VII.

Technical Background Paper on Gender

Concept Note

1. Introduction

The Millennium Declaration commits the member countries “to promote gender
equality and the empowerment of women, as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger
and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable”. It also stipulates
that “the equal rights and opportunities of women and men must be assured”. The
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) mirror the Millennium Declaration’s
commitment to gender equality. It is a strong and decisive expression of the agreement
that gender equality is an integral and central element of any development
interventions. The principles behind promoting gender equality derive from the
previous internationally agreed goals and frameworks including the Beijing
Declaration and the Platform for Action (BPfA) (1995), the outcome document of the
23rd special session of the General Assembly (2000), the International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action (PoA) (1994), the Key
Actions for the Further Implementation of ICPD PoA (1999), and the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Descrimination against Women (CEDAW), the
Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and the Programme of Action of the
World Summit for Social Development (1995). Further carrying forward the
commitments contained in these documents, the MDGs firmly placed gender equality
on a core agenda for development. The consensus the MDGs represent regarding a
core development agenda thus provides gender equality a powerful and effective
platform.

The additional contribution of the MDGs to those previous gender equality

commitments is that they involve concrete, time-bound, quantitative targets for action.
However, emphasis must not remain solely on achieving these targets. A closer
examination of the interdependency and impact of interventions allows for a focus on
the quality of process aspects. The process of achieving any target set out in the MDGs
needs to address existing gender inequality, deconstruct unequal relations between
men and women, and incorporate gender concerns.

The proposed TBP will seek to provide a regional overview of the progress made in
achieving the Goal 3 of the MDGs and other more gender-specific targets. The TBP
will also analyze the crucial gender dimensions cutting across all eight MDGs, both in
terms of sex-disaggregated MDG monitoring and in terms of the policy
recommendations in favour of gender-responsive poverty reduction and institutional
strategies.

2. The cross-cutting nature of gender

Gender equality perspective will facilitate attaining the MDGs – gender equality is
important not only as a goal in itself, but also as a path towards achieving the other
goals. Gender inequality lends itself to low labour productivity, inefficient labour
allocation in households and economy, unequal distribution of resources, and lack of
security, opportunity and empowerment. The dramatic economic boom in East and
South-East Asia over the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, based on rapid export
expansion may have provided women greater recognition as workers and
remuneration of their work. However, it was also feeding on the exploitation of
existing social inequality including inequality between men and women in that it
perpetuated and reinforced women’s lower status and lower pay in labour market.
While women and girls bear the largest and most direct costs of these inequalities, the
costs cut broadly across society, ultimately hindering development and poverty
reduction. The analysis of poverty in existing MDG reports often does not address
intra-household gender dynamics and inequalities. Neither does it adequately
consider the diverse social, economic, political, physical, geographical contexts that
govern the different status of different women.

This section will analyze the region’s persisting poverty from a gender perspective to
substantiate this argument, using available studies, statistics and indicators. Where
statistics and data are lacking or limited, suggestions will be provided as to how to
generate such statistics and data, as well as why these are not readily available. The
section will also highlight how promotion and protection of women’s rights as human
rights can provide useful indicators for gender equality, thus arguing for their
incorporation in any effective poverty reduction strategy. It will, for example,
recommend the development of socially accountable macroeconomic policies in order
to create a truly sustainable economic growth.

3. Linking gender equality to the MDGs

Gender issues are highly relevant to achieving all the MDGs, be it protecting the
environment, achieving sustainable development or enabling universal access to health
care. Because the MDGs are mutually reinforcing progress towards one goal affects
progress towards the others. Success in a number of the goals will have positive
impacts on gender equality, just as progress towards gender equality will help further
the realization of other goals. Each goal cannot be considered as a stand-alone goal. A
conceptual framework of all cross-cutting linkages, cross-referencing and cross-
fertilizing when measuring progress and implementing interventions are necessary.

Gender equality is not only a goal in its own right, but an essential ingredient for
achieving all the other goals. Attempting to meet the MDGs without promoting
gender equality will both increase the costs and detriment the likelihood of attaining
the goals. The MDGs are mutually reinforcing, and thus progress towards one goal
will affect progress towards others. Bringing a gender perspective across the whole
range of the MDGs, and working for gender equality and women’s empowerment will
be crucial if the difficult challenge of attaining the MDGs is to be achieved. A narrow
and fractured focus on access to primary education and a few other issues such as
maternal mortality as contained in the MDGs will negate the holistic approach to
women’s empowerment and gender equality adopted in the Beijing Platform for
Action.

This section will illustrate how and why gender equality is relevant in each of the
MDGs. For example, interventions designed to achieve Goal 7 (Environment
Sustainability) need to pay attention to the gender-based division of labour,
responsibilities, and usage in agricultural work and natural resources management, of
a given community. Knowledge of different levels of access to, and control over,
natural resources women and men experience leads to better understanding of how
they may contribute differently to environment sustainability. Some of the other goals
such as the Goal 5 “Improving maternal health” have more specific implication on, and
reference to, gender issues. At the same time, this section attempts to gender-critique
the MDGs with a view to highlight the gender dimensions of all the goals. For
example, the Targets for the Goal 8 do not refer to women’s effective participation
which is essential for promoting desirable forms of development.

4. Progress made in terms of achieving Goal 3

Gender equality is one of the eight goals of the MDGs. The Goal 3 “Promote gender
equality and empower women” specifically addresses gender equality. The target of
the Goal 3 is associated mainly with eliminating gender disparities in primary and
secondary education, there are three additional indicators: literacy rates, the share of
women working in non-agriculture jobs, and the proportion of seats women hold in
national parliaments. Achieving parity in education is an important step and a useful
indicator for measuring progress towards gender equality, it is not by any means a
sufficient indication of gender equality. The rights to education (access and
participation), rights within education (gender-aware educational environments,
processes and outcomes) and rights through education (educational outcomes that link
equality in educatin to wider processes of gender justice) are all truly critical.
Achieving parity between boys and girls in terms of access to education does not
automatically leads to an assurance that all girls are receiving quality education or that
they are encouraged to fully develop their capabilities. Education may provide women
and girls with tools and capacity to empower themselves, however, the goal of gender
equality will not be attained if these girls and women do not have the opportunity to
use them.

This section will review the progress made in the region towards achieving Goal 3.
Each target contained in the goal will be examined. Where appropriate, subregional
differences will be highlighted. A rights-based approach will be applied in analysing
the progress made. Employing a rights-based approach to the achievement of gender
equality enables interventions to focus on women’s individual capabilities and thereby
enhance their capacity to take control of their lives. This section will also make a point
that meeting the targets contained in Goal 3 alone will not serve as a comprehensive
indicator to achieving gender equality.

5. Challenges for creating an enabling environment

This section will illustrate how gender equality can be integrated into policies and
programmes designed to achieve MDGs. The emphasis is on “how”, rather than
“why”. The section will discuss the essential ingredients for creating an environment
which is conducive to achieve and sustain the achievements.

A number of challenges are identified that need to be tackled in order to create and
sustain an enabling environment. Gender mainstreaming is arguably the most
effective strategy to generate an institution that can incorporate gender concerns in all
sector areas. The role of national machineries for gender equality is examined in
relation to their critical catalytic role in promoting, supporting and monitoring gender
mainstreaming in line ministries and other bodies at the national level. Various
existing institutional mechanisms at the national level to promote gender equality are
analyzed with particular attention to the national, historical and political context.
While there can be no institutional blueprint for an effective mechanism, certain
generic requirements are discussed. In addition, political commitments have to be
reiterated and demonstrated at the highest level of the decision-making processes.

In the many of the Millennium Development Goals Country Reports prepared by

Governments to date, a gender perspective has not been adequately incorporated.
Most of the focus has been on the specific goal on gender equality, i.e., the Goal 3, and
little attention has been given to gender perspectives in relation to the other goals. The
challenge will be to ensure that gender perspectives are explicitly outlined in the
implementation of all eight goals. Challenges have to do with the lack of clear
understanding of the concept of gender equality. Furthermore, where the concept is
understood, there is often a lack of skills and techniques in the institution to
mainstream the concept.

In spite of a considerable research base on the role of women and gender, the gender
perspectives of sector areas such as agriculture, economic development, infrastructure
and transport, are often neglected in many national poverty reduction policies,
strategies and related reports. The development of these policy and planning
documents is not informed by gender analysis and there is still inadequate consultation
with national machineries and women’s groups and networks. Gender perspectives
are not sufficiently conceptualized and internalized by policy-makers and planning
bodies.

The section will also show how existing policy measures, projects and micro-initiatives
that are promoting women’s empowerment and their full and equal participation in
social, economic and political activities can have positive impacts on achieving various
MDGs. Selected good practices will be discussed to demonstrate how this can be
achieved.

Opportunities and methodologies for partnership building with civil society

organisations, corporate sector organisations, UN entities, and donor countries and
agencies are also explored and suggested. More importantly, partnerships between
men and women, partnerships and collaboration amongst the line ministries, regional
cooperation, and multi-stakeholder participation are identified as the ways forward.

5-1: Institutional change

• Gender mainstreaming
• Political will at the highest level of national governments

5-2: Capacity development

• Gender sensitization
• Gender analysis
• Application of good practices
• Comprehensive sex-disaggregated data and gender indicators

5-3: Building partnership for achieving MDGs

 6. Conclusion

This section will discuss key messages and conclusions of the technical background
paper with key policy recommendations.