Knowledge Management Strategy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

• Initiative Summary
• Results

It has been proven that almost any investment we make in women and girls will have multiplier effects across the MDGs. For instance, educated and empowered women and girls are more likely to delay marriage and pregnancy, and are better able to make informed choices about family planning, nutrition and health. Therefore, if a country achieves the MDG on gender equality in education, it will be better positioned to progress toward the goals of ending hunger and improving child and maternal health. It is against this background that the MDG-F Gender Equality thematic window worked with partners and across the UN system to support national and local efforts to address these inter-relating issues which cut across the mandate of individual organizations and have a direct impact on women’s development.

The JPs in the Gender Equality thematic window worked on combating violence against women, promoting women’s economic equality, and ensuring their equal socio-political participation. In many cases, the programmes harnessed the collective contributions of women activists, civil society coalitions and local authorities toward the development and implementation of comprehensive national gender equality strategies. These strategies – and related policies, programs and legislation - were undertaken to ensure sustainability of programmes. Results achieved from the JPs also showed the importance of a multi-sectoral approach to GBV and the pioneering experience of the JPs in this regard is worth noting, as no single intervention will end GBV. The MDG-F JPs on Gender Based Violence were the largest ever of the UN-system on this topic and their efforts represent some of the first-ever to upscale national response to GBV and to define roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders involved.

The MDG-F Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment KM plan promoted sharing on best practices and lessons learned in and between the 13 MDG-F Gender JPs in order to support the advancement of JP results, improve the sustainability of outcomes, and maximise their investment in women and girls as a strategic contribution to the MDGs.  In addition, the plan sought to ensure that lessons learned from the pilot experiences in “delivering as one for gender equality” fed into the global knowledge base, to inform future policy and programming and promote the achievement of MDG-3.

Experiences exchange initiatives:  

• Teamworks: The Gender CoP was further supported through a thematic Teamworks platform which also served as a repository for Gender-related materials and information relevant for MDG-F JPs.
• Webdialogues:  Four MDG-F gender JPs engaged in a series of webinars on Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW), economic empowerment and political participation, co-organized with UN Women and UNDP-BCPR (see also, results: Gender as a Cross-cutting Issue). A report that summarizes the experience is available.

• Workshops: The JPs of the Gender Equality thematic window were brought together as a CoP at a global KM workshop, convened in Rabat in 2011. This provided participants the opportunity to learn from the experience of other JPs, identify opportunities for exchange and strengthen their capacity on KM tools and approaches. Participants presented their achievements, challenges and lessons through a participatory ‘knowledge fair’.

• ‘Knowledge Transfer Agreements’. Through this initiative, JPs participated in a competitive process to gain funds allowing them to undertake visits to other programmes. Through such visits, each set of JPs was able to exchange successful implementation tools and processes, with a view to applying them to their own programmes.
  
  Three KTAs were implemented on the following topics: 1) Best practices in shelter management (OPT-Morocco); 2) M&E, KM, and Communications and Advocacy in joint programming for Gender Equality (Brazil-Colombia); and 3) Involving men and boys in the fight against gender-based violence (Morocco-Colombia). Results of these exchanges were monitored and consolidated in separate reports.
  » mdgf.unteamworks.org/node/16962

Knowledge Products:

• The MDG-F Dual Strategy for Gender Equality, developed in partnership with the MDG-F KM team and UNWomen, examines the framework and design of MDG-F JPs, identifying strengths and weaknesses for the achievement of gender results, both within the Gender-specific thematic window and among the other seven windows of the Fund.
• Effective Practices in Promoting Gender Equality for MDG Achievement: This is a mapping of effective interventions in Gender for a second jointly-developed publication.
• Guide for design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation: Making Joint Gender Programmes work: This guide sets out how to improve the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of JGPs. It also addresses some of the less tangible areas which are often constraints to JGP success, such as power dynamics and the need for coordination, negotiation, leadership and accountability. It also provides a wide range of examples of JGPs which achieved positive results.
• The added value of gender targeted joint programmes: Findings and recommendations to the wider community of UN Agencies engaging in joint programming. The project developed a portfolio analysis of the MDG-F Gender Window. The paper represents a key contribution of the project to the wider community of UN agencies engaged in joint programming, as well as to UNCTs and Gender Thematic Groups.