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

E/RES/2023/11View 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 2023.

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

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

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

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2024.

2024E/2024/58Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

36 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of 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 the United Nations system, drawing lessons, including from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its recovery efforts, to accelerate gender mainstreaming into policies and programmes in responding to other health emergencies, as well as in support of the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the global, regional and country levels;

Urges the United Nations system to further accelerate gender mainstreaming into its policies and programmes, in addressing emergencies and other global challenges, including climate change, hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, when delivering on respective mandates;

Reaffirms the importance of mainstreaming a gender perspective in the process of implementation of the outcomes of major United Nations conferences and summits and the need for a coordinated follow-up to all major conferences and summits by Governments, regional organizations and all the bodies and organizations of the United Nations system within their respective mandates, and recognizes the need to increase cooperation among all relevant United Nations bodies, mechanisms and processes in this regard;

Underlines the importance of mainstreaming a gender perspective into the policies and programmes related to innovation and technological change, and to education in the digital age, with the aim of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls;

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 a gender perspective into the overall substantive normative, operational and programmatic work within the United Nations system, and looks forward to its continued role;

Also stresses the need for the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality, as well as other existing inter-agency networks and coordinating bodies, including the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, the High-level Committee on Programmes, the High-level Committee on Management, the United Nations Sustainable Development Group and its working mechanisms at the global and regional levels, the United Nations Evaluation Group, the Finance and Budget Network of the Chief Executives Board for Coordination and the Representatives of Internal Audit Services of the United Nations Organizations and Multilateral Financial Institutions, to continue, as appropriate, to take concrete actions to further promote gender mainstreaming in the United Nations system and 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 and the United Nations country team System-wide Action Plan gender equality scorecard;

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 the 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 the role of UN-Women in assisting Member States, upon their request, in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at the international, regional, national and local levels;

Recognizes the importance of strengthening the capacity of UN-Women, including through adequate and sustainable 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 Action and of its review and appraisal at the international, regional, national and local levels, as well as its contribution to the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda, including through systematic gender mainstreaming, the mobilization of resources to deliver results for all women and girls and the monitoring of progress with sex-disaggregated data and robust accountability systems;

Calls upon the United Nations system, including its agencies, funds and programmes, within their respective mandates, to continue to work collaboratively to accelerate the full and effective mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the United Nations system at the global, regional and country levels, in accordance with previous Economic and Social Council resolutions and General Assembly resolutions 64/289 and 75/233, commensurate with the 2030 Agenda, bearing in mind its universal nature and that the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls is essential for the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals, including by:

Ensuring, where relevant, that corporate and country-level strategic documents, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, or equivalent planning framework in accordance with programme countries’ priorities, are based on robust and systematic gender analysis and data disaggregation, and mainstream a gender perspective, through a dedicated gender equality outcome as well as the integration of gender equality and the empowerment of all women across all other Sustainable Development Goal-related outcome areas (twin-track approach);

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 multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and those in vulnerable situations;

Continuing to strengthen results-based management and results-based budgeting to enable robust system-wide reporting and aggregation of gender-related results, including financial investments for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls;

Fully implementing the System-wide Action Plan 2.0 (UN-SWAP 2.0) and enhancing the consistency and accuracy of reporting in order to achieve full annual reporting on results by the entire United Nations system, and continuing to promote the institutionalization of transparency and robust accountability systems, as well as implementing the United Nations country team performance indicators for gender equality and the empowerment of women (the UNCT SWAP scorecard);

Ensuring that gender equality policies of United Nations entities, when established, are kept up to date and aligned with their strategic and programmatic priorities, as well as the performance indicators of UN-SWAP 2.0, and are reflected in the results-based frameworks;

Increasing investments to address issues in critical areas of UN-SWAP 2.0 and the UNCT SWAP scorecard, including policy development, strategic planning, resource tracking and allocation, the equal and meaningful participation and representation of women and men, including organizational culture, and capacity development and assessment;

Enhancing standards and methodologies for the use of the United Nations system at the global, regional and country levels in order to improve the systematic 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, income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographical location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts;

Increasing the investment in and focus on outputs and outcomes relating to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, including through enhanced common budgetary frameworks, gender-responsive planning and budgeting, common methodologies for reporting on contributions to the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, joint funding mechanisms, including pooled funding, and joint resource mobilization efforts;

Collaborating with UN-Women to implement a harmonized gender equality marker to allow for comparability and aggregation to set and meet financial targets on resources to be allocated for this purpose and to assess the resource deficits for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, also in the context of United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework common budgetary frameworks and inter-agency pooled funds;

Ensuring, as appropriate, that the United Nations Sustainable Development Group guides and supports United Nations country teams on mainstreaming a gender perspective in United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks, that all regional United Nations Sustainable Development Groups develop and maintain dedicated expertise on gender mainstreaming so as to provide integrated and coherent support to United Nations country teams, and that country-level coordination mechanisms, including gender theme groups or their equivalents, are fully empowered through clear mandates, capacity and sufficient resources to provide strategic support and advice to United Nations country teams in enhancing their gender mainstreaming efforts;

Assessing and addressing persistent capacity gaps on gender mainstreaming and using existing resources to assist in the development and application of a range and combination of different measures, including unified training modules on gender mainstreaming and on results-based management, in support of programming for gender equality;

Ensuring that United Nations entities retain a strong focus with resources on gender equality issues, and that gender equality units are able to do so with specific and dedicated resources and expertise, and that resource utilization and allocation is not diluted or compromised due to simultaneous focus on other cross-cutting thematic issues;

Continuing to better align gender equality programming with national priorities across sectors, including by supporting, upon the request of Member States, capacity-building for government institutions and the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into legislation, policies and programmes in relation to national gender equality priorities, including those addressing COVID-19 recovery and other emergencies;

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;

Continuing to achieve and, where appropriate, strengthening efforts to achieve gender parity, including through the implementation of the Secretary-General’s system-wide strategy on gender parity, in appointments in the Professional and higher categories within the United Nations system at the headquarters, regional and country levels, inter alia, 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, including, as appropriate, through the application of temporary special measures, giving paramount consideration to the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity 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;

Ensuring that managers provide strong leadership and support to promote and advance gender mainstreaming, and leveraging the leadership and convening role of resident coordinators, in accordance with the provisions of General Assembly resolution 75/233, to address gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as an integral part of the work of United Nations country teams, including through common country programming processes, joint initiatives, collective advocacy and strengthening of the coordination of gender-responsive operational activities across sectors;

Strengthening collaboration and coordination among United Nations staff working on gender equality and gender focal points to ensure systematic gender mainstreaming across the work of the United Nations in development, peace and security, and human rights, as well as in humanitarian action and in technical and non-technical areas of work where gaps and challenges remain;

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

Continuing to make efforts and focus on preventing and taking immediate action on tackling sexual harassment to ensure that workplaces in the United Nations system and its field offices are free from discrimination, exploitation, including sexual exploitation and abuse, and violence, including sexual harassment, by, inter alia, ensuring that policies and procedures deliver impact and are resourced sufficiently;

Continuing to make efforts to implement the zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations personnel in order, inter alia, to support the effective mainstreaming of a gender perspective;

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

Supporting efforts by the governing bodies of United Nations entities to devote adequate attention and resources to mainstreaming a gender perspective into their plans and activities, including through enhanced reporting on results and measures to be taken to improve compliance with the performance indicators of UN-SWAP 2.0;

Requests the United Nations system, in particular UN-Women, in consultation with Member States, to address the issue of sustainable resourcing for the implementation of UN-SWAP 2.0, and encourages Member States in a position to do so to support UN-Women in this regard;

Also requests the United Nations system to continue and increase support to Member States, upon their request, 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 gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and all national entities, in accordance with their functions;

Requests the Secretary-General and the executive heads of the organizations of the United Nations system to ensure that recruitment strategies, promotion and retention policies, career development, anti-harassment and sexual harassment policies, human resources and succession planning, work/family policies, management and institutional culture and mechanisms for managerial accountability accelerate the achievement of gender parity and, in this regard, to coordinate with the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services in addressing these issues;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the Council at its 2024 session a report on the implementation of the present resolution, including on accountability of the United Nations system at the global, regional and country levels and on progress made in the implementation of the United Nations System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

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