A regional stocktake of resources




A stocktake of the capacity of Pacific governments to include gender perspectives in policy, strategy and decision-making will begin soon in six countries.
The stocktake was launched in the first week of May at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s (SPC) headquarters in Noumea and will be rolled out in all 22 SPC member countries and territories over the next three years.
The focus of the stocktake is on gender mainstreaming capacity—or the ability of government departments and national institutions in every sector to consider and address the different needs and contributions of both sexes.
The need for the exercise was raised during the 10th Triennial Meeting of Pacific Women in 2007. Participants agreed that governments had made strong commitments to gender equality, but in many cases had too little capacity or resources to implement action.
By gauging existing resources and identifying gaps and areas for improvement, the project aims to help national governments build their capacity to mainstream gender across all sectors with technical assistance from SPC and its partners.
The purpose of gender mainstreaming is to promote good governance and sustainable development through the integration of gender analysis at every level of government.
This requires consideration of gender perspectives, and the differing needs and experiences of women and men, in all government policy making, programming and budgeting.
It also involves properly and equally addressing those differences, and supporting women, particularly in areas where they have been marginalised.
“Governments have to recognise that gender equality simply makes economic sense. Educated, healthy women raise strong families. They also take a much more productive part in the economy,” says SPC’s Gender Equality Adviser, Treva Braun.
Ministries and government departments or sections in charge of gender equality and women’s affairs can facilitate gender mainstreaming through their resources and expertise.
But to be effective these structures require political commitment and accountability, a supportive organisational culture, and more technical capacity across the whole of government.
The stocktake will look at government-wide efforts, particularly in critical areas such as ministries of finance and planning, justice, education and health, and also at the capacity of national gender equality offices.
It will identify strengths, constraints, and changes needed to empower these national offices and to increase the ability of line and central ministries to mainstream gender.
This in turn will help governments achieve the objectives outlined in the Pacific Platform for Action, the Pacific Plan and other regional and international frameworks relating to gender equality.
The stocktake is being run by SPC’s Human Development Programme in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
The work will include desk research, interviews, focus group discussions and strategic planning for follow-up action.
The diversity of the Pacific region will raise some challenges for the process, says Braun.
"Every country or territory has its own unique circumstances influenced by varying political, geographical, socio-cultural and economic factors, so the approach will be adapted to suit various situations.
"The methodology has been designed to allow for flexibility while still producing comparable results and clear, feasible measures of gender mainstreaming capacity."
The first phase of the project will be carried out in Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tonga, as well as the Marshall Islands where a pilot stocktake was carried out in November last year.
A team of consultants and advisers (see photo) attended a preparatory workshop on the exercise at SPC in Noumea.
Each stocktake is expected to take four to five weeks depending on the size of the country.
Evidence-based strategies to increase gender mainstreaming capacity in these six countries will then be developed and implemented, with technical assistance being provided as necessary, including legal and policy support, skills training and awareness raising.
The latter is particularly important, with recognition of the benefits of gender equality tending to be low at all levels in some sectors.
As implementation of capacity building gets underway in the first group of countries, the project will enter its next phase with stocktaking beginning for a second group of countries and territories in 2010.

• For more information please contact Treva Braun, SPC Human Development Adviser, Gender Equality (tel. +687 26 01 91; email: teab@spc.int)