Making gender equality a reality
It is in ILO’s work with governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations in countries and regions that the results of ILO policies and strategies can be seen in practice – including promoting equality between women and men in their working lives. The ILO and its constituents around the world pursue a wide range of activities that use gender mainstreaming as a strategy in order to achieve gender equality. Such activities take place within each of the ILO’s four strategic objectives, and they are all aimed at achieving gender equality as an essential feature of Decent Work.
Various means are employed to achieve this, including:
Promoting the ratification and application of labour standards relevant to equality, in particular the four key gender equality Conventions. This normative work is fundamental to the ILO’s goal of overcoming discrimination against women in employment opportunities and treatment at work.
Advisory services. The ILO offers advice and guidance on gender equality and gender mainstreaming to constituents aiming to make positive changes in their policies, legislation, programmes and institutions, and to ILO units at headquarters and field offices. This is done via the Bureau for Gender Equality and the gender focal points in units and offices throughout the organization.
Research and information dissemination on issues concerning gender equality in the world of work. This is a key activity for the ILO, covering a wide range of themes such as women’s entrepreneurship, the roles of men and women in the formal and informal economy, gender equality issues in social security, the gender dimension of HIV/AIDS, migration, post-conflict reconstruction, child labour and forced labour.
Technical cooperation for development in the context of ILO’s technical cooperation programme.
The Bureau for Gender Equality and the ILO Gender Network assist and advise on gender mainstreaming in the design and monitoring/evaluating phases of the various projects. Many projects include a specific allocation for gender equality in their budgets, thus ensuring that a gender perspective is both visible and accountable in the implementation of these projects.
Knowledge development activities are supported by training and capacity-building that provides methodologies and tools for integrating gender equality into analysis, planning and practice. The Gender and Non-Discrimination Program of the ILO Training Centre in Turin runs regular training courses in gender mainstreaming, on line, at national and regional levels in all the regions, and in-house at the Training Centre. The ILO also publishes a wide range of gender specific training materials.