Working with other organisations

Working in partnership with others is fundamental to the success of our work and our impact. We work in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders from international organisations, such as the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Population Fund, to regional organisations such as the African Union, and Caribbean Community (CARICOM), bilateral partners such as the Cultural Industries Development Agency and UK’s Department for International Development and civil society organisations.

• A number of our initiatives have been taken on board by other agencies. For example, we are one of the main pioneers of global gender responsive budgeting. It has shaped concepts, developed methodologies and toolkits and has released publications on gender responsive budgeting that are being used by other partners at both the national and international levels to carry the initiative forward.
• We also bring Commonwealth National Women’s Machineries and other partners together to share good practices in the areas of democracy, the law and the economy, as well as promote the mainstreaming of gender into different sectors and government ministries.
• We have undertaken pioneering work with governments to ensure that their budgets are gender sensitive. This programme, spearheaded by the Secretariat in collaboration with other global partners like the United Nations Development Fund for Women and other UN Agencies, has promoted the use of the national budget as an instrument for ensuring that all sector programmes benefit women and girls, and men and boys equally.
• Our work also involves collaborating with regional organisations and academic institutions with a focus on specific gender issues and sharing lessons across regions and the Commonwealth.
• Best practices have also been shared in new areas through our gender mainstreaming series of publications.