation in UNICEF’s overall mission and mandate for children and women.

Some statistics suggest the depth of gender inequities the world over:

• Some 115 million children of primary school age were out of school in 2001/02. Globally, 61.6 million girls of primary school age were not in school, accounting for 53 per cent of the total number.1

• In sub-Saharan Africa, girls are infected with HIV at an earlier age than boys.

• More than 80 per cent of the world’s 35 million refugees and displaced people are women and children.2

• Girls between 13–18 years of age constitute the largest group in the sex industry, with an estimated 500,000 girls younger than 18 years old becoming trafficking victims each year.3

• Female genital mutilation/cutting affects 130 million girls and women globally.4

Sex disparities deepen for women and girls in the most marginalized groups. In developing countries, girls from the poorest households are three times as likely to marry before age 18 as those from the wealthiest quintile. Women in the poorest households are two to three times less likely than those in the richest households to have access to potentially life-saving antenatal care and skilled attendance at delivery.5

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child all provide clear and comprehensive standards for counteracting discriminatory gender norms. To actually achieve gender equality, however, UN Member States, local communities, civil society organizations, private sector partners and other stakeholders need to act together to translate documents and treaties into concrete measures that make a difference in peoples’ lives.

These measures typically entail ending discrimination in a wide array of institutions, cultural practices, attitudes and behaviours. Human rights-centred legislative and policy reforms contribute by helping to transform legal and administrative relations among different branches of governments, individuals, and civil and private sector actors. Such reforms can set parameters

INTRODUCTION

1 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2005. 2 Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, 2004.3 <www.unicef.org/gender/index_factsandfigures/>. 4 United Nations Children’s Fund Innocenti Research Centre, 2005. 5 United Nations Children’s Fund, 2010.

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6 Social Watch, 2005.

for more equal and child-friendly societies, and aim to fully uphold the human rights of children and women by providing equitable opportunities for girls and boys to live, thrive and make their own choices.

The following pages consider the gender dimensions of the four key result areas of Focus Area 5:

1. The collection and analysis of strategic information on the situation of children and women;

2. Research and policy analysis on children and women;

3. Policy advocacy, dialogue and leveraging; and

4. Enhanced participation of children and young people.

The first section looks at the collection and analysis of strategic information on the situation of children and women. Since the gender dimensions of issues are often not yet defined by appropriate data, statistical systems may need to be strengthened so that policies and other measures can be accurately formulated, social outcomes can be properly monitored, and the values and opinions of youth, women and men can be regularly surveyed and reflected in the steps being taken.

The section reviews the gender aspects of household survey work and standard statistical analyses, as well as the use of gender-disaggregated data to inform analysis underpinning policy advocacy and the leveraging of resources for children. A discussion of gender-sensitive multidimensional poverty analysis elaborates how this contributes to monitoring and analysing social conditions. UNICEF’s sectoral policy engagements in nutrition, health, water and sanitation, education, and HIV and AIDS – discussed in documents for other focus areas – should use and inspire evidence-based analysis that draws on this framework.

The second section of the Operational Guidance delves into the gender dimensions of UNICEF’s policy advocacy work. It highlights questions to ask at different phases of advocacy. At all points, impacts, benefits and costs may vary by gender and need to be analysed accordingly, keeping in mind that gender discrimination can be compounded by additional forms of exclusion related to income, ethnicity, geographical location and so on. The section then reviews potential policy responses and instruments in three areas: poverty reduction strategies and national development plans, child and gender-sensitive social protection, and social and gender-sensitive budgets. These instruments help expedite progress on both sectoral and cross-cutting UNICEF programme strategies.

Poverty reduction and the empowerment of women and girls are interconnected in numerous ways. Women and girls constitute crucial agents in any strategy to eradicate poverty.6 They also comprise the majority of the world’s poor, and carry the social and economic burdens of caring for the most vulnerable members of a community, such as children, the elderly and the sick. These issues should be highlighted in poverty reduction strategies and national development plans, along with the recognition that reducing economic inequities contributes both to upholding women’s rights and to accelerating development for women, children and society as a whole.

Child- and gender-sensitive social protection work considers the demand side of services, and addresses the implications of labour market trends for families, women and children. Social and gender-sensitive budget analysis assesses national and local budgets for the gender and child-rights implications of public expenditure allocations (including for social protection) and revenue policies. Fiscal policies embedded in public budgets reflect political priorities and macroeconomic

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decisions, with critical implications for children and gender equality. The second section closes with a look at current global trends with strong gender implications, such as economic crises, migration and climate change.

The third and final section of the document provides guidance on how legislative reform can provide a sound legal foundation for actions to promote gender equality. The section touches on inequities that stem from the substance of the law, structural barriers restricting access to justice, and cultural patterns that foster the discriminatory interpretation of laws. Reform typically implies a review and possible revision of national laws to ensure that they are harmonized with international standards and back national development objectives. Implementation then requires supportive administrative measures and legal instruments, government institutions, economic and social sector policies, and budget allocations.

The last part of the section considers how UNICEF can help to ensure that boys and girls are able to express their priorities and preferences and participate in shaping programmes and policies that affect them. Girls and boys can often provide the best information on their own situation, but their views may already be formed by ideas about gender roles and expectations. Different strategies may be required to ensure that girls and boys can participate and speak freely.

The information in this Operational Guidance is not designed to provide a comprehensive gender assessment or prescriptive solution. It should be carefully applied with consideration for individual country contexts. Practitioners may find it most useful as an initial reference point for starting down the road towards identifying gender gaps in a given country or locality, as well as a source for potential policy options to fill those gaps.

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Policy advocacy, planning and evaluation should be based on reliable, valid and meaningful data. This section considers some of the primary sources of gender-related data, as well as some of the ways in which they can be furthered developed and used. It looks at how applying this data in gender-sensitive multidimensional poverty analysis contributes to monitoring and analysing social conditions.

Disaggregating data by sex and age is important for formulating accurate human development policies and programmes and for assessing the equity of development outcomes. Sex-disaggregated data reveal whether or not women and men, and girls and boys, in a

country or region have the same opportunities in terms of survival, nutrition, education, protection, work or participation in decision-making. They can demonstrate different life choices for girls and boys, how policies and societal practices reinforce or mollify these, and the need for new policies, programmes and frameworks.

While the overall lack of sex disaggregation in data is often an impediment, the availability of data on issues pivotal to gender equality is what really matters. Progress calls for more than just disaggregating available data by sex. Contextual analysis is also needed to identify key gaps in knowledge and actions to fill them.

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1.1 The imporTance of household surveys

All socio-economic data on individuals are relevant for gender statistics. Among the existing sources of data, household surveys are particularly important for gender analysis, advocacy and programmatic insights.

Since 1990, a revolution has taken place in terms of the coverage and frequency of household surveys. They have become a dominant form of data collection, supplementing other methods, including civil registration systems. In a large number of developing countries, household survey programmes such as the UNICEF-supported multiple indicator cluster surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) backed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have become major components in plugging data gaps, especially regarding children, well-being and demographic patterns.

These surveys identify each member of the household and collect data on certain characteristics of all household members (age, sex, education, etc.). In addition, they include questionnaires and modules on specific topics relating to women and children. DHS routinely include men’s questionnaires, which MICS offer in their latest rounds. MICS include more than 100 indicators, most of which reflect sex and other background characteristics. Specific modules can be added to capture some forms of violence against women, such as traditional

harmful practices, or to examine in depth the gender aspects of issues such as early childhood development or disabilities.

MICS and DHS use similar methodologies and are largely comparable. Other large household surveys with relevant indicators are living standards measurement surveys, reproductive health surveys and AIDS indicator surveys. Many countries have labour force surveys and/or income and expenditure surveys. Census and civil registration data can also provide insights into gender equality.

In collecting data, UNICEF should strive to ensure that all exercises embrace the principles of gender equality. This includes:

• Equitable hiring practices for all staff involved in the study;

• Formulation of questions and indicators that are sensitive to the experiences of different sexes;

• Integrating gender in the data analysis plan to the extent possible; and

• The wide dissemination and use of results, such as through a special analytical report on gender, a flyer highlighting gender dimensions, etc.

An example of UNICEF’s action in promoting gender-sensitive indicators is its work on

useful Tools: Global reporTs

As a general reference point, several UNICEF reports provide gender-related data and analysis. These include Progress for Children and The State of the World’s Children – in particular The State of the World’s Children 2007: Women and children – The double dividend of gender equality – as well as Women in Transition, the sixth regional monitoring report of the Innocenti Research Centre.

These reports demonstrate how data can be used for comprehensively exploring the many dimensions of gender equality. Several Progress for Children reports provide more specific investigations, including: A report card on child protection (2009), A report card on maternal mortality (2008), and A report card on gender parity and primary education (2005).


useful Tools: online daTa sources

Typically, only a small portion of the data and information available from MICS, DHS and other national household surveys is ever optimally used. Important statistics can be readily found in the published survey reports, and both MICS and DHS data sets are publicly available for further analysis. See the MICS data at <www.childinfo.org> and the DHS data at <www.measuredhs.com>.

Childinfo.org has a series of gender-disaggregated global databases and analyses on key indicators related to child health and well-being. Databases on child marriage, attitudes towards domestic violence and other dimensions of women’s experiences are also available. A series of country statistical profiles provide key indicators disaggregated by sex and other background characteristics. Measuredhs.com features a Gender Corner with examples of additional data dissemination and analysis.

The Child Poverty Profiles provide information on select countries that are part of the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities and which have carried out child poverty and disparity analyses led by UNICEF. Country profiles contain key indicators that touch upon fundamental pillars of child well-being – namely education, health, nutrition, child protection and social protection – and highlight gender disparities. A portal that will host the profiles is under development; see <www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/index_childpoverty.html>.

child labour statistics. UNICEF has developed indicators that go beyond the production of goods and services to include unpaid domestic work such as cleaning, cooking and caring for

children. This expanded definition proves to be essential to estimating the burden of work on girls, who are more likely than boys to perform domestic chores in a household.

1.2 expandinG The reach of Gender-relevanT daTa

UNICEF has multiple opportunities to use data and other evidence to sharpen attention to gender issues. Through its engagement in household surveys, for example, UNICEF can help ensure that data collection exercises encompass key gender dimensions. The four waves of MICS so far (1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010) have created an important ‘push’ for the use of sex-disaggregated and gender-relevant data.

In turn, UNICEF’s programmatic, analytical and advocacy work can highlight issues important for gender equality in a country, region or the world, creating a ‘pull’ effect for improving the gender relevance of survey questionnaires or other types of statistical data collection tools. Under-five mortality, knowledge about AIDS

among women and men, and female genital mutilation/cutting are good examples of social issues for which valid and reliable data improves understanding of the causes, processes and most responsive programming options.

Both quantitative and qualitative methods for collecting data are important. While some things can be measured quantitatively (e.g., increasing enrolment in school for both girls and boys), others are extremely difficult to understand without qualitative research (e.g., why changes in intrahousehold relations are occurring). Qualitative data often supplement existing quantitative data. They may be needed to capture some forms of gender inequities7 and can prove instrumental for advocacy purposes.

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Qualitative methods differ from quantitative methods in that they tap people’s perceptions and experiences. Collecting qualitative data most commonly entails participatory methodologies such as focus group discussions and key informant interviews.8 These methodologies should be gender sensitive. They can provide useful information on a wide range of issues, such as attitudes concerning domestic violence, girls going to school, harmful traditional practices, women’s access to land and the labour market, and so forth.

Quantitative statistical information can play a role in a number of areas important to gender equality, starting with education and access to paid work as key determinants of women’s

economic autonomy and important foundations for their exercise of authority in the home and participation in wider society.9 Equality in education enrolment and school attendance can be measured using household surveys, such as DHS or MICS, or through routine statistical reports by schools. Women’s participation in the decision-making process can be analysed by looking at the ratio of men and women in national and local political life, in top economic positions, and in civil society organizations. At the household level, surveys can capture responses on who in the family makes the key decisions.

Gender equality in the labour market is generally explored by analysing employment and wage opportunities for men and women.

7 Ibid. 8 United Nations Development Programme, 2007. 9 United Nations Children’s Fund, 1999.

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Household-based labour force surveys, for example, can highlight the gender differences in labour force participation and unemployment rates. Enterprise-based employment and wage surveys can provide insights into occupational segregation and whether or not employers pay men and women equally.10 While such surveys are rare in low-income countries, many middle-income countries do have some variation of them. Low-income countries may use living standards measurement surveys or other household survey sources.

Gender equality in unpaid work can be investigated through time-use surveys that chronicle the time men and women, and boys and girls, spend on activities that produce goods for consumption within the household, or in caring for family and community members. Cooking, cleaning, caring for children and the elderly, food production and preparation for own consumption, caring for the sick and the permanently ill, and collecting water and firewood are among the tasks that take up large amounts of time in areas with poor infrastructure and inadequate public services. In most parts of the world, these activities are predominantly the responsibility of women and girls. With the exception of food production for own consumption and capital accumulation through people building their own houses, these activities are not taken into consideration in gross domestic product calculations. The UN ‘system of national accounting’ recommends capturing them in additional ‘satellite accounts’.

Because of the need for consistency between income data at macro and micro levels, household income-consumption statistics and calculations for the poverty line or other social minimums ignore these activities. Nonetheless, they remain crucially important for sustainable development, for children and for gender equality, and should be included in analyses. Among developing countries, time-use surveys show that the proportion of total time spent on work that is not captured in national income statistics ranges from 76 per cent in urban Columbia to 52 per cent in the mountainous regions of Nepal. The proportion of time spent by men on these activities can

be as little as 13 per cent in urban Venezuela and 14 per cent in urban Indonesia.11 These types of surveys augment information from economic and social accounting systems at the macro level and highlight intrahousehold behaviour at the micro level.

Two further data issues stand out. One involves public budgets, which are discussed later in this Operational Guidance. The second entails gender-based violence. Data-gathering in this area has been consistently weak for several reasons, including the prevalence of gender-based violence in homes, social norms against reporting it, and environments affected by conflict or lawlessness. In some cases, demographic statistics attest to discrimination in child survival and care practices, such as in the ‘missing millions’ of girls in parts of Asia. Administrative statistics could show how violence is reflected in mortality when mortality causes are reported (normally a broader category, such as ‘death due to external causes’, needs to be examined), or where statistics from police, hospitals, shelters for women or abuse hotlines are available. Connections can also be made to some of the social and economic costs of gender-based violence, including higher health-care expenditures and productivity losses.

Qualitative information can also capture patterns of gender-based violence and its underlying causes. Such information could be obtained through focus-group discussions or in-depth interviews, such as with women activists or survivors, or with service providers. Care must be given to research methodologies and training of interviewers in order to protect women, both because this is the right thing to do and because only interviews conducted in situations of safety and confidentiality will produce accurate data. A number of countries still do not have laws or legal practices that offer protection from gender-based violence, or allow conditions that perpetuate it. Advocacy using qualitative and quantitative evidence can be important in changing public perceptions on the issue and paving the way for legislative reform.

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1.3 mulTidimensional poverTy analysis

Reducing child poverty is an overarching objective of UNICEF’s work on social policy and economic analysis, with links to all areas of the medium-term strategic plan. Work in this area requires a deeper understanding of the underlying causality of human deprivations and gender inequalities.12 Without an age- and gender-sensitive analysis of poverty grounded in relevant data and other evidence, the true face of poverty will not be revealed, and relevant policy recommendations will not emerge.13

Children in general experience all forms of poverty more acutely than adults. They face multiple deprivations, including in access to education, health facilities and nutrition, water, sanitation, shelter and information. A multidimensional approach to child poverty defines deprivation as a lack of “the material, spiritual, and emotional resources needed to survive, develop, and thrive, leaving them unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential, or participate as full and equal members of society.”14

Taking gender into account further widens the concept of poverty.15 It involves recognizing that “there are a number of social, economic, political, and cultural attributes and opportunities associated with being female and male, (and) men and women have different access to and control over resources and participation in decision-making, which is reflected in economic, social, legal, and cultural institutions.”16

The definition of poverty is critical because it determines which indicators will be used for its measurement – what is not conceptualized will not be measured. In turn, measurement makes poverty visible and guides the development and implementation of effective policies.17 Basing poverty measures solely on income does not reveal gender disparities; ensuring that indicators combine both income and non-income poverty measures is therefore critical. (See Table 1 for some indicators that have been used to capture gender imbalances in child poverty.)

Once the scope of gender disparities has been documented, analysis needs to probe why disparities persist, covering possibilities such as a lack of political will, failures in the design of public policies, or the persistence of harmful cultural practices. Policy recommendations seeking to mainstream gender need to be specific about the participation of both men and women in decision-making positions for any policy initiative, and explicitly state that girls and boys, and women and men, should be equally targeted by any policy initiative. In some cases, more emphasis will need to be placed on girls and women to overcome disparities, as would be the case under an equity approach, or they may be the target groups of a given policy.18

Five proven contributions to progress on both gender equality and poverty reduction entail policies and resources to:

10 The analysis here could go from go from crude indicators of the pay gap to more sophisticated investigations whereby removing the impact of factors such as gender differences in education and work hours or experience would make the net effect of discrimination visible.

11 Chakraborty, 2009.12 United Nations Children’s Fund, 2007.13 Ibid.14 Material resources refer to income, food, access to education or health services, and protection from health risks;

spiritual resources include stimuli, meaningfulness, expectations, role models and peer relationships; and emotional resources include love, trust, feelings of acceptance, inclusion and lack of abusive situations.

15 Social Watch Report, 2005.16 United Nations Development Programme, 2003.17 Ibid.18 Ibid.


• Mitigate and prevent risk, adversity and disadvantage, including through supporting household incomes and/or assisting women in the workplace, such as through affordable, accessible and quality childcare;

• Support access, use, equity and efficiency in child nutrition initiatives;

• Support access, use, equity and efficacy in health services;

• Ensure children are protected from exploitation, exclusion, neglect and abuse; and

• Support access, use, equity and efficacy in education.

A growing body of evidence demonstrates the economic and development costs of persistent gender inequalities. Some economic and anti-poverty policy instruments miss gender equality as a dimension of poverty because of mistaken assumptions. Advocacy may need to discourage the misconception that gender equality and child rights ‘can wait’ until a certain level of prosperity takes hold. Instead, both should be viewed as integral to the development process, now and in the future.

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Table 1: useful Tools: indicaTors for Gender dispariTies in child poverTy

household income poverty

• Ratiooffemale-headedhouseholdstomale-headedhouseholdsunderthe national poverty line

• Ratiooffemale-headedhouseholdstomale-headedhouseholdslivingunder US$1.25 a day

• Shareofwomeninemployment(bothwageandself-employment)

• Gendergapsinintrahouseholdallocationofresources

• Ratiooffemale-to-maleunemployment

nutrition • Ratioofgirlstoboys0–4yearsoldwhoareundernourished(stunting,wasting or underweight; MICS indicators 6, 7, 8)

• Ratiooffemalestomales15–24yearsoldwhoareseverelyunderweight(body mass index 16 or below)

health • Ratiooffemale-to-maleneonatalmortalityrate

• Ratiooffemale-to-maleinfantmortalityrate

• Ratiooffemale-to-maleunder-fivemortalityrate

• Ratiooffemalestomaleswhoareimmunizedat1yearold

• Ratiooffemalestomales15–24yearsoldwhohavecomprehensiveandcorrect knowledge of HIV and AIDS

• Householdsand/orchildrenwithsustainableaccesstoanimprovedwatersource

• Householdsand/orchildrenwithaccesstoimprovedsanitation

• Percentofantenatalcarecoverage

education • Ratioofyounggirlstoyoungboysinthepreschoolattendancerate

• Ratiooffemale-to-maleattendancerateinprimaryandsecondaryschool

• Ratiooffemale-to-malecompletionrateinprimaryandsecondaryschool

• Percentagesoffemaleandmalechildren7–18yearsoldwhohaveneverbeen to school and who are not currently attending school

• Ratioofliteratefemalestomales,15–24yearsold

• Sexandlevelofeducationoftheheadofthehousehold

• Levelofeducationofbothcaretakers

child protection • Ratioofgirls-to-boysbirthregistrationrate

• Ratioofgirls-to-boyschildlabourrate

• Childmarriageprevalence

• Prevalenceoffemalegenitalmutilation/cutting

domestic violence

• Prevalenceofdomesticviolence

• Ratesofchildrenwitnessingdomesticviolence

• Ratesofhouseholdwherethereisbothdomesticviolenceandviolenceagainst children

• Ratesofdomesticviolenceduringpregnancyandpost-natal


2 gENDER-RESpONSIvE pOlICy aDvOCaCy

© UNICEF - Giacomo Pirozzi

This section examines gender-responsive policy advocacy, starting with a series of questions to guide each phase of the process, which can be tailored to national contexts. The second part of the section explores some common arenas for advocacy – poverty reduction strategies, social protection policies, and budgets – before concluding with a discussion of framework concerns that may cut across different dimensions of analysis and advocacy.

2.1 basic elemenTs of advocacy

UNICEF’s Advocacy Toolkit looks at nine general questions for strategic advocacy that can be applied to policy work. The toolkit should be consulted as a companion guide to this note. For general consideration across the stages described below, these questions are:

1. What do we want?

2. Who can make it happen?

3. What do they need to hear?

4. Who do they need to hear it from?

5. How can we make sure they hear it?

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6. What do we have?

7. What do we need?

8. How do we begin to take action?

9. How do we tell if it’s working?

Some of the questions that can be specifically applied to the different phases of gender-responsive policy advocacy are as follows:

analysis and assessment

• Is analysis grounded in a multidimensional conception of poverty?

• Is there an understanding of current or potential gender impacts along different dimensions of poverty and vulnerability?

• Are quantitative and qualitative data available disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant social categories in relation to the relevant policy? Are additional data needed? Do household data obscure gender inequalities?

• If data are not available, how can gaps in evidence be filled?

• What access to and control over political, social and economic institutions do different groups of women and men have? What are their roles?

• What are the economic situations of men and women in terms of assets, access to markets, etc.? What are the different livelihood strategies of women and men? How do these affect girls and boys?

• How are the lives of women and girls today similar to and different from the lives of their mothers and grandmothers?

• To what extent do existing programmes and services benefit different groups? Are they reaching vulnerable groups?

• What are the impacts of inequalities on macro or societal levels?

• Which key groups will be affected by the policy and/or have vested interests in it?

legal framework

• Does existing legislation explicitly protect and promote equal access to resources, programmes and services for all groups, including women and girls?

• Is this legislation enforced?

• What laws exist or do not exist to safeguard women’s and girls’ rights? Age of legal marriage? Birth registration? Access to maternal leave and health care? Citizenship requirements and voting rights? Parental rights and responsibilities (do both mothers and fathers have equal rights and responsibilities for children)? Laws on polygamy? Birth control? Family violence?

• Can women and girls access the judicial system or other enforcement mechanisms?

cultural and historical factors

• Have cultural barriers been analysed and understood?

• Have they been factored into the larger advocacy effort?

• Given current patterns of thinking and perception, will it be more effective to make a case for women’s rights as universal norms that must on principle be respected? Or will people be more responsive to utilitarian arguments emphasizing that the well-being of women and girls has broader benefits?

• Are there ways to ‘reinvent’ traditions so that they can be respected, but without harming women and girls or posing barriers to gender equality?

stakeholder involvement

• Will women and men, and girls and boys, authentically participate at different points in the policy cycle as part of mainstreaming gender perspectives throughout?


• Which stakeholders should be consulted or participating at different stages? What formal or informal obstacles exist for the participation of women or men? Are different groups of men and women represented? Are their voices heard and taken into account?

• How is the experience of marginalization different for women and men? Does this affect participation?

• What knowledge do women and men have about the particular sector or issue addressed by the policy?

• Are there particular groups that represent women’s and girls’ interests? Are there pro-equality men’s groups? Can UNICEF support their participation at different stages?

• Do different stakeholders have mechanisms to hold governments or other actors to account? Do they use these mechanisms?

• Would different processes or forums allow women and girls, or other relevant groups, to participate more effectively?

• Are men adequately involved in interventions which require their involvement or agreement, or where they hold influence? Do they adequately understand women’s interests? Do they understand that gender equality is not only a women’s issue?

capacity issues

• Are women and men equally represented among policymakers and implementers? Are their roles constrained by social norms? Do they have different levels of education/capacity? Is additional support needed?

• Are programme staff trained in gender sensitivity and mainstreaming, including specifically in relation to the policy?

• What types of training and capacity development are needed for policymakers, legislators, the judiciary, teachers, etc., to advance specific aspects of gender equality?

• Are principles of gender equality and gender analysis institutionalized within bodies that create and implement policies? Is there leadership for this?

• What capacities do civil society groups possess to make women’s interests visible and incorporated? Is this enhancing the quality of public policy?

• How can we shift the attitudes and behaviour of men, including those in leadership positions, to support measures and resource allocation to promote gender equality?

decision-making

• Are women permitted to hold elected offices or serve in high-ranking government positions? If yes, how many serve and in what capacities?

• Are women vocal in relevant decision-making bodies (national or local)? Are women organizing to increase their role in decision-making?

• Have decision makers been sensitized on women’s rights, gender equality and issues related to a given policy?

• Which key individuals or parties will influence the policy? Can they be marshalled in support of greater gender equality? Or do they have reasons to oppose progress?

policy implementation

• Who makes decisions at the household and/or community levels? Who owns and controls what resources? What are expectations about gender roles? How will/does the policy influence these factors, and will it support increased gender equality?

• What are the different paid and unpaid responsibilities of women and men, and boys and girls? How does the policy affect these responsibilities, as well as the ability of different household members to benefit from it?

• How do shocks or trends affect women and men, and what are the implications for the policy?

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• Are provisions made for the specific needs of women and girls? How will the policy address these?

• Will implementation challenges produce different impacts on men and women?

• Could implementation be affected by gender dynamics in an unexpected way?

resource allocation, expenditure and tracking

• What resources (financial or human) would help to promote gender equality?

• How could existing resources be deployed in ways that would more effectively promote gender equality?

• What are the implicit gender biases that often shape resource allocation?

• Are resources adequate? Do they reach their intended destination?

• Is expenditure information transparent and accessible?

• Are different groups of women and men involved in deciding, influencing and tracking expenditures?

monitoring and evaluation

• Are systems for ongoing monitoring and impact evaluations in place to track the intended and unintended consequences of policies?

• Do they capture learning from any questions raised?

• Do they combine quantitative and qualitative data if those are needed to evaluate gender progress?

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2.2 policy insTrumenTs

There are several common policy instruments where gender advocacy can be applied. Within UNICEF’s Focus Area 5 – policy advocacy and partnerships for children’s rights the spotlight is on three channels that are instrumental

for gender analysis and advocacy: poverty reduction strategies and national development plans, social protection strategies and social budgeting.

a. poverty reduction strategies and national development plansSince the 1990s, with the launch of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries debt relief and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), country-owned poverty reduction strategies and national development plans have emerged as central instruments for establishing national development objectives and coordinating policies and resources. The UN Development Group encourages all UN country teams to actively participate in processes concerning poverty reduction strategies/national development plans as a platform to advocate for a holistic, human-rights approach to development and to press for the MDGs as the long-term goals of national development and international cooperation.

The Bretton Woods institutions are key partners in many countries in ensuring that the poverty reduction strategy is gender sensitive, as are some bilateral donors and regional development banks. National participation is integral to the strategies, including by stakeholders such as government ministries, civil society organizations and legislators. UNICEF’s experiences highlight the importance of gender-balanced participation. This affirms

women’s right to participate and helps ensure that gender-equality considerations are prioritized and cut across strategies and plans. Where women’s economic opportunities lag behind men’s, for example, participation of women and men and gender-sensitive analysis can sharpen focus on equitable access to livelihoods and economic assets.

Gender considerations need to be factored into each stage of poverty reduction strategy/national development plan processes. A situational analysis on poverty can draw on gender-sensitive data and analysis to inform policy frameworks and programmes (see Box on page 19).

Gender-responsive costing and budgeting should guide implementation. Monitoring and evaluation can incorporate indicators to measure progress towards gender-equality objectives and changes in gender relations. The forthcoming UNICEF–European Commission toolkit on incorporating child rights will provide examples of gender-sensitive indicators for poverty reduction strategies and national development plans.

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Examples of UN and UNICEF engagement in advocating for gender issues in poverty reduction strategies have included studies highlighting steps to stop illegal trafficking in albania, malawi and Tajikistan. In niger, UNICEF supported a poverty assessment with detailed gender-disaggregated analysis. The study showed that poverty largely affected women and contributed to making gender a cross-cutting priority in the poverty reduction strategy. UNICEF then collaborated with partners to promote legislation to improve gender equality and with the World Food Programme on increasing girls’ enrolment and retention in primary schools.

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useful Tools: The Global sTudy on child poverTy and dispariTies

The Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities, built around decentralized research and analysis, can help identify vulnerable populations and provide concrete recommendations on how legislation, policies and programmes can best support women’s and child rights.

Carried out in 50 countries so far, the study explores community, household and individual factors that lead to specific outcomes for children, including those that result in exclusion. The analysis delves into the underlying determinants of poverty and how they may differently affect men, women, boys and girls. It also details the impacts of gender disparities on economic development.

Combining quantitative and qualitative methods to capture the true nature of child poverty, the study includes questions such as:

• Howhaspovertychangedthroughoutthelastdecade?Whatdoesthisimplyforservices available to children, women and their families, including to those with limited resources and/or special disadvantages?

• Whoexactlyare‘poor’families,children,girlsandboys?Towhatdegreedonational and sub-national dimensions (such as region or residence), household and community dimensions (e.g., household structure, income/wealth, gender, age, ethnicity or education of the household members), and individual characteristics (such as gender and age of the child) correlate with and/or explain child poverty and/or poor results?

• Whatdeprivationsinwhatpartofthecountry,andamongwhichgroupsofhouseholds or children, boys or girls, are the most frequent and/or most persistent?

For more, see Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities Guide, <www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/UNICEFGlobalStudyGuide(1).pdf>.

b. Child and gender-sensitive social protectionChild-sensitive social protection is the integrated system of social transfers (cash and in-kind), social insurance, social services, policies, legislation and regulations that ease the vulnerabilities of families and maximize the well-being of children. Social protection systems should address structural poverty and deprivation and protect people from individual and aggregate shocks. UNICEF’s growing portfolio of work in this area mirrors demand from programme country governments and growing consensus about the important role of social protection in human development.

To be effective, social protection needs to ensure that all women, men, boys and girls have access to adequate benefits. Many social protection initiatives focus on the household level without explicitly considering intrahousehold dynamics that work against gender equality. Integrating gender analysis into programme design, implementation and evaluation is critical to achieving gender objectives.

Evidence of the gender impacts of social protection systems, particularly cash transfer programmes, is broadly positive. For example,


conditional cash transfers in Peru have reduced the number of women giving birth at home without trained assistance in areas that had very high levels of maternal mortality.19 But full support for women’s empowerment requires incorporating gender analysis across the design and monitoring of social protection systems.

Cash transfer programmes in Latin America and Africa have found that women given money retain control over it, although there are exceptions. Some women report greater self-confidence and increased bargaining power. Concerns have been raised, however, about increasing women’s work burdens and reinforcing traditional gender roles, particularly in conditional cash transfer programmes. In qualitative evaluations, women in Mexico’s Progresa programme expressed an interest in options to acquire skills and employment, rather than just to improve their ability to take care of their children. They suggested that men as well as women should participate in education programmes on topics such as domestic violence and family planning.20

All social protection programmes should be based on a multidimensional analysis of the sources of vulnerability. This should draw on data disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant social categories for multiple

dimensions of poverty and vulnerability. Income-only measures can disguise vulnerabilities and differences between women, men, boys and girls, especially since data are usually available only at the household level. Also important is a gender analysis of the benefits and reach of existing programmes.

National consultations to develop social protection programmes should actively include the voices of women and girls. They should assess who should be the primary beneficiaries and how results might vary accordingly, including in terms of gender. Public works programmes, for example, might rely on male-only activities that deliver benefits to men, but also result in boys being pulled out of school. Women’s participation in group activities could increase their time burdens if they cannot renegotiate domestic responsibilities. Programmes may need to make provisions for women’s and girls’ specific needs, such as to accommodate breastfeeding and child care, and address intrahousehold relationships to support gender equality. Risks that could result from women participating in certain activities should be understood and mitigated. Accountability mechanisms, such as those to register complaints, should be equally accessible to men and women.

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Few social protection programmes have explicitly attempted to address gender equality, but there are some positive examples. A number of programmes, particularly in latin america, target women as primary beneficiaries under the assumption that this will both increase their control over resources and have positive benefits for children. Some programmes provide additional incentives for keeping girls in school, such as mexico’s Progresa/Oportunidades programme or bangladesh’s female stipend programme. peru’s Juntos programme included an explicit goal of transforming gender relations and incorporated gender awareness-raising sessions for both men and women.21

An example of modifying a programme to be more gender and child sensitive is the Productive Safety Net Programme in ethiopia. It now allows women to become direct support beneficiaries (receiving cash without work requirements) for 10 months after birth in order to enable them to recover, to exclusively breastfeed their children, and to make the transition into complementary foods.

19 Jones, et al., 2008.20 Adato, et al., 2000, Molyneux, 2006.21 Jones, et al., 2008.

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22 See Deles, et al., 2009.23 See Quinn, 2009.

c. Social and gender budgeting Social budget work is often used as a catch-all term to describe analytical and policy advocacy work bringing in perspectives – such as from children, women and poor families – that tend to be inadequately reflected in budgetary and broader macroeconomic policies. Ideally, the public sector budget represents the goals of society22 and helps to ensure people have adequate resources to claim rights and opportunities. But public finance policy can malfunction in at least three key ways:

• Inefficiencies can result when funds are diverted from their intended purpose or when governance problems cause public sector programmes to be less effective;

• Inequity can arise when some groups are marginalized in decision-making processes and their concerns are not reflected in policy priorities; and

• Social sectors can suffer from the effects of aggregate shocks, and social and economic recovery can be curtailed, when social spending and investments are cut during crises at precisely the time they are most needed.

Social budget work seeks to address these potential constraints by ensuring that budgets are more efficient and more equitable and offer counter-cyclical responses to crises. It entails looking at both the collection of revenues, such as through taxation, and their expenditure through the budget. Because public finance management can malfunction at any point in a typical budget cycle, each stage offers room to integrate social and economic priorities that support human rights, development and gender equality. Budget stages normally include budget preparation, approval by the legislature, implementation and tracking, and performance evaluation.

Gender-responsive budgeting undertakes a specific gender-based assessment of budgets and seeks to restructure revenues and expenditures to promote gender equality.23

It is based on the reality that throughout the life cycle, women tend to benefit less from privately owned and allocated resources then men. They may suffer discrimination as young children in the allocation of food, or as older children in education opportunities or in allocations of household chores. As adults, they bear a disproportionate share of child care and other work around the house. Consequently, they have less access to income from paid employment, in particular from decent work, and they often have less access to private health insurance or old-age insurance from employers.

Because of all of these disadvantages, women need more social protection and publicly provided services, and they stand to benefit more from public expenditures than men. This also means that weak fiscal policies and poor public expenditure management can affect women more harshly. Gender-based scrutiny and transparency in the preparation, implementation and monitoring of budgets are crucial for progress in gender equality.

Gender-responsive budgeting places specific emphasis on examining how budgets affect women and girls differently than men and boys. It avoids the assumption that public spending is gender-neutral and advocates deliberate steps to correct disparities. To determine variations between male and female members of the household, for example, gender budget analysis challenges conventional economics based on using the household as the smallest unit of analysis, and draws in long-neglected issues such as women’s unpaid work and the care economy.

Viewing a budget through a gender lens can include several elements:

• Reviewing gender issues in one or more social or economic sectors;

• Analysing existing policy framework(s);

• Determining whether resources are sufficient to reach policy goals;


• Examining the collection and use of resources, using sex- and age-disaggregated data to clarify the different impacts on men, women, girls and boys;

• Assessing the longer-term impacts on men, women, girls and boys;

• Advocating for strategies to correct imbalances that perpetuate gender inequalities; and

• Monitoring disbursement and impacts of committed expenditures.24

A recent review of UNICEF budget initiatives in more than 70 countries has identified work that has mainstreamed gender priorities.25 Many initiatives aim to apply a gender lens in policymaking (enhancing the supply side), and to strengthen women’s participation in budgetary and policy discussions (bolstering

the demand side). In several countries, UNICEF and partners such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) -- now incorporated into UN Women -- have designed workshops for government officials, often coming from the Ministry of Finance, who learn to apply gender- and child-sensitive budgeting principles.26 Commissioned studies measure the integration of gender equality in budgets and social services such as health and credit facilities.

Partnerships with groups working on gender facilitate UNICEF’s identification of possible links between children’s and women’s rights. They have allowed UNICEF and its partners to develop experience in social budgeting before scaling up work, to identify entry points in the policy cycle, and to more effectively engage key government ministries and departments.

24 United Nations Fund for the Development of Women/Non-Governmental Liaison Service, 2008.25 See Gore, 2009.26 Gore 2009 cites Egypt and Morocco as examples. In Egypt, there has been successful advocacy for a gender analysis

of the budget conducted by the Government. In Morocco, UNICEF supported gender budgeting at the community and municipality level in 2006, and has subsequently moved into analysing children’s rights and budgets.

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Table 2: useful Tools: Ways To brinG Gender inTo social budGeTinG

acTiviTy27 possible means To mainsTream Gender

analysis of budget allocations, including sectoral analyses and costing

• Budgetofministriesoverseeingthewelfareofwomencanbeincludedinthe analysis.

• Budgetcomponentsbeneficialtowomencanbecomparedwithotherallocations, such as defence and debt servicing, in order to evaluate policy priorities and scope for allocation adjustments.

• Sufficiencyofallocationsformeetinggendergoalscanbeevaluated.• Budgettrendsovertimecanbeexamined,determiningtheextentto

which these support delivery on child and gender commitments to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

• Effectsofaggregateshocksonsocialexpendituresandchildren’sand women’s welfare can be analysed, helping to ensure that budget allocations reflect effective counter-cyclical social spending.

marginal budgeting for bottlenecks28

• Usingthistoolwithanaddedfocusonprogrammesforwomencanpinpoint the best investments for immediate improvements in service delivery.

engaging/supporting planning and budget preparation process

• Supportcanbeextendedtoministriesforwomen’swelfare,andgender-budget analysts in the Ministry of Finance and legislative bodies.29

• Workshopscanincludemodulesfortrainingbudgetingofficialsingender-sensitive budgeting.30

• Budgetofficialscanbeengagedwithevidence-backedmessagesthatsocial spending and investments, notably during crisis periods, can be strengthened, with a focus on blunting the impact of shocks on poor families, children and women.

expenditure tracking31

• Budgetsearmarkedforprogrammesbeneficialtogirlsandwomencanbesubject to evaluation and expenditure tracking analyses.

analysis of expenditure in relation to social indicators

• Asetofindicatorscanincludegenderindicators,suchasmaternalmortality, girls’ enrolment rates and women’s access to credit facilities.

citizen participation

• UNICEFcanincludewomenandgirlsindialogues,givingthembothguidance and voice for impacting public budgets.

27 There are other innovations that mainstream gender or have the potential for doing so, but are not yet included in this typology. For details about these, please see Deles, Mendoza and Vergara, 2009.

28 See <www.unicef.org/sowc08/docs/sowc08_panel_4_2.pdf> and <www.who.int/pmnch/topics/economics/costing_tools/en/index12.html>.

29 For instance, Budlender 2001 points out that in the United Republic of Tanzania, the Government included members of the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme as consultants in its programme to reform its public financial management system.

30 A guide that may be useful for workshop facilitators can be found at: <www.gender-budgets.org/content/blogcategory/78/155/>.

31 An example is the public expenditure tracking survey (PETS), which can identify leakages in the flows of public finances. See Deles, Mendoza and Vergara, 2009, for a more detailed description of expenditure tracking and PETS.


32 Outlining the details of benefit incidence analyses in gender-responsive budget work is beyond the scope of this brief guidance note. For further discussion and country examples, see: Budlender, 2001 and 2008, and Quinn. 2009.28 Also see <www.unicef.org/sowc08/docs/sowc08_panel_4_2.pdf> and <www.who.int/pmnch/topics/economics/costing_tools/en/index12.html>.

useful Tools: defininG Who benefiTs and hoW

Benefit incidence analyses: Gender-responsive budget work has often turned to benefit incidence analyses and techniques to examine budget impacts on men and women, as well as boys and girls. The broad goal is to assess the extent to which commitments regarding gender equality are advanced (or constrained) by the funding of specific programmes and policies.32

Expenditure reviews and tracking: Public expenditure tracking surveys (PETS) collect information that might otherwise be difficult to find with underdeveloped public accounting and management information systems. A survey may be the only way to quantitatively diagnose problems of service delivery by collecting data on facilities, financial flows, outputs and so on. PETS were pioneered in Uganda in 1996, revealing that only 24 per cent of the capitation grant from the central Government actually reached schools. After an information campaign mobilized local school officials, parents and the public to monitor the grant programme, another PETS in 2000 found schools receiving more than 90 per cent of the grant. PETS have since been applied in a number of countries to improve budget execution, programme finance and planning.

Costing analyses: Improvements in key sectors such as health and education often run into bottlenecks that hamper the achievement of policy objectives. Marginal budgeting for bottlenecks is a tool that calculates the marginal (or incremental) costs of improving key services – for instance, the cost of extending basic health services to an additional 1 per cent of the population. Incremental changes are, in many cases, more easily obtained during the budget process than comprehensive packages involving numerous programmes with high costs.

Marginal budgeting for bottlenecks contributes to the efficiency of public sector resource allocations by providing information on the best investments of limited resources. In Mauritania, marginal budgeting for bottlenecks was used to help support a 40 per cent increase in the health budget when it was found that a marginal cost of US$1.50 per capita in health spending would result in a 30 per cent reduction in infant mortality and a 40 per cent reduction in maternal mortality. In Mali, marginal budgeting for bottlenecks has become a crucial part of the annual budgetary process, after the discovery that a marginal increase of US$12 per capita would decrease under-five mortality by 20 per cent to 40 per cent and maternal mortality by 40 per cent to 80 per cent.

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2.3 frameWork concerns: economic crisis, climaTe chanGe and miGraTion

Three current global issues with strong gender implications that cut across various policy analysis and advocacy processes include

economic crisis, climate change and migration. This section introduces the gender dimensions in each area.

a. economic crisisWomen and girls are often disproportionately impacted by and more vulnerable to the consequences of economic crises than men. This is due to a lack of legal protections, limited decision-making authority and inequitable access to economic resources. Girls are more likely to be pulled from school when family budgets tighten. Growing evidence is demonstrating how macroeconomic changes can produce micro-level fallout on women and girls, while shifts at the micro level can feed back into societies and economies as a whole. Some observations drawn from the current crisis include:

• Women are considered an expendable workforce that can be expelled in downturns;

• More women than men will end up in insecure jobs;

• The loss of a woman’s income in a household may be more damaging to children, as women tend to devote more resources to children than men;

• Women migrants tend to send a larger percentage of their wages home as remittances, but economic pressure means these funds may decrease;

• Declining household incomes can cause women to reduce their own food intake;

• Women’s ‘time poverty’ may increase if economic adversity forces them to add more tasks to both household and market work;

• Women can be creative and flexible in their responses to crisis, such as by adopting new livelihoods;

• Economic hardship can be linked to higher rates of gender-based violence; and

• Loss of employment can produce deep crises for men who equate manhood with their ability to be a provider, and some will turn to alcohol or other drugs, or gambling or violence.

Well-designed policy responses are critical to rapid recovery from economic crisis. If they do not take gender on board, the outcomes can be detrimental to women and girls. But by upsetting usual social and economic patterns, crises can also present opportunities to introduce new policies to reduce inequalities and foster better access to services, including through progressive social policy programmes. A crisis in Mexico led to the 2003 establishment of a universal health scheme that has since improved access to obstetric services, for example.

Defining gender-responsive policies requires a consideration of existing gender relations, poverty levels, labour market characteristics and cultural norms. Both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women underline the rights of women and girls to acquire skills and assets. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women stipulates that women and girls should be protected in unpaid work in rural and family enterprises, and that they should receive equal pay.

Four policy responses are particularly important to gender equality in times of economic crisis. They include:

Fiscal stimulus: Counter-cyclical policies that emphasize income generation, basic services and consumption incentives have increasingly been affirmed for their long-term growth prospects. The underlying structure of these policies is important for gender equality: recent stimulus packages have been criticized, for instance,


for mainly stimulating new jobs in fields dominated by men. Women may have specific social spending needs related to education and childcare, and can benefit as well from new employment options. Other investments that tend to be positive for women are in agriculture and microcredit.

Social protection: These measures mitigate the effects of shocks and typically comprise social insurance, social assistance (such as cash transfers) and social services. For more on the gender aspects, see the discussion on social protection earlier in this section.

Labour policies: Measures that can be particularly important to women include unemployment insurance, retraining

programmes and public works initiatives deliberately designed to be accessible to women. In traditional public works programmes, such as construction projects, child care and women-specific facilities can increase women’s participation. Reduced working hours for all employees at given enterprises can be a strategy to spread income loss across households and avoid the tendency to fire women first.

Aid: Maintaining aid flows in line with international commitments is critical to sustaining social services on which many women and girls depend. Some work has been done to ‘mark’ aid for its contributions to gender equality, but much more analysis and data is needed in this area.

b. Climate changeThe scope of climate change is as yet unknown, but most estimates suggest it could be severe unless measures are taken to significantly curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming and to enact adaptation strategies to cope with likely fallout. Climate change may spread disease, reduce agricultural productivity, sharpen the severity of natural disasters, curtail natural resources, and impose additional burdens on already constrained public budgets and services.

All of these impacts have gender dimensions – in the places where women manage agriculture, for example, they may suffer livelihood and food security shortfalls, but not be able to access adequate compensation. Girls who have to walk greater distances for fuel and water will be less likely to go to school, and may face health risks and increased rates of violence. On the positive side, women and girls in many communities are already involved in resource management and have skills that should be tapped as part of contending with climate change. In 2009, for the first time, gender issues were incorporated in the international negotiations leading up to the Copenhagen conference on climate change.

Two types of policies related to climate change are mitigation and adaptation.

Mitigation includes cutting greenhouse gas emissions and ‘capturing’ those that have already been released. Some attempts have

been made to break down emissions by gender, in order to determine gender differences in energy use and transportation, for instance. From a gender equality perspective, this information could be useful in making policy decisions, such as when emissions cuts are pursued across different sectors under a planned national emissions cap. Gender equity might require that sectors directly affecting the development of women and girls be given greater latitude in emissions restrictions.

Adaptation involves a wide range of strategies, including building seawalls, establishing natural protected areas and shifting patterns of crop irrigation. Particularly in poorer developing countries, where emissions rates are still nominal but people in general are more vulnerable to climate change due to poverty, adaptation strategies are foremost in importance. Different adaptation strategies may be more or less supportive of gender equality, and should be analysed accordingly.

Some areas for work on gender equality and climate change might include:

• Studies on gender-differentiated aspects of climate change;

• Developing adaptation and mitigation strategies that build on successful gender strategies in agriculture, water resources management, disaster risk management, public service provision and other relevant areas;

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• Recognizing the value of local resource management strategies, while also providing women and girls with opportunities to acquire new skills and technologies related to climate change;

• Identifying the gender aspects of climate change technology and finance (including

who accesses the benefits), and advocating gender-sensitive policy responses;

• Advocating for gender equitable access to international carbon markets; and

• Encouraging the participation of women and children in all climate change debates and policy choices.

c. migrationMigration can provide new opportunities for women and girls to improve their lives and transform oppressive gender relations, but it can also expose them to new vulnerabilities and reinforce traditional inequalities. Migrant women and girls, especially those without documentation, are vulnerable to trafficking, abuse, exploitation and other human rights violations. In destination countries, migrant women often face barriers to obtaining decent work and, as a result, are concentrated in low-wage and precarious occupations. They may enjoy little or no legal protection – labour legislation in many countries still exempts domestic jobs, where many women migrants end up, from provisions that apply to other forms of work.

UNICEF country studies indicate that the migration of mothers generally has severe effects on children’s emotional, psychological and physical health. Girls left behind frequently take on full household responsibilities, as they ‘inherit’ their mother’s traditional roles. They may also become more vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse.

Internationally, momentum is growing around incorporating gender in migration policy discussions, such as those at the Global Forum on Migration and Development. On the national level, closing legal and policy gaps in areas such as domestic work, child labour and gender-based violence will contribute in no small measure to improving conditions for many migrant women and adolescent girls. More gender-specific research and comparable, disaggregated data are needed for evidence-based policymaking at all levels.

Priorities for UNICEF staff working on migration-related policy include efforts to:

• Advocate for the visibility of women, children and adolescents in national and international migration policy agendas;

• Develop a rights-based framework for addressing the social and economic effects of migration;

• Promote a multidisciplinary policy response to challenges in countries of origin and transit;

• Work in synergy with UN partners and intergovernmental agencies in establishing a coherent policy platform on migration;

• Collaborate with national governments and key civil society institutions on migration issues affecting women and children; and

• Strengthen policymaking capacity at national and local levels.

Recent migration initiatives in which UNICEF has been involved have included the global estimation of the numbers of international migrant children and adolescents, disaggregated by gender, age and country of birth and citizenship, as well as the development of a household survey methodology based on MICS to collect quantitative and qualitative data on the impact of migration on children, adolescents and women left behind. Policy research has taken place on the social and human rights impacts of migration, with a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment. In El Salvador, the UNICEF Country Office conducted a survey of 923 adolescents, 12–17 years old, from migrant households to shed light on the opinions of adolescent girls and boys on the migration of their parents.


© UNICEF - Giacomo Pirozzi

This final section looks specifically at legislative reform, which can catalyse the transformation of legal and administrative frameworks that define relations among the government, individuals and private actors. Since gender discrimination can be entrenched in many aspects of legal systems, including in ways that influence many dimensions of policy advocacy, legal reform may be needed as a foundation for progress on other fronts over the longer term.

The participation of girls and boys, discussed in the second half of the section, is not only a right enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but also part of effective advocacy, since girls and boys can often provide the most accurate information on their own situation.

3.1 leGislaTive reform

Legislative reform involves reviewing and reforming laws and the elements necessary to implement them, including legal and other governmental institutions, social and economic policies, and budget allocations. A human rights-based approach to legislative reform is participatory, involving vulnerable

and marginalized stakeholders and accounting for the views of children and women. It encompasses the substance of laws, the structures to implement them and factors such as social attitudes that may hinder access to legal protection.

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While many judicial systems are in theory oriented around a principle of neutrality and equality before the law, in practice, gender discrimination means that laws and their implementation can differently affect women and men, and boys and girls. Mainstreaming gender is therefore important at all stages and across all aspects of legislative reform.

Advancing the legal rights of children is often intertwined with the advancement of the rights of women, a synergy reflected in the relevance to UNICEF’s work of both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Framework legal principles such as the anti-discrimination clauses of Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women complement and mutually reinforce each other.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is premised on the notion of ‘substantive equality’, which means that all people, regardless of gender, have the same status in respect to specific rights and obligations. It also implies that measures be taken to ensure that equality has real meaning in the lives of women and girls, and does not remain confined to promises on paper. Article 2 of the Convention requires states to undertake legislative reforms to include equality principles, prohibit discrimination throughout the life cycle and end practices that discriminate against women, whether or not they are written into law. These principles must be enshrined in the law and implemented in practice. Article 3 highlights the need for appropriate laws to advance women’s enjoyment of rights on an equal basis with men.

The process of legislative reform begins with a close examination of how laws and implementation measures may have different gender impacts. It calls for understanding existing economic, social and cultural inequalities by gender and age, and how these may be exacerbated – or corrected – by the legal system. Typically, framework principles such as anti-discrimination are reflected in constitutions and then translated down through a complex web of national and local laws. In terms of gender equality, common deficits in legal systems entail:

• Gaps, where laws or constitutional principles do not exist despite an evident need;

• Statutes that are overtly discriminatory;

• Contradictions, such as those that occur when laws are inconsistent with constitutional principles, or when discriminatory customary laws are given legal standing even if they contradict the legal system; and

• ‘Protective’ measures based on gender stereotypes, such as bans on work at night that deprive women and girls of equal opportunities.

Common problems that may need to be addressed in the implementation of laws include:

• Lack of access to judicial mechanisms due to location, affordability or other issues;

• Lack of appropriate mechanisms to enforce the law, such as police units specially trained to overcome taboos against reporting domestic violence;

• Discriminatory norms internalized and upheld by judicial personnel that can lead to misinterpretations of the law or an unwillingness to uphold it;

• Disempowering social attitudes that discourage women and girls from claiming their legal rights; and

• Co-existence of customary laws that are discriminatory and cause contradictions with codified laws.

Some gender inequalities can be addressed by erasing overt forms of legal discrimination, but others may require affirmative action measures, as noted in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This more assertive approach – most commonly seen so far in the reservation of political seats for women – attempts to speed up the attainment of substantive equality by shifting ingrained patterns and creating an environment where women and girls have an equal footing with men and boys. With many forms of discrimination rooted in households, equality laws may need to extend into family


relations. One example of the way in which discrimination – both in the home and workplace – can be approached is the Icelandic Law on Equality, which guarantees the rights of both men and women to shoulder equal responsibilities in care work and paid work.

UNICEF contributes to legislative reform through various entry points. These include:

• Advocating for reform, including through the provision of evidence to make the case for changes;

• Catalysing partnerships among governmental bodies, civil society organizations, the private sector and others;

• Providing technical assistance for the effective formulation of new laws;

• Ensuring the participation of women, including those from marginalized groups (e.g., indigenous groups, ethnic minorities, women affected by HIV and AIDS, etc.) in legal reform;

• Supporting consultations on legal issues that are sensitive to culture and gender and take participants’ needs and rights into account, including by reflecting these in the final outcome;

• Advancing the implementation of legal protections through programmes to sensitize the general public and the judiciary, or through pilot legal and social services required for people to access the law.

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UNICEF country offices have taken two broad approaches to working on laws and gender equality: supporting legislative reforms specifically aimed at promoting and protecting women’s rights, and ensuring that a gender perspective is included in more general laws and enforcement mechanisms.

In nepal, for example, UNICEF has supported the drafting of the Gender Equality Bill. In ethiopia, UNICEF supported the establishment of a Girls’ Forum in 2004, which laid the foundation for legislative intervention against the sexual abuse of school girls, female genital mutilation/cutting, early marriage, marriage by abduction and harmful traditional practices in general. Since issues of sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking typically call for an emphasis on law enforcement measures, country office activities have included support to the national police for the establishment of child and gender protection units, the training of police officers, and effective case management and investigation procedures.

In advocating for women’s rights within the framework of broader laws, a main area of work for UNICEF has been the inclusion of gender-sensitive provisions and the elimination of gender discrimination in family law. Juvenile justice reform can also incorporate a gender perspective. In the philippines, for example, UNICEF helped ensure that the bill on juvenile justice contained gender-sensitive provisions, stating that female children in conflict with the law shall be given special attention as to their needs, be placed separately from male children in conflict with the law, and be handled by female doctors and law enforcement officials. The law also makes gender training compulsory for personnel working with children in conflict with the law.

In some countries, UNICEF faces obstacles in promoting a gender perspective to legislative reform due to the political context and/or religious beliefs. This kind of situation needs to be approached with careful attention to the context, since reform that becomes too controversial can quickly stall. The Jordan Country Office, for example, has found it most effective to adopt a multifaceted approach to gender issues, sometimes advocating for equal rights for women and girls under international law, and sometimes under Islamic sharia.

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33 A class-action lawsuit is filed by one or more people on behalf of themselves and a larger group of people “who are similarly situated.” Examples might include: all women who have suffered from defective contraceptive devices or all those overcharged by a public utility during a particular period, etc.

Table 3: useful Tools: sTraTeGies To address leGal discriminaTion

elemenTs of The laW

direcT/indirecT discriminaTion

sTraTeGies (leGislaTive, liTiGaTion, specialized Gender TraininG)

substance Discriminatory formal law Amend legislation; and narrow the limits of judicial discretion if possible (legislative strategy).

substance Discriminatory customary law

Promulgate new laws or amend existing legislation; file a test case for new positive interpretation; and narrow the limits of judicial discretion if possible (legislative and litigation strategies).

substance Discriminatory act/omission File lawsuits; apply to court for issuance of writs; and enact new legislation (litigant and legislative strategies).

substance Discriminatory interpretation Enact new legislation if litigation fails; file a test case for new positive interpretation; and offer training and gender sensitization to judicial and other relevant officials (litigation and legislative strategies).

structure Lack of access to court (remoteness and inadequacy)

Provide innovative methods of court access, e.g., mobile courts; obtain court orders by telephone or authorize trained persons to administer law in remote areas; and alternate dispute resolution.

structure Barriers to access in justice systems

Increased number of female law enforcement officials (judges, magistrate and police officers); counselling; and safe shelters.

structure Incapacity to enforce law/rights owing to lack of resources or financial means

Provide legal representation; and earmark funds for legal support.

culture Discriminatory interpretation of legislation

Public interest litigation; gender training for justice agency officials; test cases and class actions;33 and amend legislation (a combination of litigation, training and legislative strategies).

culture Unwillingness to enforce legislation

Gender training; persuasive dialogue; advocacy through non-governmental organizations, media, etc.; declaratory orders from a court; and lawsuits for negligence/failure to act with claims for damages/compensation.

source: United Nations Development Programme, 2010.


3.2 participation for women and childrenArticle 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out the principle that children should be listened to regarding any matter that concerns them, and that their views should be given due consideration in accordance with their age and maturity. Children and young people can participate in many different forums, from households and schools to municipal councils and global conferences. Institutions and processes that affect the everyday realities of young people are likely to have a deeper impact and inspire the most interest. Homes and schools may be most significant for a majority of young people because their relationships with family members, teachers and fellow students are probably regular and influential.

Child participation work typically challenges discrimination by encouraging the involvement of children in activities from which they might otherwise be excluded. Providing equal opportunities for children to speak and be heard, regardless of age, race, gender, religion or other parameters of human diversity can be a means of modelling democracy and the values of gender equality and respect for diversity.

Girls and boys are usually in the best position to provide information on their own situation. It may not be enough just to ask boys and girls what they think, however. Taking time to understand and follow their lives can provide insights regarding what questions to ask and how to interpret the answers. When working on gender issues, it is important to be aware that even as boys and girls can be actors for change,

their views are formed by their experiences and backgrounds, including ideas about gender roles and expectations.

Different strategies may be required to promote the participation of girls and boys. Strategies might, for instance, take into account the different types of work boys and girls do. Ensuring that girls and boys can speak freely often means organizing separate participatory sessions.

Some general principles for gender-sensitive child participation initiatives include:

• All girls and boys should have an equal chance to voice their opinions and have these reflected in the outcomes of participatory processes.

• Aiming to include all children may mean reaching out to them in local settings.

• Participatory practices should be flexible enough to respond to the needs and expectations of different groups of children – and to regularly re-visit their concerns.

• The age range, gender and abilities of children should be taken into account.

• Adults working with girls and boys should be skilled in facilitating an inclusive environment.

• No assumptions should be made about what different groups of girls and boys can do.

counTry cases

UNICEF bangladesh has an adolescent girls programme designed to empower girls and discourage early marriage. Girls learn to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their lives, including education and marriage, and become active agents of social change in households and communities level. Peer leaders coordinate activities such as the organization and running of centres for adolescents.

In malawi, adolescent girls are highly vulnerable to HIV. UNICEF and the Ministry of Education have launched the Sisters to Sisters initiative, where trained female peer educators, ideally older sisters or cousins, help strengthen knowledge among girls and encourage healthy attitudes and behaviours. A programme to combat HIV and AIDS in ethiopia encourages girls and boys to speak openly about such issues as sex before marriage, gender roles, gender inequality and violence. They have gained new knowledge, self-confidence and respect for diverse perspectives.

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• If there is a limit to how many girls and boys can participate, children themselves should select peers who will represent them in participatory initiatives, based on the principles of democracy and inclusion.

Throughout the past decade, many policies that promote women’s participation, in particular in public life, have emerged, due in large

part to civil society activism and government obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Quota systems have a particularly strong record of success in reserving political space for women.

useful Tools: reachinG marGinalized adolescenT Girls34

The UN Joint Programming Framework for Reaching Marginalized Adolescent Girls has been developed to support the UN system in ensuring that programmes reach these girls and help uphold their rights. Millions of adolescent girls are relegated – unseen and unheard – to the margins of society, where their rights are disregarded, depriving them of full physical, emotional and social development. Although some development programmes have benefited more advantaged adolescent girls, the vast majority have failed to include marginalized girls or make a significant difference in their lives. Additional efforts and investments need to be made. The framework lays out principles on how to adapt existing programmes or develop new ones. Some of the issues covered include:

identify marginalized adolescent girls

• Make conscious efforts to ‘see’ marginalized girls (by asking the right questions).• Use mapping techniques to locate concentrations of vulnerable adolescents.• Speak to girls directly and incorporate their opinions into situation analyses.• Gather and analyse data to develop social profiles of diverse groups of girls.• Measure girls’ social assets, access and safety (e.g., do they have friends and places

to meet?).• Assess marginalized girls’ current share of existing programme resources.

use targeted strategies for inclusion in policy, advocacy and programming responses

• Implement age-appropriate approaches. Younger adolescent girls require different interventions from older girls; likewise married girls vis-à-vis unmarried girls, even of the same age.

• Promote girls-only activities to increase participation, e.g., in youth centres.• Develop the skills of local girl leaders to serve as mentors and role models for younger

adolescents.• Ensure access to girls-only spaces – safe havens from trauma, stress, violence and abuse –

where girls can develop friendship networks, learn about their rights and become leaders.• Work with girls to improve their access to capabilities and assets that can reduce

vulnerabilities and expand opportunities for livelihoods.• Promote participation that will help girls develop self-confidence and skills, build

competencies, learn to be active, shape their own lives and expand their own freedoms.• Involve families and communities, including political and social leaders, from the beginning,

so that they support and create opportunities for girls’ empowerment.• Work on changing gender-discriminatory attitudes among boys and men. • Involve local and national governments to factor gender equality into programmes and policies.

34 See <www.unicef.org/adolescence/files/FINAL-UNJointFramewokrpdf.pdf>.


4 CONClUSION

UN

ICE

F/NY

HQ

2006-2542/Giaco

mo

Piro

zzi

This document has looked at how policy advocacy and analysis are integral to achieving gender equality. The entry points for advocacy can differ. Establishing a foundation of data and evidence may be a first step in some cases, while drafting new legislation or allocating more resources will be the beginning in other situations. Regardless, the overarching objective is the same: to move towards transforming societies so that they are equitable and just for women, men, girls and boys. Gender disparities should not pose obstacles to individuals or to the development of societies as a whole.

Some key points to take away from the Operational Guidance are as follows:

Women, girls, men and boys are entitled to gender equality as a right, but equality is also

good for development. More powerful and far-reaching public policies – across the full spectrum of issues, whether on education, economics, political participation or climate change – result from including measures to correct gender disparities.

At all points of policy advocacy, impacts, benefits and costs may vary by gender. Even beyond the initial phase of gathering evidence and formulating an advocacy plan, these variations should be systematically tracked, analysed and integrated into advocacy to keep it responsive and on track.This process should also recognize that gender discrimination can be compounded by additional forms of exclusion related to income, ethnicity, ability/disability, geographical location and so on.

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4 conclusion

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Advocacy work should always be grounded in strong evidence. Where evidence on gender is not available, as is often the case due to patterns of gender discrimination, if should be sought, including through qualitative research methods that capture the perspectives of women, men, boys and girls. Quality data is more than just disaggregation by sex; collection and analysis should focus on issues pivotal to achieving gender equality.

Equitable participation is integral to informing and carrying out advocacy. It captures diverse perspectives that can make advocacy more targeted and accurate, and models the principle that men, women, girls and boys should all have a voice in decisions that affect them. At the same time, the assumption that women and girls will automatically think differently or look out for their own interests needs to be handled with care, given the fact that gender discrimination can be deeply internalized in those who live under it.

The drivers of gender discrimination are many and widely varied. They are typically reflected in institutions and policies, but their roots go much deeper into culture, tradition and people’s perceptions. Policy advocacy regarding gender

will rarely be a mechanical or technocratic process, where simply presenting the right evidence will be enough to make a difference. Equally important is convincingly framing the argument for gender equality, since what is persuasive in one situation may not be so in another. This requires a strong sensitivity to what people already think and how much they might be willing to start thinking differently.

Working towards gender equality is a long-term process, with progress accelerating as many small steps add up. While the kinds of work being discussed in this document may focus on advocating policies, laws and systems for providing evidence, these at some point must be connected to implementation, including through the concrete provision of new resources and mechanisms for delivery and accountability. Many commitments have now been made on gender equality, both at national and international levels, but the record on fulfilling them lags far behind. Among the reasons for this are a lack of funding, limited interest and missing indicators to measure progress. Policies and evidence provide valuable impetus and set a new direction as a beginning, not an end.


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Cover Photo: UNICEF/INDA2011-00107/Graham Crouch