International Instruments - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

International Instruments - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Addressed by (Part I)	Governments
Addressed to (Part I)	Multinational enterprises
Definition of multinationals (Part I)	A precise definition of multinational enterprises is not required for the purposes of the Guidelines. These usually comprise companies or other entities established in more than one country and so linked that they may co-ordinate their operations in various ways. While one or more of these entities may be able to exercise a significant influence over the activities of others, their degree of autonomy within the enterprise may vary widely from one multinational enterprise to another. Ownership may be private, state or mixed. The Guidelines are addressed to all the entities within the multinational enterprise (parent companies and/or local entities). According to the actual distribution of responsibilities among them, the different entities are expected to co-operate and to assist one another to facilitate observance of the Guidelines.

Equal Employment Opportunities for Women

Employment and Industrial Relations (Part IV)

Enterprises should, within the framework of applicable law, regulations and prevailing labour relations and employment practices:

1. Not discriminate against their employees with respect to employment or occupation on such grounds as race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, unless selectivity concerning employee characteristics furthers established governmental policies which specifically promote greater equality of employment opportunity or relates to the inherent requirements of a job.

Implementation

Reporting and monitoring
(decision of the Council, June 2000)

I. National Contact Points

Adhering countries shall set up National Contact Points for undertaking promotional activities, handling inquiries and for discussions with the parties concerned on all matters covered by the Guidelines so that they can contribute to the solution of problems which may arise in this connection, taking due account of the attached Procedural Guidance. The business community, employee organisations, and other interested parties shall be informed of the availability of such facilities.
National Contact Points in different countries shall co-operate if such need arises, on any matter covered by the Guidelines relevant to their activities. As a general procedure, discussions at the national level should be initiated before contacts with other National Contact Points are undertaken.
National Contact Points shall meet annually to share experiences and report to the Committee on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises.

II. The Committee on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises

The Committee on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises ("CIME" or "the Committee") shall periodically or at the request of an adhering country hold exchanges of views on matters covered by the Guidelines and the experience gained in their application.
The Committee shall periodically invite the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) (the "advisory bodies"), as well as other non-governmental organisations to express their views on matters covered by the Guidelines. In addition, exchanges of views with the advisory bodies on these matters may be held at their request.
The Committee may decide to hold exchanges of views on matters covered by the Guidelines with representatives of non-adhering countries.
The Committee shall be responsible for clarification of the Guidelines. Clarification will be provided as required. If it so wishes, an individual enterprise will be given the opportunity to express its views either orally or in writing on issues concerning the Guidelines involving its interests. The Committee shall not reach conclusions on the conduct of individual enterprises.
The Committee shall hold exchanges of views on the activities of National Contact Points with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of the Guidelines.
In fulfilling its responsibilities for the effective functioning of the Guidelines, the Committee shall take due account of the attached Procedural Guidance.
The Committee shall periodically report to the Council on matters covered by the Guidelines. In its reports, the Committee shall take account of reports by National Contact Points, the views expressed by the advisory bodies, and the views of other non-governmental organisations and non-adhering countries as appropriate.

Addressed by (Chapter I)	OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
Addressed to (Chapters I and IV)	DAC Members, and their partners (GOs, NGOs, and public and private contractors) in development projects
DAC members	Australia (1966) Austria (1965) Belgium (1961) Canada (1961) Denmark (1963) Finland (1975) France (1961) Germany (1961) Greece (1999) Ireland (1985) Italy (1961) Japan (1961) Luxembourg (1992) Netherlands (1961) New Zealand (1973) Norway (1962) Portugal (1961/91) Spain (1991) Sweden (1965) Switzerland (1968) United Kingdom (1961) United States (1961) Commission of the European Communities (1961)

Equal Employment Opportunities for Women

Gender equality and development partnerships
(Chapter III)

(Only extracts of each paragraph)

In their relationship with partners, DAC Members have two complementary responsibilities:
- to ensure the mainstreaming of gender equality in their own processes and products;
- to support the efforts of partners to promote gender equality.
United Nations agencies, international financial institutions and regional development organisations, including financial institutions, are important partners for DAC Members. A significant proportion of official development assistance is channelled through these organisations. The responsibilities of DAC Members in this relationship include:
- working together to ensure that multilateral organisations promote gender equality through the range of their activities;
- ensuring that institutional assessments and evaluations of multilateral organisations systematically consider gender equality;
- enhancing dialogue and co-ordination with multilateral organisations about specific projects and initiatives for gender equality.
Co-ordination is an important issue for DAC Members at both the national and international levels. This includes:
- co-ordination among the staff of an individual DAC Member country so that gender equality is an integral aspect of the development of all policy areas;
- co-ordination among units or staff representing the DAC Member on various DAC groups and other international bodies to ensure consistency on gender equality in all messages, statements and presentations;
- co-ordination among DAC Members preparing programmes in any one country. Co-ordination on concepts, policy, and principles is facilitated by the DAC and its subsidiary bodies and will be assisted by the DAC Gender Action Framework.
In order to best support partners’ initiatives, DAC Members themselves require improved competence. This includes ensuring that their own policies and practices, and the knowledge and skills of staff, enable them to be effective partners in promoting gender equality. Understanding of the gender equality dimensions in all areas of development is crucial.

Gender equality and development co-operation approaches
(Chapter IV)

(Only extracts of each paragraph)

In pursuing policy dialogue, DAC Members should:
- use policy dialogue to actively promote gender equality;
- prepare for policy dialogue by working with partners to analyse the impact of proposed initiatives on both women and men and to identify the opportunities for promoting gender equality;
- ensure that all agenda items in policy dialogue incorporate gender equality considerations;
- encourage national governments to include women’s organisations and gender equality advocates in policy dialogue.

To incorporate gender equality objectives at the country programme level, DAC Members should work with partners to:
- prepare background economic, social and political analyses that outline and compare the situation of women and men and identify gender-based disparities;
- identify national policies and strategies on women’s empowerment and the promotion of gender equality, and analyse institutional capacities for incorporating gender equality concerns in public policy and planning;
- identify in-country gender equality advocates and consult with them on issues and priorities.
DAC Members should:
- promote dialogue and collaborative efforts among economists, social scientists and gender specialists, within their own organisations, in DAC deliberations and within partner institutions, thus supporting integrated approaches to social development and economic analyses that incorporate gender equality considerations;
- develop appraisal procedures for programme assistance proposals that include an examination of the impact of gender-based distortions on the economy and on the efficiency of the economic reform programme (including distortions arising from discrimination against women in access to resources and services, women’s unpaid work, and unequal exchanges within households);
- promote the inclusion of a broad range of participants in policy dialogue about the design of programme assistance initiatives, including both governmental and non-governmental advocates of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
DAC Members should:
- promote acceptance by partner countries and by all participating donors of the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the reform of sectoral policies and institutions;
- ensure that the analyses carried out as the basis for reforms address gender equality as an integral issue;
- in weighing alternatives and in supporting the design of programmes, promote policy directions and institutional reforms that have a positive impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment (this could mean, for example, removing obstacles to women's access to resources in the sector or improving institutional capacity to address the needs and priorities of women and men equitably).
DAC Members should:
- strengthen linkages between the project and policy levels within their organisations to ensure coherence of gender equality policy objectives and supported activities and resulting impacts;
- support partners to improve project-level monitoring and impact assessment in order to understand how projects can contribute to gender equality objectives, how obstacles can be overcome, and how project design can be improved;
- analyse the comparative strengths and weaknesses of different interventions used in specific sectors to increase knowledge about strategies that have positive results and are cost effective.
Institution-strengthening initiatives supported by DAC Members should:
- give priority to initiatives that focus on the capacities of partners to analyse policies, programmes and institutional cultures, and to develop change strategies that contribute to gender equality;
- assist partners to examine the gender balance within their organisations and to identify strategies to increase the representation of women at policy and decision-making levels;
- support the modification of national and sectoral systems for data collection to increase the availability of sex-disaggregated data;
- support research on gender equality by sectoral institutions, research organisations and advocacy groups to increase the national resources of partners in this area.
DAC Members should:
- focus on the institutional capacity of organisations deliveringemergency assistance to both ensure participation of women and men and to incorporate gender equality objectives into their programming;
- move beyond a focus on women as ‘victims’ in an emergency situation, to an approach which considers women’s and men’s differing vulnerabilities as well as their different capacities and coping strategies;
- support the development and use of creative methodologies to ensure the participation of women as well as men in relief and emergency programmes and to allow them to articulate their own needs and priorities.
DAC Members should:
- encourage a mutual learning process among DAC Members, NGOs, and governments and facilitate a dialogue about best practices for the promotion of gender equality in projects and programmes;
- focus on the institutional capacity of NGOs to incorporate equality goals in their policies, procedures and relationships with partner organisations and support capacity development in this area where needed.
DAC Members should:
- develop criteria to assess the capacity of contractors on gender equality;
- ensure that contracts and terms of reference clearly define responsibilities and state specific expectations about performance on gender equality.

Gender equality strategies of DAC Members
(Chapter V)

(Only extracts of each paragraph)

Effective action will require innovation in DAC Member organisations with respect to:
- partnership strategies that build on partner responsibilities and support the capacity development of partners, yet also recognise the need for DAC Member competence on gender equality issues;
- processes for policy formulation and planning that mainstream gender equality considerations;
- processes and competence for assessing the impact of development co-operation activities, including impacts on gender equality;
- mutual learning processes based on joint reflection and the sharing of experience among DAC Members and with partner countries;
- flexibility and the ability to respond to changing circumstances and lessons learned in the process of implementation.

DAC Members should:
1. Within their own organisations :
  1. formulate policies and strategies that clearly set out goals and the means by which overall progress of support to gender equality and women’s empowerment can be assessed;
  2. improve evaluation and monitoring capacity with a clear emphasis on the mainstreaming of gender equality into all processes;
  3. regularly assess whether or not the overall institutional objectives set have been achieved;
  4. improve their own capacity for monitoring and evaluating progress in mainstreaming gender equality.
2. At programme and project level:
  1. support partner efforts to formulate clear, measurable goals and expected results relating to gender equality and women’s empowerment (focusing on development impacts, not just the completion of activities);
  2. support partner capacity to monitor and evaluate results achievement in projects, programmes and institutions and to understand the reasons for success or failure.
30Senior management responsible for development co-operation policy and programmes in DAC Member countries should:
- ensure regular monitoring of the results of gender equality strategies and goals, granting a high profile to the issue and rewarding outstanding staff contributions;
- ensure consistent communication to both staff and others of the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment as a strategic objective of development. in policy discussions, public documents and interviews and presentations;
- allocate sufficient resources to support policy implementation.
31DAC Members should:
- identify the skills required by all staff in order to work toward gender equality in their specific areas of work, including the capacity to identify gender equality issues in their sector, to discuss policy goals with partners, and to find expert assistance when needed;
- develop in-house expertise in gender equality and women’s empowerment and recognise this as a legitimate professional skill in development planning;
- maintain a unit or structure that acts as a catalyst to facilitate policy implementation by the entire organisation.
32 DAC Members should:
- ensure that guides and procedural manuals incorporate gender equality considerations into the methods to be followed by staff, with priority given to the promotion of gender analysis at the initial stages of the planning process;
- ensure that the gender equality objective is reflected in the development of procedures for results-based management, including the specification of results sought, indicators for monitoring achievements, and evaluation criteria; ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment measures and indicators are part of the mainstream reporting structure and evaluation processes rather than a separate system;
- develop and maintain statistical systems and project monitoring systems that provide sex-disaggregated data;
- ensure that gender equality is addressed in all training and staff development initiatives.

Implementation

Monitoring progress on the Guidelines
(Chapter VI)

The effectiveness of development co-operation is continually enhanced by efforts to learn from experience, both by individual DAC Members and jointly through the DAC. The DAC has several mechanisms to facilitate this process: annual country memoranda, the DAC peer review process, country-based aid reviews, statistical reporting, and working groups. The Guidelines for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development Co-operation are relevant to all these mechanisms and to the methods adopted to monitor implementation of the directions outlined in Shaping the 21st Century.

Member countries prepare annual country memoranda for submission to the DAC. These memoranda are a means through which the DAC remains informed of developments in Member countries and of ongoing and emerging themes of policy interest. They are also an important input into the peer review process. In preparing their annual country memoranda, DAC Members should:
- ensure that the objective of gender equality is addressed systematically throughout the document;
- include a discussion of action taken to implement these Guidelines and an assessment of the resulting impacts. DAC delegates should be prepared to present and discuss progress in the implementation of the Guidelines.
The DAC peer review process is a means of exchanging experience and enriching the discussion on effective strategies and practices. In order to address gender equality issues systematically in this process, the reviewing countries in co-operation with the DAC Secretariat should:
- integrate assessment of policy and action on gender equality throughout the review process;
- consult with gender specialists and advocates in the preparation of questions for the review;
- give priority to gender equality as an issue to be examined in field visits;
- discuss strategies and progress on gender equality with the senior management of the DAC Member under review.
Country-based aid reviews offer opportunities for DAC Members to assess the coherence and consistency of their actions in one partner country in support of locally-generated strategies for gender equality. If the DAC continues this type of exercise it should:
- consult with partner country organisations, including women’s organisations and gender equality advocates from the government and civil society, about the issues to be addressed in the review;
- in co-operation with local stakeholders, including women’s organisations and gender equality advocates, assess the extent to which DAC Members facilitate the achievement of national objectives for gender equality and women’s empowerment and the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995);
- assess the extent of co-ordination on gender equality issues among DAC Members active in the country and the appropriateness, consistency and complementarity of their efforts;
- assess whether DAC Members in the country are applying these Guidelines in their policy dialogue and programmes.
The DAC policy marker for gender equality incorporating women in development (WID) is based on intentions at the design stage. The marker provides a means for individual DAC Members to monitor their own progress in pursuing gender equality objectives. The marker provides a measure of the sectors and types of activities that merit further attention in pursuing the goal of gender equality. DAC Members use the marker to report regularly to the DAC.
The exchange of experience and lessons learned on gender equality and women’s empowerment among DAC Members has been led by the DAC Expert Group on Women in Development. With the adoption of the DAC Gender Action Framework [DCD/DAC(96)18/REV2], responsibility for co-ordination and monitoring will be more broadly shared. All representatives of DAC Members participating in working groups, peer reviews, country-based reviews and the DAC itself are responsible for monitoring policy and action toward the objective of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The permanent DAC delegates in Paris have a major role in ensuring that the Guidelines are reflected in all DAC deliberations.