UN-HABITAT's overall goal of mainstreaming gender equality and women's rights into all activities implies that the Programme has to be proactive regarding equality between women and men, girls and boys, in all areas of its mandate, according to the international commitments made.

The international community has affirmed and reaffirmed their commitment to women's empowerment and gender equality in a number of documents. The most important and strongest document in the area is CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women from 1979. (See Appendix 2 for a more detailed presentation). The binding commitments of the Convention (CEDAW) were reaffirmed in the equally important Beijing Declaration of 1995, and its Action Plan the Platform for Action. (See Appendix 3 for a more detailed presentation.) In this conference, the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, Governments reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen equality between women and men, identifying 12 critical areas of concern to this cause. The Beijing conference also adopted the strategy of gender mainstreaming as the overall approach to reach the objective of gender. The following paragraphs from the Beijing Declaration are important in setting the framework for gender mainstreaming:

(Paragraph 13) Women's empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making process and access to power, are fundamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace;
(14) Women's rights are human rights;

(24) Take all necessary measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and the girl child and remove all obstacles to gender equality and the advancement and empowerment of women;
(25) Encourage men to participate fully in all actions towards equality.

The goal of gender equality should be seen as an over arching objective that UN-HABITAT should contribute to as an active participant. UN- HABITAT is expected to perform its role in an international context, as no single actor can alone achieve the goal of gender equality. The international community defines gender equality as women, and men's equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities will take both time and much effort to reach. However, it is something that UN-HABITAT must strive for in its work within human settlement development. It is in this process of reaching full equality between women and men that UN-HABITAT has a mandate to act, and is required to contribute.

According to UN-HABITAT's main steering document, the Habitat Agenda, the overall goal of promoting gender equality should guide all UN-HABITAT's interventions in the field as well as at the policy and decision making level. The goal is outlined in the original version of the Gender Policy from 1996:

Mainstream a gender-perspective and practice a gender sensitive approach in all new and ongoing activities of the Centre

To mainstream gender equality into all its interventions and work is therefore the main contribution to the overall goal of gender equality and women's rights made by UN-HABITAT. By being aware of the unequal status of women and men, boys and girls, contributing to lessen these gender-based gaps, the Programme will actively participate in the work towards the goal of gender equality.

1.1 UN-HABITAT's Gender Policy Objectives

Common to a majority of Senior Managers and staff of UN-HABITAT is the sincere belief in women's rights and gender equality. Although a gender mainstreaming approach of UN-HABITAT's programmes and interventions has begun, and there is a real commitment within the organisation to implement this work, challenges remains in strengthening the capacity to mainstream a gender perspective. This policy aims to articulate the main areas of the gender mainstreaming strategy of UN-HABITAT but the question of "how to" implement these still remains and will be further elaborated in UN-HABITAT's Gender Mainstreaming Plan of Action.

Guidelines for the objectives of gender equality have been adopted centrally for all UN bodies. The following four objectives has been outlined specifically for UN-HABITAT:

(1) Adopt and develop a centre-wide approach and methodology for gender mainstreaming

An approach and methodology to be identified and developed for successful incorporation of a gender perspective into all of UN-HABITAT's interventions in a manner which influences goals, strategies, resource allocation and outcomes. UN-HABITAT must therefore outline its corporate gender mainstreaming strategy, which should be adopted, acknowledged and followed by management and staff.

(2) Identify entry points and opportunities within UN-HABITAT's work

Opportunities and entry points must be identified for introducing gender mainstreaming into UN-HABITAT's work and implementation of the Habitat Agenda. These opportunities should include all phases of the work from planning programmes and projects to policy development and decision making, in order for the UN-HABITAT to produce gender aware outputs. The most important aim within this objective is to make these entry-points visible and accepted within the organisation so that they are used and developed within its particular context by UN-HABITAT staff and management and routinely recognise them for their importance and necessity.

(3) Identify linkages between Gender Equality and Human Settlements Development

This implies identifying and outlining linkages between gender equality and the issues/areas or sector of the agency's mandate. In UN-HABITAT's case this means paying attention to linkages between gender roles and responsibilities within the area of human settlements. Outlining gender linkages in the areas of UN-HABITAT's mandate will strengthen the understanding of why promoting gender equality and women's rights are important in achieving the goals of sustainable development that have been identified for UN-HABITAT.

(4) To develop institutional capacity and knowledge to enable gender mainstreaming within UN-HABITAT

The final policy objective is in regard to the development of the institutional competence and knowledge within the Programme. All UN agencies must, according to UN regulations and mandate, develop guidelines for gender mainstreaming activities, utilising gender specialists whenever deemed necessary, and provide capacity building for all staff and management in the area of gender mainstreaming. This is a learning process that should be implemented at all levels. The responsibility of UN-HABITAT's management is to set aside adequate resources and allocate staff time for the Programme to strengthen its knowledge and capacity of gender mainstreaming.

All the four mentioned objectives above imply a strengthened knowledge and competence of the staff in order to identify when gender mainstreaming should be carried out and how it could/should be done. This therefore demands a learning process, as was mentioned above, to take place among staff and management within UN-HABITAT to be able to:

1. promote and implement gender sensitive programmes,
2. initiate analysis of gender roles and relationships,
3. gender mainstream policies and activities guided by these objectives and,
4. promote gender equality as a cross-cutting goal in all human settlements development.

The overall goal of gender equality for UN-HABITAT's external work will naturally be to strengthen gender equality and women's rights among the stakeholders in the diverse activities in the field. A gender sensitive approach is not a goal in itself but a means to achieve equal rights between women and men, and to promote women's rights in particular through interventions in diverse countries and communities globally. In most of the societies where UN-HABITAT is active, there are already commitments made on gender equality at a higher level, through adopted Declarations and Resolutions and signed and ratified Conventions. There are often, although not always, national legal frameworks and laws promoting gender equality and women's rights which are equally important to follow in UN-HABITAT's work, as well as lessons learned from the civil society. As the overall objective of UN-HABITAT is in line with international standards, these commitments at the national level all refer to the very same goal.

1.2 Specific commitments required reaching UN-HABITAT's Gender Policy objectives

The above overall objectives for UN-HABITAT's work imply that staff and management give regular input in order to gender mainstream their work within the field of human settlements development. This has implications for all staff at the Programme in ensuring the following aspects in their roles as planners, decision-makers and implementers in human settlements development. The policy objectives outlined above, are here linked to implications and demands on UN-HABITAT management and staff:

(1) Adopt a programme-wide approach or methodology to mainstream gender

1. Ensure that effort is made to mainstream programme-wide guidelines and policy documents to acknowledge and ensure that a gender perspective is a formal part of planning and decision making within the Programme's activities.
2. Develop institutional guidelines for gender mainstreaming, linked to the work programme, are developed, both for specific issues/areas within the Programme's mandate, as well as on an overall level.
3. Ensure gender mainstreaming is acknowledged on all levels and adopted as the strategy for integrating a gender perspective and supporting women's rights in all activities of the Programme.
4. Ensure that all phases of the Project Cycle, from the appraisal to the follow-up/evaluation phase, are adequately gender mainstreamed.
5. Identify and promote adequate tools/instruments for follow-up and monitoring, such as indicators and benchmarks, within all interventions implemented by UN-HABITAT.
6. Establish and strengthen accountability mechanisms within the UN-HABITAT to ensure gender mainstreaming of all its interventions, such as the Project Review Committee (PRC) and other review processes.
7. Ensure gender components are included in all interventions when collaborating with partners and agencies.

(2) Identify entry points and opportunities within UN-HABITAT's work programme

1. Promote the avoidance of discrimination and hardship for both women and men in order for the development processes to avoid impoverishment of women and men, boys and girls alike.
2. Implement accountable processes of development for both women and men, within the field of human settlement development in general and in the Programme's activities in particular.
3. Ensure that women and girls through organisations and networks are active participants in the UN-HABITAT's programmes and projects, and that they are always equal partners and stakeholders at decision-making forums.
4. Collect and analyse relevant data on stakeholders (including target groups) for all activities and ensure that the outcome of these analyses is actively used in programme/project implementation.
5. Promote and support the development of gender-disaggregated data.
6. Ensure that knowledge within the field of gender mainstreaming is gained through the above mentioned aspects.

(3) Identify linkages between Gender Equality and Human Settlements Development

1. Outline and acknowledge how women and men experience human settlements development differently within specific areas of UN-HABITAT's areas of work.
2. Outline how women and men contribute to and gain from human settlements development differently.
3. Understand and acknowledge how human settlements development has different impacts on women and men in all interventions of UN-HABITAT.
4. Identify international Declarations and Conventions adopted or ratified by the international community in general and the specific country in particular, that ensure women and men equal rights, opportunities and possibilities, which could be used as references in diverse activities.
5. Take into consideration relevant national policies based upon international Conventions and Declarations adopted to ensure and promote gender equality and women's rights within the national legislation.
6. Acknowledge and cooperate with already active bodies, such as NGOs, civil society groups and community-based organisations and individuals in the field of interest and make use of their knowledge and capacities, as well as strengthen them in their work.
7. Ensure gender components in all collaboration with partners and other agencies are in place.
8. Analyse the importance of globalisation and urbanisation on gender roles, as well as identify emerging opportunities for women, vis-a-vis, the changing cultural context, and diversification of employment chances for women.

(4) Develop institutional Competence by allocating staff time and resources

1. Avail adequate resources to be spent on gender mainstreaming in the form of development of competence through training, workshops, handbooks, manuals and guidelines.
2. Allocate adequate staff time.
3. Earmark resources (both financial and regular staff time) for training and capacity building. This form of institutional learning should be encouraged and supported by management within UN-HABITAT.
4. Raise awareness on UN Conventions and Declarations relevant to the goal of gender equality and promotion of women's rights and empowerment.