THE GENDER AGENDA: TIME TO ACT./THE PARTICIPATORY GENDER AUDIT

The Ministry of Education and Sports in the month of January 2013, undertook a Participatory Gender Audit with staff from the different sub-sectors and members of the development partners and civil society organizations.

The audit revealed that Ministry of Education has been involved in pushing the gender agenda forward but no resources or budgetary allocations have been put in place to support gender initiatives in the sector.

Given the nature of gender as a cross cutting issue, somebody knows everybody will do it, everybody knows somebody will do it, ultimately nobody does it.

Time has come for us to walk the talk and push the gender agenda with support and budgetary allocation of resources towards gender initiatives in the sector.

Below are some of the priority actions that need to be addressed by the sector in the short run:-

·         Allocate a percentage of the overall MoES budget to gender with a 2% to start with, in order to ensure the sustainability of the Gender Unit and its programmes.

·         Solicit and get support of all Top Management and strive to bring them on board as Gender Champions.

 

·         Engender the draft communication Strategy for MoES, in terms of establishing guidelines on gender responsive content, images, graphics and language, use of case documentation of success stories on achieving gender equality.  This would enhance and boost the public image of MoES on gender issues.

·         Strengthen already existing monitoring and evaluation matrices to capture gender progress and to ensure that gender mainstreaming in reality remains a high priority in implementation of all programmes and activities throughout MoES.

·         Conduct contextualized capacity and expertise to development across the entire Ministry and among stakeholders for gender integration into all dimensions of implementation through emphasis on use of gender analysis and survey tools that are gender responsive.

Gender equality must be a lived reality in the Ministry of Education and Sports.

 

 

 

FACT BOX

Gender Mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming is a strategy to make women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs in all political, economic and societal spheres [ECOSOC]

Importance of gender mainstreaming.

It makes women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.

The Ten Steps for Gender Mainstreaming includes:

1. A Mainstreaming Approach to Stakeholders: Who are the Decision-Makers?

2. Mainstreaming a Gender Agenda: What is the Issue?

3. Moving towards Gender Equality: What is the Goal?

4. Mapping the Situation: What Information Do We Have?

5. Refining the Issue: Research and Analysis

6. Deciding on a Course of Action: Designing Policy Interventions and Budgets

7. Arguing Your Case: Gender Matters!

8. Monitoring: Keeping a (Gender-Sensitive) Eye on Things

9. Evaluation: How Did We Do?

10. En-Gendering Communication