• Gender:
• Vision & mandate:
• 1995 Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development:
• Equality and equity of outcomes for women

Equality and equity of outcomes for women

Equality and equity of outcomes for women
Policy commitments must be delivered in practice if the 1995 Plan is to change the reality of women's lives in the Commonwealth. It therefore recommends monitoring and evaluation at the highest level to turn the vision into reality.

Terms and techniques
Gender management systems
There are two key elements to establishing institutional arrangements for enhancing the status of women:

• first develop a plan: Gender and Development Action Plans provide the framework for establishing what interventions are necessary to integrate gender concerns into development policies and programmes within a particular country.
• second manage the plan: a system for managing the integration of gender in mainstream policies and programmes is required in order to ensure that the Plan's objectives are met. The system should be such that gender issues are considered as integral parts in formulating, implementing and monitoring policy and programmes. This system is called a Gender Management System.

An effective Women's Affairs Ministry and/or Bureau is prerequisite to the establishment of a Gender Management System. The role of the Ministry and/or Bureau should be to coordinate activities related to the Gender Action Plan and to ensure that gender issues are fully integrated into all development policies and programmes.

Gender budgeting and accounting
Gender budgeting and gender accounting identify and monitor the flow of sufficient financial resources to activities to ensure that women as well as men are equal beneficiaries of programmes, and to specialist projects aimed at benefiting women only.

Positive and affirmative action
Positive action means taking specific temporary measures to achieve equality. For example governments may undertake an awareness campaign to promote the idea of women continuing in education and may advertise for women to apply for places.

Affirmative action includes all that is positive action but goes a step further, giving special privileges to compensate for a long history of discrimination and inequality. For example, points may be added to examination results for girls to enable them to get into university. The thinking behind this is that girls often have less time to spend on school work than boys due to domestic chores. The affirmative action taken recognises that exam results can be affected by gender inequalities.

Strategic objectives
The new directions of the 1995 Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development are translated into strategic objectives for both member governments and the Secretariat.

National and Secretariat roles in implementing the Plan of Action are seen as complementary parts of the same whole. Initiatives undertaken by member governments are the driving force for implementing objectives set out in the Plan while Secretariat activities strive to 'oil the wheels' of governments by providing gender-sensitive support and technical assistance.

The strategic objectives provide a framework for Commonwealth action at two levels:

• strengthening institutional capacity to mainstream gender issues into all sectors of society is the first and most important strategy of the new Plan
• secondly, the 1995 Commonwealth Plan of Action focuses on a limited number of critical gender issues for Commonwealth action in the areas of political and human rights and social and economic development.

Issues selected for Commonwealth action under the 1995 Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development are those where the Commonwealth can claim to enjoy comparative advantage over other international institutions because it has development considerable experience and expertise in those areas. They include:

• women's human rights and the elimination of violence against women;
• women's participation in democratic political processes;
• maintenance of peace and conflict resolution;
• the impact of macro-economic policies on women;
• women and human resource development;
• women and sustainable development, the eradication of poverty and management of technology.

Strategic objectives of governments

1. Develop national capacity in gender training, gender planning, gender policy appraisal and impact assessment, gender management and accounting systems. In particular strengthen National Women's Machineries so that they can formulate and influence policies to address women's concerns as integral components of socio-economic development (see terms and techniques, page eight).
2. Integrate gender into all government agendas, policies and programmes and create a culture within government which is gender-sensitive and where gender issues become the responsibility of all, not only that of the women's bureaux.
3. Provide gender-sensitisation and training across the board in government; ensure that regular government training programmes are gender-sensitive and gender-balanced.
4. Link the 1995 Plan of Action to government policies on women and to national development plans and programmes.
5. Take positive and/or affirmative action to provide equal opportunities in educational institutions and develop equal employment opportunities policies in public services and the private sector (see terms and techniques, page eight).
6. Increase women's participation in decision-making positions. Adopt special measures to include women in senior posts, committees and government programmes. Nominate women for Secretariat postings, committees, boards, councils and programmes.

Secretariat-wide strategic objectives

Develop Secretariat capacity for gender training, gender planning, gender analysis, gender policy appraisal and impact assessment, gender accounting. Advise and assist governments to strengthen these processes, and in particular National Women's Machineries and Gender Management Systems (see terms and techniques, page eight)

1. Integrate gender concerns into all Secretariat policies, programmes and activities, and create a culture whereby gender issues become everyone's responsibility. Ensure that all support or technical assistant provided to governments is gender-balanced and inclusive.
2. Provide gender awareness training to the Secretariat across the board, system-wide and integrated into performance evaluation. Advise and assist governments in strengthening capacity for gender sensitisation and training.
3. Integrate the 1995 Plan of Action in the Secretariat strategic planning process and assist governments in this area.
4. Take positive and/or affirmative action to implement the new Secretariat equal employment opportunities policy and assist governments in this area (see terms and techniques, page eight).
5. Set and implement targets to increase the participation of women at senior staff levels in the Secretariat, in committees and boards, as experts, consultants and nominees for Secretariat posts and programmes, and renew targets annually to further progress,
6. Commonwealth governments will take vigorous action to: ·
   • promote and defend women's rights as human rights and outlaw all violence against women and girls;
   • promote women's political participation in peace processes and democratic decision-making
   • implement gender-sensitive macro-economic policies and strategies, especially on the alleviation of poverty and eradication of absolute poverty;
   • implement the recommendations of the Commonwealth Human Resource Development Initiative which targets women and girls as a priority; and promote the gender-balanced management of technology, environment and economic development.
7. The Secretariat will advise and assist governments in the following areas, and ensure that its own programmes promote:
   • women's rights as human rights and women's participation in democratic decision-making processes, peace and conflict resolution.
   • gender-sensitive macro-economic policies and strategies for the alleviation of poverty, and the eradication of absolute poverty;
   • gender-sensitive human resource development, management of technology, protection of the environment, and support for small island developing states.
   • While coping with new challenges, improving basic needs is still a priority for many commonwealth countries