11-07-2018, Djibouti (Djibouti): The Director of Agriculture & Environment Division of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Mr Mohamed Moussa, today inaugurated an Orientation Workshop on Institutional Gender Documents for IGAD staff members.
The overall objective of the launch event and orientation process is to familiarize staff of IGAD Secretariat and Specialized Offices with the contents of the gender technical documents and thereby pave the way for their utilization at all levels. Specifically, this two-day workshop will contribute to raising awareness of staff on relevance of technical documents for effective mainstreaming of gender issues at the institution level; and will allow discussions around strategies and action plan to make the gender technical documents functional at IGAD Secretariat and Specialized Offices.
The Gender Affairs Program developed three institutional technical gender documents for use at the Secretariat and Specialized Offices levels. These are:
- The Gender Management System (GMS) Handbook;
- Gender Mainstreaming Customized Tools/Guidelines; and
- IGAD Institutional Gender Policy.
In his opening remarks, Mr Moussa reminded the participants about the official launch of the “three institutional technical documents at the last sitting of the IGAD Committee of Directors’ meeting held on 8th July 2018 at IGAD Secretariat”.
The three documents are “inward looking and address three critical issues: leadership for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment; systems, structures and processes for mainstreaming gender equality and promoting women’s empowerment; and capacity to address gender issues within specific organizational contexts and programmes”, were his words.
He encouraged participants to thoroughly go through the documents so as to internalise and use them effectively with the below expected outcomes in mind:
- Informed staff on the institutional gender technical documents; and
- High level commitment and guidance to adopt and utilize the documents.
The Gender Management System (GMS) is a network of structures, mechanisms and processes put in place within an existing organizational framework. This is meant to guide, plan, monitor and evaluate the process of mainstreaming gender into all areas of the organization’s work, in order to achieve greater gender equality and equity within the context of sustainable development.
Gender mainstreaming is one of the main approaches espoused in IGAD’s Gender Policy Framework (2012 to 2020) which is in place to institutionalize the principle of gender mainstreaming – all IGAD programs and projects should address Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) issues through design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation as well as reporting.
