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In 2015, UN Women will undertake a review of progress made to date against the Beijing Platform for Action, a series of commitments made by governments in 1995 to improve the lives of women and girls.

The campaign for gender equality has a long history, and each wave of feminism has seen men join the fight to improve the lives of women and girls. However such men have been in the minority and it is time for change. 2015 sees the creation of a new post-2015 global development framework, and the rights of women and girls must be placed firmly at the heart of this framework.

As stated in a recent speech by UN Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson, the achievement of women’s rights is a human rights issue and equality is everyone’s business; we all have important roles to play in challenging cultural norms and stereotypes that limit us all and underpin violence against women and girls. We will not achieve equality without the engagement of men and boys, and we held this seminar to learn more about how government can work with organisations and institutions to increase the active involvement of men and boys in the gender equality campaign.

While there was disagreement in areas, particularly over how some issues are described and communicated, there was a clear shared consensus on three points:

1. We cannot achieve gender equality without men
   Participants cited a number of ways in which men can actively promote gender equality: by taking parental leave, by sharing the double shift of childcare and housework, by challenging their peers and calling out sexist behaviours where they occur – in the street, in the workplace, and online - and by speaking about the ways in which gender inequality limits the opportunities of boys and men also.

2. Men will also benefit from gender equality
   Men have a great deal to gain from gender equality. Restrictive gender roles and stereotypes harm men as well as women, boys as well as girls. For real change to happen, everybody has to acknowledge and understand that better for women means better for all.

3. Engagement is not easy
   Engaging men as change agents for gender equality is not easy. But there are many men who listen, understand, and want to play their part. We must work with men to secure their involvement in making gender equality a reality.

This report discusses the three points above in greater detail and identifies some of the ways government is engaging with men and boys in the campaign for gender equality. Throughout this discussion, speakers repeatedly reinforced the importance of recognising the multiple and diverse experiences of individuals, and the impact of issues including race, sexual identity and sexual orientation, religion and socio-economic background on individual experiences. 

This plan aims to:

• reinforce and support the commitments made in the 2007-2013 England and Gibraltar ESF Operational Programme to mainstream gender equality and equal opportunities;

• provide the national ESF Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities Sub Committee with a management tool and point of reference for assessing progress in mainstreaming gender equality and equal opportunities;

• propose objectives which support the achievement of equality targets and to contribute, in particular, to increasing the female participation rate for the second half of the programme period.

  This plan is designed primarily as a management tool for mainstreaming gender equality in the ESF Operational Programme (OP). The OP explains that the mainstreaming approach for the current ESF programme aims to integrate gender equality and equal opportunities into the key programme processes of:

  (a) planning;

  (b) implementation;

  (c) monitoring; and

  (d) evaluation.

  The ESF OP also explains that ESF aims to promote a `dual’ approach to mainstreaming, i.e.:

  • horizontal mainstreaming of equality -all projects / providers take equality into account ,using equality policies and equality mainstreaming implementation plans as tools to help actively promote equality and 

  help meet ESF regulatory obligations as well as the general duty of the Equality Act 2010 ; and

  • vertical mainstreaming – a number of projects providing specialised support for specific equality groups.

  The approaches adopted at programme and delivery level aim to ensure that the programme complies with the various domestic and EU legislative requirements as well as the Structural Fund’s own regulatory requirements 

The agreed main priorities for FAO’s work in promoting gender equality in Europe and Central Asia are as follows6:

1. Empowerment of rural women through income diversification and increased participation in decision-making processes – by initiating and implementing specific projects that meet strategic and practical needs of rural women, improve rural livelihoods and empower rural women economically.

2. Support to the generation of gender statistics for formulation and implementation of evidence-based agricultural policies and strategies – (i) by strengthening the capacities of Member Countries to develop, analyze and use sex-disaggregated and gender-sensitive data for evidence-based policy analysis, planning and evaluation; and (ii) by providing technical support to in-country data collection activities, such as agricultural censuses and surveys, in order to promote the mainstreaming of gender issues in statistics.

3. Gender-sensitive FAO technical assistance – (i) by fostering an enabling environment for the empowerment of rural women to attain food security and poverty reduction goals in agriculture and rural development in Europe and Central Asia; (ii) by raising key stakeholders’ awareness of the need for mainstreaming gender concerns into respective policies; and (iii) by promoting policy instruments, such as “gender budgeting”, to develop inclusive and gender-sensitive policies, organizational structures that are favourable and conducive to gender equality and rural women’s empowerment in agriculture, food security and the rural sector. 

GENDER MAINSTREAMING WILL BE ACHIEVED WHEN:

1. All FAO interventions address gender concerns which are reflected through the assignment of a gender marker;

2. There are specific projects and activities that directly support women’s economic empowerment in agriculture and rural development across all FAO technical areas;

3. Situation analyses of CPFs, regional and country level initiatives and projects integrate analysis of gender issues in rural development;

4. Needs assessments of FAO interventions consult with both women and men stakeholders and target beneficiaries;

5. All staff and consultants in programmatic work are familiar with gender-sensitive project implementation approaches and are equipped with the relevant skills via capacity development;

6. Project implementers, partners and task forces are trained on gender-sensitive project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation;

7. All data collected through monitoring are sex-disaggregated and gender-sensitive indicators are used wherever possible (in for example, the monitoring of changes in time use before and after the intervention and the identification of changes in women’s access to extension services before and after the intervention);

8. All mobilization processes of farmers and stakeholders integrate proactive measures to ensure that both women and men are actively involved in FAO activities, and have access to decision-making, information, knowledge and opportunities within FAO projects;

9. All project reporting includes sex-disaggregated and gender-sensitive data and makes specific reference to gender concerns, including key issues, actions and recommendations;

10. Gender specialists and experts are consulted throughout project implementation and programmatic work to support gender mainstreaming;

11. Budgeting on gender-mainstreaming is forecast in every project and FAO activity, in accordance with the FAO Policy on Gender Equality. 

More people are living better lives than ever before. But gender equality is still a vision, not a reality.

Sweden’s feminist government wants to make this vision a reality. Gender equality is a goal in itself. But it is also essential for the achievement of the Government’s other overall objectives, such as peace, security and sustainable development.

This is why gender equality and human rights efforts must continue unabated. But we must also go one step further.

And we are doing this by making Sweden the first country in the world to pursue a feminist foreign policy.

Twenty years after the World Conference on Women in Beijing, the commitments are far from being fulfilled. Countless women and girls still experience a blatant lack of rights, representation and resources.

Sweden’s feminist foreign policy will help to achieve concrete results that enhance both gender equality and the full enjoyment of human rights by all women and girls.

This will be done by implementing systematic gender mainstreaming, based on knowledge and analysis, throughout the foreign policy agenda, not least in peace and security efforts.

This action plan sets the direction of feminist foreign policy action to be taken by the Foreign Service, guided by six long-term objectives. These are broad objectives to match broad challenges, cover the entire global agenda and bring the whole gamut of foreign policy tools into play. This will enable the Foreign Service to promote the full enjoyment of human rights by all women and girls, including by combating all forms of violence and discrimination that restrict their freedom of action.

The action plan specifies approaches, starting points, tools and actors. It also notes the importance of involving men and boys in the process of advancing gender equality.

Focus areas will support progress towards the long-term objectives. In 2016 these will include strengthening the human rights of women and girls in humanitarian settings and combating gender- based and sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations. The potential of women and girls as actors will also be highlighted within the framework of peace processes, peace support operations and sustainable development efforts. The Foreign Service will continue to be a driving force for women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights and in 2016 devote special attention to the rights of girls and young people.

The action plan will be incorporated into the Foreign Service operational plan. In this way we will facilitate the implementation and ensure results in foreign, security, development, trade and promotion policy, as well as in the achievement of the new global development goals.

Like the rest of the operational plan, the action plan will be monitored and updated every year. This will enable us to learn from experience and benefit from consultations and new data.

By applying this deeper, broader and more systematic approach, the feminist foreign policy will develop to achieve results that strengthen the rights, representation and resources of all women and girls.