Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

This joint programme on gender equality and women's empowerment in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) involves six UN agencies. The programme promotes Palestinian women's social, economic and political empowerment in order to:

• Reduce gender-based violence and all forms of violence against women;
• increase the representation of women and women’s issues in decision-making bodies; and
• advance equal opportunities for women’s economic participation, especially for survivors of gender-based violence.

The programme builds on the commitment made by the Palestinian Authority to gender equality and women's empowerment in its Mid-Term Development Plan (2005 – 2007). It also builds on the National Strategic Plans of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (2004-2007 and 2008-2010) as well as its key areas of concern which include:

• Women's marginalization in positions of policy and decision-making;
• poverty among women;
• technical and vocational education and training (TVET) for girls as a tool for entering job markets; and
• protecting women against violence.

Objectives

The ILO’s role is to focus on the advancement of equal opportunities for women’s economic participation, especially for survivors of gender-based violence. It aims to:

• Increase the influence of gender advocates as well as workers’ and employers’ organizations in decision-making and planning through legal reform and gender-sensitive employment planning;
• strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Labour as well as workers’ and employers’ organizations to implement measures that promote women’s employment and protect them in the workplace; and
• increase employment opportunities for low-income women and young graduates, including those living in refugee camps.

Main Activities

• Undertake a study on reviewing labour laws and promoting women’s role in the labour force;
• conduct a needs assessment of mainstreaming gender equality concerns in Palestinian TVET Centres;
• raise awareness of negative perceptions of TVET training as “second class” education;
• build the capacity of business development services to integrate gender-responsive services and good gender practices;
• pool resources through productive cooperatives for low-income women;
• carry out an assessment focused on mainstreaming gender equality concerns in Palestinian cooperatives.
• organise workshops on training of trainers’ workshop for cooperative extension workers in the West Bank, factors constraining women’s participation in the labour force; participatory gender audits, gender mainstreaming in the world of work, and gender equality and international labour standards;
• improve dialogue of statistics between gender advocates and the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.
• collect and analyse quantitative data on the gender dimensions of violence in the world of work;
• set up the National Committee for Women’s Employment (NCWE) to empower women advocates in labour governance institutions;
• carry out participatory gender audits to build the capacity of labour governance institutions;
• develop action plans to systematically identify and address gender gaps.

Outcomes

• The discriminatory labour law is reformed;
• employment opportunities are created for women;
• poor working conditions are reversed to facilitate women’s employment; and
• awareness of gender issues in government is raised.