The Role of Governments
In many ways, governments create the conditions for gender equality.
They can remove legal barriers and change the law to promote gender
justice; they can pay attention to gender equality in the design
of policies and programmes; and they can encourage supportive institutional
environments. As the biggest direct and indirect employers, government
can set standards and provide an example to others. Finally, political
leaders can advocate and promote gender equality, and encourage
their followers at all levels to do so.
Jorgen Schytte/Still Pictures
|Training programme for office workers in Ghana. Governments can train men and women to use new technologies.
agreed in the ICPD Programme of Action on the need to increase domestic
allocations to health care, including reproductive health, and contributions
to international assistance. They agreed that greater participation
in technical cooperation and support among developing countries
would more broadly disseminate lessons learned from successful programmes.
Legal Support for Gender Equality
Many legal or administrative codes contain barriers to women's
access to resources and property, to basic information about and
access to services (including health and education), to basic decisions
concerning their family status,1 to protection from violence, and
to freedom of association. Even where supportive legislation exists,
these legal rights may be weakly enforced or overridden by customary
Reproductive rights are guaranteed in South Africa's Constitution,
but their exercise has been restricted by appeals to customary law.
This is being adjudicated, and policy makers' attention has been
drawn to the need for clarification.
UNFPA has sponsored discussions among parliamentarians in the Arab
states and Africa of changes in personal status laws needed to protect
the exercise of reproductive and other rights.
More than two thirds of the countries in the world, including almost
all of Latin America, have modified legislation to improve women's
access to resources, education and health services, and their decision-making
power in families.2
In Ecuador, the National Constitutional Assembly has discussed
incorporating sexual and reproductive rights in the Constitution.
Women's groups, including the national council for women, led the
consultations and lobbying. In Venezuela, the Network on
Population, with UNFPA support, promoted the incorporation of sexual
and reproductive rights and gender equity into the new Constitution,
approved in December 1999.3
Female genital mutilation has been outlawed in Ghana (1994);
Djibouti (1995); Burkina Faso (1996); Côte
d'Ivoire, Togo and the United Republic of Tanzania (1998);
and Senegal (1999). A 1996 Ministry of Health decree
in Egypt banned FGM except in cases of medical necessity; in 1997,
the highest administrative court upheld the ban after a legal challenge.4
Box 30: Women in Decision-making
In the years 1997-1999, a number of countries enacted or amended
legislation in various areas to reflect the major goals of the ICPD
Mexico and Peru enacted comprehensive legislation to increase
access to reproductive health services of all kinds. Guinea's new
Public Health Code made family planning services a priority. Georgia's
law on health care stipulated that all citizens have the right to
determine the number and spacing of their children. Portugal amended
its Constitution to specify that the State has to guarantee the
right to family planning. Ecuador's new Constitution guaranteed
the right of persons to decide on the number of children that they
Peru guaranteed the right to choose sterilization as a method of
family planning. Brazil approved sterilization for persons aged
25 or under 25 with two children. Paraguay issued a National Family
Planning Manual authorizing sterilization. Thailand authorized employees
to take leave in order to be sterilized.
The Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare approved the sale of
low-dosage oral contraceptives in 1999, almost 40 years after the
first efforts to obtain such approval.
Cambodia enacted comprehensive abortion legislation, liberalizing
the circumstances under which abortions can be performed.
Improvement of women's status.
Albania, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Fiji, Madagascar, Poland and the
Sudan adopted or amended their constitutions to prohibit discrimination
on the basis of sex. France amended its Constitution to promote
equal access of women and men to electoral powers and elected office.
Luxembourg criminalized discrimination based on sex in most aspects
Cape Verde and the Czech Republic enacted new family codes guaranteeing
equality of rights and duties in marriage. South Africa mandated
the equal status of spouses in customary marriages. Other countries
adopted less comprehensive legislation in this area.
In Pakistan, the High Court of Lahore ruled that the consent of
both parties is an indispensable condition for the validity of marriage
and that a guardian has no right to grant such consent on the behalf
of a woman without her approval. Burkina Faso's Constitution affirmed
that marriage is founded on the free consent of man and woman.
Botswana, China, Colombia, Dominica, Peru, the Philippines, the
United Kingdom and Viet Nam increased penalties for various sexual
offences or broadened protection against sexual violence. Cape Verde,
Cuba, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Republic of Tanzania and Viet
Nam outlawed trafficking of women and children. Canada, Italy and
the United Kingdom criminalized sexual tourism with minors. Bolivia
no longer requires that a woman be found to be "honest" in order
to be the victim of certain sexual offences. Germany criminalized
rape by a husband against his wife.
Belgium, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mauritius,
Mexico, Peru, Portugal, South Africa and Venezuela adopted various
forms of domestic violence legislation. Bermuda prohibited stalking,
while New Zealand and the United Kingdom established measures to
Labour relations and employment.
Cambodia, Ecuador, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Senegal and
Tajikistan enacted new labour codes broadly prohibiting discrimination
against women in the workplace; Cambodia, Ecuador and Swaziland
also guaranteed pay equity, and all but Tajikistan now provide protection
against the dismissal of women who are pregnant or on maternity
leave. In Senegal, a working woman no longer needs her spouse's
consent to join a labour union. In Ecuador, employers must employ
women as a certain percentage of the work force. Thailand requires
employers to treat male and female employees equally and prohibits
sexual harassment in the workplace.
The United Republic of Tanzania prohibited dismissal for reasons
of sex or pregnancy. Chile, Cyprus, the Sudan and Zambia outlawed
discrimination on the basis of pregnancy or childbirth. Chile also
prohibited requiring a pregnancy test as a condition of employment.
The Republic of Korea banned gender discrimination in labour unions.
Fiji outlawed sexual harassment and discrimination in employment
applications. Several other countries strengthened existing protections
against sex discrimination.
In an earlier legal reform, the Egyptian Government in 1999 repealed
a controversial part of the criminal code that allowed rapists to
avoid imprisonment if they offered to marry their victims.
Box 31: Egyptian Women
Gain Divorce Rights Similar to Men's
Design of Policies and Programmes
Several Latin American countries have begun to analyse differences
in the impact of their programmes on men and women. Most countries
now have plans of action for implementing the ICPD Programme of
Action and the FWCW Platform for Action. Almost all African countries
have a ministry, bureau, department or unit responsible for gender
Governments can design policies and programmes with attention to
their diverse impacts on men and women, encouraging participatory
feedback and local monitoring. They can reward institutions that
promote equality in staffing and allocating resources.
National plans for implementing conference recommendations must
be specific about responsibilities, both inside and outside government,
and incorporate the views of the different groups concerned. New
policy and administrative bodies or gender focal points in existing
institutions may be needed.
Box 32: Monitoring
and Evaluation Improve Programmes and Promote Gender Sensitivity
Key Policy Issues
Policies and institutional changes
Countries may need to formulate or revise official policies intended
to promote gender equality. Policy makers need to be able to analyse
the different impacts programmes have on men and women, and how
well they respond to their different needs. Institutional changes
may also be required, such as identifying focal points to monitor
progress. Also needed are improved mechanisms for reporting and
for receiving feedback from civil society, including women's groups.
Policy makers and programme staff need training about gender issues
to promote gender equality. International and local NGOs and networks,
development assistance offices, international financial institutions
and national offices have all prepared training materials. In Colombia,
for example, training for reproductive health clinic workers has
improved the flow of information, reduced waiting time, and increased
staff involvement and client satisfaction.
Resource allocations need to be monitored to ensure that they
promote gender equality and address the needs of both men and women.
Schools, for example, must be equally accessible to boys and to
girls, and pupils safe from abuse.Programme indicators need to be
made gender-sensitive, and gender-disaggregated databases must become
standard instruments of assessment. Qualitative indicators should
supplement quantitative approaches.
Codes of conduct for health programmes should ensure respect for
the rights, needs, perceptions and opportunities of clients. Ombudsman
systems and other means for soliciting feedback and participatory
input are needed to ensure accountability to programme beneficiaries.
Health-sector reform and structural adjustment
Analyses in South-east Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa have shown
that adjustment programmes, including decentralization of services,
can weaken education and health programmes and undermine efforts
to eradicate poverty and improve the quality of life. Governments
should monitor the impact of reform programmes to ensure that education
and health services continue to reach the poor, particularly women
Quality of care
Service providers need training and support to provide sensitive
care to both women and men. Improvements are needed in the quality
of care in health systems, and particularly in sexual and reproductive
health. International and bilateral donor agencies, including UNFPA,
have increased emphasis on quality of care initiatives as part of
their support to reproductive health programmes.
Gender-sensitive budget analysis
National budgets should be examined to see how they respond to
the needs and interests of women, tracing the effect of expenditure
and revenue policies and especially how they affect poor women.6
Resources from public, private and community sources are needed
to ensure that protections for gender equity are strictly enforced.
Cuba, Ecuador and El Salvador have increased their budgetary
allocations for women's programmes since the ICPD and FWCW.7 Since
the mid-1980s, Australia has been conducting regular analyses
of how women have benefited from federal and state government expenditures.8
The Commonwealth Secretariat has supported governments including
Barbados, Fiji, St. Kitts and Nevis, South Africa and Sri
Lanka in a gender budget initiative.9
The different needs of women and men, the impacts of gender inequality,
and barriers to improvement need to be better assessed, to inform
programming and advocacy. Since the most debilitating gender discrimination
is in the family, support should be given to collecting data on,
and monitoring changes in, families.
Programmes aimed at men
Programmes are needed to address men's reproductive health needs,
foster their active support for women's health, and engage them
in dialogues on gender inequality and its costs to women, men and
society as a whole.
Prevention of violence
Protecting women against gender-based violence requires action
in many areas: advocacy; legal changes; improved enforcement; safe
alternatives for victims; reporting systems; mediation and counselling
services; and funding for local support groups.
Attention to meeting the needs of the poorest of the poor has
become a priority in international development assistance. In India,
for instance, the United Nations Development Assistance Framework
(UNDAF), developed by government and international organizations,
outlines a coordinated approach to development assistance, with
attention to poverty eradication and gender concerns.10
Hiring barriers and pay differentials
To eliminate gender discrimination in hiring, employers should
be barred from requiring women job seekers to prove they are using
contraceptives or are not pregnant. Wage differentials between men
and women should be analysed and made part of the public debate
about gender equality and justice, the meaning of "equivalent" work,
the importance of women's reproductive and productive roles, and
Human rights education
Campaigns in support of basic human rights for men and women,
including rights to sexual and reproductive health, should take
into account the different perspectives of men and women. Messages
should be appropriate for various ages and situations. Civil society
organizations have developed a variety of human rights education
syllabi and training materials.12
Media, including film, radio, TV and increasingly the Web, can
encourage positive images and role models. Education for policy
makers, local leaders and the community can spur communities and
families to act against inequities. Better access to new information
technologies will allow open exchange of information on best practices
and different approaches.
UNFPA Support for Gender Equality
As the lead organization in the United Nations system supporting
implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, the United Nations
Population Fund assists developing countries and those with economies
in transition in ensuring universal access to reproductive health,
including family planning and sexual health, and in implementing
population and development strategies in support of sustainable
development. The Fund also works to promote awareness of population
and development issues and advocates for the mobilization of the
resources necessary to meet the goals of the ICPD.
A commitment to reproductive rights, gender equality, male responsibility
and women's empowerment underpins UNFPA programming in each of these
Support to Governments
In Mexico, with UNFPA support, the National Population Council
has trained its technical staff and the staff of 10 state population
councils on how population programmes and policies can promote gender
equality. The five poorest states in Mexico now have plans for gender
equality in their population programmes. The next stage will be
to include a gender perspective in monitoring and evaluation.
UNFPA has provided training and technical assistance, for example,
in Angola for the Ministry of Family and Promotion of Women
and in Swaziland for the Gender Office in the Ministry of
In Peru, profiting from experience elsewhere in the region, UNFPA
supported the creation of the Ministry for the Promotion of Women
and Human Development. In the Dominican Republic, UNFPA provided
expert advice for legislation creating the new Secretariat for Women.
In Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic, where
health services have been decentralized, UNFPA has supported municipalities
to promote reproductive rights and women's active participation
The Fund is also actively addressing a wide range of specific gender-related
Adolescent Reproductive Health
Countries have given more attention to adolescent reproductive
health since the Cairo and Beijing conferences. UNFPA offers technical
and financial assistance for national programmes.
In Latin America, the NGO-led Journeys of Conversation on Affection
and Sexuality encourages teenagers to discuss their experiences
and develop their own alternatives. The methodology was developed
with UNFPA support in Chile by the National Service for Women,
the National Institute for Youth, and the Ministries of Health and
Education; Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica and Uruguay
have adopted it. UNFPA has given additional support for programmes
addressing adolescent needs in Chile, Colombia, the Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay,
Peru and Venezuela. A UNFPA-supported project for rural
adolescents in Nicaragua focuses on the poor and those excluded
from formal education.
In Egypt, UNFPA has supported the training of young men
and women as peer educators to develop their leadership skills.
Activities include self-awareness development, life and career planning
and a focus on reproductive behaviour, parenthood, STDs and family
Box 33: Legal Reforms
in India against Rape
UNFPA has supported training for health workers on intervention
in cases of gender-based violence, as well as on laws, enforcement
and counselling. In the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras,
Mexico and Venezuela, it has provided support to governments,
parliaments and civil society organizations to make, reform or enforce
laws punishing violence against women; and has helped develop reports
on sexual abuse of girls in Chile, Nicaragua and Panama.
In the Dominican Republic, the Fund has supported the creation
of police department offices to handle accusations of violence against
women and girls, and helped prepare publications on prevention of
gender violence and laws against it. In Haiti, UNFPA has
supported women's groups lobbying to improve the administration
of justice in cases of rape, and helped train members of the national
police force in preventing and managing gender-based violence. In
Peru, UNFPA, UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization
support the national commission for the prevention of intra-family
violence, which includes government departments, the national association
of municipalities and women's organizations.
The Fund has also been part of a United Nations public education
campaign against violence to women and girls in Latin America
and the Caribbean, headed by UNIFEM in collaboration with UNFPA,
UNICEF, UNDP and UNAIDS. In various countries, UNFPA has supported
marches, press conferences, meetings and discussion panels.
Box 34: Legal and
Professional Action against Rape in South Africa
UNFPA has supported various regional conferences on male involvement,
a variety of regional approaches in sub-Saharan Africa, and
the creation of men's groups in Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Peru and Uruguay.
In the armed forces and police of Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua,
Paraguay and Peru, the Fund is supporting activities
to generate greater awareness about the sexual and reproductive
health of men, unequal gender relations and violence against women.
In the northwest region of Namibia, UNFPA is supporting
discussion groups for men on family planning, STDs and gender inequality.
Male nurses, members of the police and defence forces, the Evangelical
Lutheran Church and a soccer club are participating.15
Other Areas of Assistance
UNFPA works with UNAIDS, WHO and other agencies to ensure gender
equity in programmes for preventing HIV/AIDS and STDs. UNFPA and
IPPF are developing a training module in HIV/AIDS prevention for
family planning associations and other service providers.
Research and training
With UNFPA support, Nicaragua has established an international
masters' programme in reproductive health and rights with a gender
perspective. In Bolivia, UNFPA helps train reproductive health
providers about service quality, rights and publication of qualitative
research.16 UNFPA has supported research in Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico
and Peru to identify specific needs of women in sexual and
reproductive health, particularly in relation to health policies
and their impact, maternal mortality, and women's employment.17
In Panama, UNFPA has supported research on the links between
population, gender and poverty, and trained NGOs and government
organizations to prepare gender-sensitive projects linking population
and poverty reduction.
In Haiti, UNFPA is helping the Ministry for the Status
of Women and Women's Rights to design and manage advocacy strategies
on women's rights. In Bolivia, UNFPA supports the development
of educational television programmes on health and gender equity.18
In Mexico, UNFPA supports Comunicacion e Informacion de la
Mujer, a national network of newspaper writers committed to gender
equality and women's empowerment. In Chile, the Fund has
supported Fempress, the magazine of the Latin American and Caribbean
Women's Health Network.
Women's political participation
In Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic
and Venezuela, UNFPA has supported training for women's political
leadership and participation in legislative processes as well as
for local policy and management.
UNFPA has supported women's networks and indigenous groups in Bolivia,
Ecuador, Peru and Central America, and also the Afro-Caribbean
|Schoolgirls in Malawi. UNFPA supports advocacy efforts aimed at keeping girls in school.
UNFPA supports advocacy activities aimed at retaining girls in
the school system and improving their social status, in support
of the Plan of Action of the 1990 World Conference on Education
for All. The Fund collaborated with the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), UNDP, UNICEF and
the World Bank in an evaluation of the Plan of Action, culminating
in a World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000.
Governments increasingly support micro-credit institutions, directly,
through subsidies, or through supportive regulation. To be effective
in empowering women, these programmes should provide literacy, numeracy
and family life education, and if possible encourage the transition
to formal businesses. UNFPA has supported a variety of these programmes,
for example, in Yemen.19 In Viet Nam, UNFPA has supported
the creation of more than 500 women's savings groups, providing
assistance to agricultural and community improvement projects, campaigns
to improve water and sanitation, and a network of community-based
UNFPA provides technical assistance to countries to increase awareness
about gender inequities, and to generate and analyse gender-sensitive
data for planning and evaluating policies and programmes. Bolivia,
Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela are being assisted in preparing
national population censuses, applying an analysis that addresses
The Role of Donors
The international donor community has strongly supported efforts
to promote gender equality. The commitment of donor organizations
is clear in policy statements,21 in institutional mechanisms22 and in
reporting23 since the ICPD and FWCW, but this commitment is not yet
backed by adequate resources.
The ICPD agreed that $5.7 billion in international assistance would
be needed for reproductive health and population programmes in the
year 2000, rising to $7.2 billion a year in 2015. Only about $2.1
billion a year is currently being made available.24
Better collaboration among donors is needed to reduce duplication
and share expertise, in line with reforms of United Nations development
UNIFEM and UNFPA have signed a memorandum of understanding increasing
cooperation in support of national efforts. UNFPA gender specialists
give support to UNIFEM projects and training activities around the
UNFPA has adopted programming guidelines on gender equality and
sensitivity25 and operational guidance for its field offices on promoting
women's empowerment and human rights.26 Other organizations of the
United Nations system, including UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, the International
Labour Organization and the World Food Programme, have also prepared
guidelines and manuals on the subject.
The World Bank has produced a Policy Research Report on Gender
and Development,27 analysing the importance to development of
gender issues and women's empowerment, and has reported on lending
programmes and projects funded by World Bank loans.28 The Bank is
developing strategies and reviews of gender concerns in sectoral
Agencies will need to continue and intensify these efforts.
Private foundations, including the Ford Foundation, the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlitt Foundation,
the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the David and
Lucile Packard Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Summit
Foundation, the Wallace Global Fund and the United Nations Foundation,
are playing an increasingly important role in supporting national
programmes to promote reproductive health and gender equality.
Increased support from the donor community will encourage national
and local efforts.
The Challenges Ahead
Social change is always difficult, particularly when the basic
relations between men and women in families and society are involved.
The past several decades have seen greater attention and some progress
towards the empowerment of women. There has also been a growing
recognition of how the rules governing men and women's opportunities,
social endowments and behaviours affect the prospect for accelerated
development and justice.
The changes in these relationships, and the systems of power and
belief that support them, are no less sweeping and important than
changes under way in spheres such as globalization, governance,
information technology and urbanization. Societies need their own
solutions, grounded in a vision of justice and gender equality and
consistent with their cultures and conditions, to provide a better
life for both women and men.
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