Commonwealth Secretariat
  1. Gender Home
  2. Vision & mandate
    1. Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015
    2. Secretary General's Reports
    3. 1995 Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development
    4. Update 2000-2005
  3. What we do
    1. Poverty Eradication
    2. Gender and Human Rights
    3. Gender Mainstreaming
    4. Gender, democracy, peace and conflict
    5. Gender and HIV/AIDS
    6. Knowledge-Based network (KBN)
  4. WAMMs
    1. 8WAMM
    2. 7WAMM
    3. 6WAMM
  5. Documents
    1. Reports
    2. Papers
    3. Newsletters
    4. Meeting documents, New York, 23-24 February, 2008
  6. News Archive
  7. Publications
    1. Gender Mainstreaming Series on Gender Issues
    2. Gender Management Systems Series
    3. Gender Mainstreaming Series on Development Issues
  8. Gender Links

What we do

Executive Forum on National Export Strategies

How we assist Commonwealth citizens

The Gender Section is responsible for developing and implementing the Secretariat’s gender equality programme.

It plays a strong advocacy role in policy reform, assists member states and regional bodies in the formulation of national and regional gender policies, produces new publications and develops methodologies and tools to support gender mainstreaming.

It provides training to strengthen institutional capacity at the national, regional and pan-Commonwealth levels and acts as a knowledge-based network for the sharing of ideas, good practices and lessons learned.

The Commonwealth advocates a rights-based approach to gender equality by implementing the provisions of international, regional and national human rights instruments and mechanisms. At the global level, it works in close partnership with a range of partners to advance work on gender equality issues.

It aims to build and deepen gender mainstreaming in a variety of areas, particularly through the Commonwealth’s gender mainstreaming system which has become an integral part of policy formulation within the Secretariat and beyond.

Examples of what we do

  • Promoting and supporting democratic processes, including female participation in decision-making at all levels, to achieve the Commonwealth target of minimum 30 per cent women’s representation in government processes.
  • Facilitating an enabling environment for women’s economic empowerment through promoting employment rights, capacity building in gender and trade, enterprise development, social protection and gender responsive budgeting initiatives.
  • Developing a programme of work that spans gender-based violence, trafficking of women and children, land and property rights, indigenous peoples, culture, human rights and a life-cycle approach.
  • Providing cutting-edge policy analysis – over 20 publications to date demonstrate how to assess gender issues and impact a range of areas. 
  • Promoting and monitoring women’s participation in conflict prevention, resolution, peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction efforts.

EXPLORE What we do