Over the past few years efforts have been made within the ILO to ensure that its wide range of activities and means of action contribute more effectively towards gender equality. While both in headquarters and in the field gender specialists are providing technical advice in relation to gender issues in the world of work, incorporating gender concerns into ILO’s activities is the responsibility of all staff and an inherent part of the day-to-day work of all ILO officials.
In response to this, ILO/SEAPAT, together with the Area Office in Manila, conducted quite a few gender training workshops for their staff. We started with a first introduction workshop on gender sensitivity and gender responsive planning in September 1995. Two awareness raising workshops on sexual harassment in the workplace followed suit in June 1996. In November 1997, we held a refresher workshop on gender sensitivity jointly with our staff team-building exercise. However, it was during our January 1998 technical workshop on gender analysis and planning for ILO professional and programming staff from the Area Office and the MDT, that participants expressed the need for a simple ‘how-to manual’ on gender mainstreaming: a handy document which they could pull out quickly when looking for guidelines on how to make their projects more gender responsive. This manual was drafted to satisfy that need. It is meant to be of use to all ILO officials involved in technical and programming activities in headquarters and in the field.
The manual presents in a nutshell the main steps involved in mainstreaming gender concerns in ILO’s work. It is not the purpose of this manual to provide, for each and every technical field within the ILO’s mandate, specific gender analysis and planning techniques. It aims, in a more generic way, to provide ILO staff with concepts and tools to define better gender issues in their work through gender analysis, and to formulate gender responsive strategies through gender planning The manual is intended as a handy summary of concepts and tools for gender mainstreaming. It is not intended to stand alone but should be supplemented with other operational tools for gender mainstreaming.
Gender mainstreaming calls for very little extra work and helps in achieving a favourable response from potential donors.
I should like to thank Katerine Landuyt for her commitment to, and unceasing efforts in, bringing about the existence of this gender manual.
For further information, please contact the South-East Asia and the Pacific Multidisciplinary Advisory Team (SEAPAT) at
Tel: + 63.2.815.2354 or + 63.2.819.3614 and Fax: + 63.2.812.6143
E-mail:
seapat@ilo.org
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Created by SF. Approved by WRB. Last updated on 31 August 1999.