© UNESCO
At the early stages UIL gender related programming laid its special focus on women-specific projects that aimed at women’s empowerment and education. Today, it is widely recognized that international goals and commitments cannot be achieved by implementing this one-sided approach alone. Involving men is therefore the most effective strategy for reducing gender inequalities.
UIL is developing a gender mainstreaming strategy in order to strengthen its Mid-term strategic plan 2008-2013 by paying more attention on how gender equality and women’s empowerment could be improved within UIL’s areas of work. This strategy is in line with UNESCO’s policy on Gender equality, which is one of the organisation’s two global priorities, together with the priority Africa. As such, UNESCO has created a Gender network in each Programme Sector and in almost every Field Office throughout the world. The responsibility of the focal points is to stimulate, at project level, the wider inclusion of gender concerns and intensified responses to women’s needs in a Sector programme.
UIL works with UNESCO’s Regional Bureaus of Education and Field Offices to mainstream gender into literacy, non formal education within a lifelong perspective.
Mainstreaming gender into literacy, non-formal education, adult and lifelong learning involves taking into account the processes, results and impact of the whole cycle of planning, design, implementing, monitoring and evaluating learning activities in terms of existing gender awareness, identities, roles and relationships, as well as the possibilities of transforming these in or as a result of such learning processes. It is about carefully screening all aspects and dimensions of the learning processes and prioritizing investment in quality learning provision for girls, boys, women and men. Therefore it involves taking the necessary measures to address the structural challenges to turn around the current trends of existing gender disparities and linking lifelong learning to addressing global challenges such as HIV/AIDS prevention, etc.
