Introduction
Gender equality is at the forefront of the ILO’s Decent Work strategy. Over the past decades, the ILO has made considerable progress in promoting gender mainstreaming through technical cooperation, as a viable strategy for advancing equality between women and men in the world of work. In order to consolidate this strategy, the ILO Governing Body at its March 2005 session outlined a two-pronged approach to gender mainstreaming, comprising analysis of the often different needs and concerns of women and men as well as corresponding gender-specific action.
The ILO has committed to invigorating all headquarters departments and field offices to renew their commitment to gender equality into their work. This has been reinforced in the Organization’s 2008-09 Programme and Budget by recognizing gender equality with a joint immediate outcome: “Increase capacity of constituents to develop integrated policies and programmes to advance gender equality in the world of work”.1 In addition, the ILO Action Plan for Gender Equality 2008-09 was approved by the Governing Body in November 2007 and gives a practical roadmap for operationalizing gender mainstreaming into ILO’s work.
Another important development has been the ILO Governing Body’s decision to place “gender equality at the heart of decent work” as a general discussion item on the agenda of the 2009 International Labour Conference (ILC). It has been over 20 years since gender equality has featured as a topic at the ILC, and this decision has been welcomed as a significant opportunity to provide a thoughtful overview of ILO’s past and current work, as well as its future aspirations.
Strategy for mainstreaming gender in the ILO/Norway partnership agreement
The Government of Norway has recognized the centrality of gender equality in the attainment of sustainable social and economic development and is committed to the achievement of Millennium Development Goal No. 3, “Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women”. Against this background, the Government has expressed its intention of systematically mainstreaming gender in the ILO/Norway Programme Cooperation Agreement for 2006-08.
A two-year technical cooperation agreement was initiated with Norway in July 2006 to bolster ILO work on women’s empowerment, child labour, social dialogue, discrimination, youth employment and policy coherence. IPEC, ACTRAV, ACT/EMP, DECLARATION, INTEGRATION and GENDER are lead units. The gender equality component is meant to ensure that gender dimensions are actively integrated into the programme of the partner units.
In particular, the strategy will promote the gender dimension in projects related to the following areas:
- Promoting social dialogue
Projects in the ILO/Norway programme will work closely with the ILO’s tripartite constituents to promote youth employment in development policies and poverty reduction strategies in the framework of the Decent Work and Global Employment Agendas. Collaboration between activities of GENDER and ACTEMP and ACTRAV is essential to ensure that achievements under the programme are closely built into and thus sustained in the overall social dialogue and gender equality strategies of the ILO. - Combating child labour
As a cross-cutting issue gender equality is a key principle in combating child labour, hence there will be close collaboration between IPEC and GENDER to promote gender mainstreaming in IPEC activities and strengthen the gender dimensions in related training activities for social partners. - The social dimensions of globalization
The ILO has made considerable progress in addressing the gender dimension of globalization processes, and has drawn attention to the implications of changing forms of production and reproduction. Whereas such transformation has opened up opportunities for women to enter new areas of paid employment, it has also created new challenges, as much of this employment is informal with poor working conditions and a lack of labour rights. The ILO/Norway gender mainstreaming strategy will support the continuation and development of this focus, as it provides a significant resource base for adopting measures to counteract the gender inequalities of globalization. - Promoting the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
The ILO/Norway gender mainstreaming strategy will support the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in promoting the gender dimension of activities related to discrimination against migrant workers, and advocating for equal pay for work of equal value.
The following two-tier gender equality strategy will be adopted:
- Capacity building on gender mainstreaming
Capacity building on gender mainstreaming is essential to enable linkages with other units in developing and implementing a gender mainstreaming strategy for their projects. In addition to addressing “practical gender needs”, through the programme, it will also focus on “strategic gender needs” including redressing inequalities in decision-making processes, equal access to training and employment, and rights-based issues.
- Knowledge management and knowledge sharing on gender equality
Knowledge management and knowledge sharing of the adopted gender mainstreaming strategies within the ILO/Norway programme is essential for the ILO’s continued effort and commitment to expand its knowledge base on gender equality. This increased knowledge base is an important tool in ILO efforts to monitor implementation of the Governing Body decision of March 2005 “to ensure that all ILO technical cooperation programmes and projects systematically mainstream gender throughout the project cycle” (GB.292/TC/1) as well as in efforts to promote the four key gender equality Conventions. Equal Remuneration Convention (No. 100), Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (No. 111), Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention (No. 156), and Maternity Protection Convention (No. 183).
In addition to contributing to the specific work outlined above, funds available under the ILO/Norway agreement indirectly reinforce the overall gender mainstreaming strategy of the ILO and support the further expansion of its knowledge base on gender equality in the world of work. The achievements of the ILO/Norway project will also contribute to overall reporting on progress made on gender equality at the ILC in 2009.
Further information:
Ms. Susan Maybud
Bureau for Gender Equality
International Labour Office
4, route des Morillons
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel.: + 41 22 799 7883
Fax.: + 41 22 799 6388
E-mail: maybud@ilo.org
http://www.ilo.org/gender
1 Joint immediate outcomes require coordinated policies that draw from multiple technical fields. All sectors and regions participate in the implementation of joint outcomes, and through collaborative arrangements combine resources and coordinate strategies to deliver common outputs and achieve defined results.