Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective Into All Policies and Programmes in the United Nations System

E/RES/2016/2View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Economic and Social Council, under agenda item 12cMainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System, published in 2016.

What other versions does this mandate have?

24 versions · 2002–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is E/RES/2025/4

2025E/RES/2025/4Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations systemLatestCompare with previous version
2024E/RES/2024/3Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations SystemCompare with previous version
2023E/RES/2023/11Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations SystemCompare with previous version
2022E/RES/2022/18Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations SystemCompare with previous version
2021E/RES/2021/7Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations SystemCompare with previous version

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What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Coordination Within UN System Gender Equality Gender Mainstreaming Operational Activities Women's Advancement

What does this mandate say?

44 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General and the recommendations contained therein, and appreciates that it continues to include comprehensive and systematic system-wide data collection and evidence-based analysis, allowing for comprehensive follow-up on progress made throughout the United Nations system in the implementation of resolutions of the Economic and Social Council on gender mainstreaming;

Urges intensifying and continuing efforts to mainstream a gender perspective, including increasing resource allocations commensurate with gender equality goals, into all policies and programmes of the United Nations, in accordance with all relevant United Nations resolutions;

Stresses that the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality constitutes a key forum for advocating, coordinating and monitoring progress in the mainstreaming of gender perspectives into the overall substantive normative, operational and programmatic work within the United Nations system, and looks forward to the continued role of the Network in monitoring progress on more effective coordination, coherence and impact in accelerating the implementation of the policy and strategy for gender mainstreaming within the United Nations system;

Also stresses the need to leverage existing inter-agency networks, including the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality, the United Nations Evaluation Group, the Finance and Budget Network of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination and the Representatives of Internal Audit Services of the United Nations Organizations and Multilateral Financial Institutions, to take increased responsibility for the implementation of relevant performance indicators of the United Nations System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women;

Welcomes the important and continued extensive work of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) for more effective and coherent gender mainstreaming across the United Nations, recognizes its role in leading, coordinating and promoting accountability of the United Nations system in its work to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women as established by the General Assembly in its resolution 64/289, and also recognizes its role in assisting Member States, upon their request, at the international, regional, national and local levels;

Recognizes the importance of strengthening the capacity of UN-Women, including through adequate funding, to carry out its mandates for normative support, coordination and operational functions, inter alia, for coordinating the United Nations system in the full and effective mainstreaming of a gender perspective and the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action11 and of its review and appraisal at the international, regional, national and local levels, as well as its contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,6 including through systematic gender mainstreaming, the mobilization of resources to deliver results and the monitoring of progress with data and robust accountability systems;

Calls upon the United Nations system, including its agencies, funds and programmes, within their respective mandates, to accelerate the full and effective mainstreaming of a gender perspective in accordance with previous Economic and Social Council resolutions and General Assembly resolutions 64/289 and 67/226, commensurate with the gender-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, bearing in mind that gender equality is essential for the implementation and achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals, including by:

Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all its operational mechanisms, inter alia, the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks, or their equivalents, and other common programming frameworks;

Ensuring that managers provide strong leadership and support, within the United Nations system, to promote and advance gender mainstreaming;

Increasing the investment in and focus on outputs and outcomes relating to gender equality and the empowerment of women, including through enhanced common budgetary frameworks, joint funding mechanisms and joint resource mobilization efforts;

Strengthening monitoring, evaluation and reporting so as to allow for system-wide assessment of progress in gender mainstreaming;

Mobilizing and developing sufficient gender expertise for planning, implementation and gender-related resource allocation and tracking;

Mainstreaming gender-responsive planning and budgeting, harmonizing gender marker systems and enhancing system-wide capacity for their increased implementation, including within the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks, or their equivalents, and intensifying their use, including in the humanitarian programme cycle;

Strengthening capacities and using existing resources, including institutions and infrastructure, to assist in the development and application of unified training modules and tools on gender mainstreaming;

Continuing and, where appropriate, strengthening efforts to achieve gender balance in appointments in the Professional and higher categories within the United Nations system at the headquarters, regional and country levels, including in appointments of resident coordinators, humanitarian coordinators, Special Representatives of the Secretary-General, Deputy Special Representatives of the Secretary-General and other high-level posts, in full compliance with Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations and keeping in mind the principle of equitable geographical representation, with due regard to the representation of women from developing countries;

Enhancing technical support to Member States, upon their request, in order to build or improve national capacity for gender statistics and the collection and analysis of data disaggregated by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability and geographic location and other characteristics relevant in the national context;

Supporting the efforts of Member States, upon their request, to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the United Nations development system on gender mainstreaming in an integrated and “whole-of-system” manner, which draws on the mandates and contributions of all United Nations entities with regard to achieving the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Requests the United Nations system to continue and increase support to Member States, with their agreement and consent, in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and of national policies for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, inter alia, by providing support and capacity development to national machineries for the empowerment of all women and girls and all national entities, in accordance with their functions;

Welcomes the report on the fourth year of implementation of the United Nations System-wide Action Plan,15 and commends the progress made under the leadership of UN-Women in the performance of the United Nations system on gender mainstreaming, while noting with concern, however, that many entities have not yet met the requirements set forth in the Action Plan and recognizing the need for accelerated implementation;

Continues to express serious concern that progress in achieving 50/50 gender balance in the United Nations system, especially at the senior and policymaking levels, with full respect for the principle of equitable geographical distribution, in conformity with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter, remains insufficient and that the representation of women in the United Nations system has remained almost static, with negligible improvement in some parts of the system, as reflected in the report of the Secretary-General on improvement in the status of women in the United Nations system;

Requests the continued use of reporting under the United Nations System-wide Action Plan to inform the report of the Secretary-General on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system, in order to measure the progress of the United Nations system on gender mainstreaming at the corporate level against the baseline defined in 2013;

Encourages the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination and senior managers within its three pillars, namely, the High-level Committee on Programmes, the High-level Committee on Management and the United Nations Development Group, to continue to take concrete action to promote gender mainstreaming in the United Nations system, and in this regard takes note of the commitment of the Chief Executives Board, as expressed in its statement to the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, to stepping up efforts to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls under all respective mandates, including through pursuing systematic gender mainstreaming, substantially increasing resources to deliver results, especially under the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks, monitoring progress with better statistics and data disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, disability and age, instituting robust accountability systems, including through the full implementation of the United Nations System-wide Action Plan, and accelerating progress towards the equal representation of women at all levels in its diverse bodies, including through temporary special measures;

Takes note with appreciation of the interactive dialogue with representatives of the functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council, held during the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, as an example of exchanging best practices and approaches to considering gender equality in the work of the functional commissions, enhancing the attention of intergovernmental bodies to gender equality issues and promoting an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes, and encourages the holding of similar interactive dialogues at future sessions of the Commission, as appropriate;

Recognizes that large gaps remain between policy and practice and that, while building the capacities of United Nations staff is very important, additional efforts, such as those recommended in the report of the Secretary-General,15 would enable the entire United Nations system to accomplish its objectives with respect to gender mainstreaming;

Calls upon the United Nations system, including its agencies, funds and programmes, within their respective organizational mandates, to continue to work collaboratively to enhance and accelerate gender mainstreaming within the United Nations system, including by:

Fully implementing the United Nations System-wide Action Plan, including by ensuring compliance with all performance indicators and enhancing the consistency and accuracy of reporting of all entities of the United Nations system;

Increasing investments to address issues in critical areas of the United Nations System-wide Action Plan, including policy development, resource tracking and allocation, the equal representation and participation of women, organizational culture, and capacity development and assessment;

Continuing to better align gender equality programming with national priorities across sectors, including by supporting capacity-building for government institutions and the mainstreaming of gender perspectives into legislations, policies and programmes in relation to national gender equality priorities;

Continuing to include gender equality networks in planning and programme implementation, as well as continuing to build strategic partnerships with relevant actors, including civil society and women’s organizations, as appropriate;

Further enhancing the technical expertise on gender equality and gender mainstreaming within the United Nations system to assist in the preparation of the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks and other relevant common programming frameworks, ensuring that gender-related goals and targets are strategically prioritized and that all their dimensions are systematically addressed, and promoting the identification and exchange of best practices and technical cooperation;

Leveraging the leadership and convening role of resident coordinators to address gender equality as an integral part of the work of the United Nations country teams, including through joint initiatives, collective advocacy and strengthening coordination of gender-responsive operational activities across sectors;

Supporting efforts by the governing bodies of United Nations entities to devote adequate attention to gender mainstreaming in their plans and activities;

Enhancing the competence of staff in results-based management and programming for gender equality;

Tracking gender-related resource allocation and expenditure, including through the use of harmonized gender marker systems to allow for comparability and aggregation;

Promoting strategic advocacy and coherent communications on gender equality issues within the United Nations country teams;

Continuing to work closely with the humanitarian coordinators to integrate gender equality into all facets of humanitarian action, and ensuring the equal promotion and protection of human rights for all, with equitable access to services;

Substantially increasing the resources and focus on outcomes and outputs relating to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, especially under the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks, including through better budgetary planning, common budgetary frameworks, strengthening and rationalizing joint funding mechanisms and joint resource mobilization efforts, as well as by strengthening the predictability and sustainability of the funding, broadening the donor base and increasing the flexibility of non-core resources;

Continuing to support the capacity to develop and enhance standards and methodologies, for use at the local, regional, national and international levels, so as to improve the collection, analysis, dissemination and use of accurate, reliable, transparent and comparable data and statistics, and, where applicable and with due respect for confidentiality, open data and statistics related to achieving gender equality, disaggregated by, inter alia, sex, age and disability, that are relevant to improving its guidance to country programming;

Supporting the application of a gender perspective in the preparation of organization-wide and country-level documents, such as the strategic, programmatic and results-based frameworks and evaluations, and continuing to promote more coherent, accurate and effective monitoring and reporting on progress on gender equality, the impact of the promotion of gender equality and the use of common indicators on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, taking into account the situation of women and girls who face discrimination and marginalization and those in vulnerable situations;

Continuing to promote the institutionalization of transparency and robust accountability systems, with a focus on assessing gender mainstreaming, including at the level of United Nations country teams, through capitalizing on the lessons learned from the design and implementation of the United Nations System-wide Action Plan, while both expanding and drawing on assets and resources instituted to support the implementation of such transparency and accountability systems;

Ensuring further complementarity of United Nations accountability systems for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, specifically through enhanced linkages of the United Nations System-wide Action Plan and the gender scorecard of United Nations country teams, and expanding their respective scopes in order to encompass a greater focus on results related to the Sustainable Development Goals;

Striving for both dedicated results at the outcome level and the mainstreaming of gender equality considerations through other priority areas;

Ensuring adequate resources for meeting gender-related goals and targets across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the Economic and Social Council at its 2017 session a report on the implementation of the present resolution, including on the promotion of accountability at both the national and the global levels and on progress made in the implementation of the United Nations System-wide Action Plan.

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