IASC Policy (and Accountability Framework) on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Humanitarian Action, 2017
At a glance
This IASC product (henceforth referred to as the Gender Policy) is the key guiding document outlining the IASC’s commitments to make gender equality and empowerment of women and girls (GEEWG) central to all aspects of its work. It sets out principles, standards, and actions that IASC bodies, members and standing invitees should abide by at global, regional and country level to integrate GEEWG in humanitarian crises, including preparedness, response and recovery efforts. The Gender Policy is intended to be reviewed and updated as appropriate every five years.
An accountability framework was developed to monitor implementation of the commitments in the Gender Policy to ensure that the Gender Policy is translated into action. It contains clear indicators to help the IASC hold itself accountable, focusing on the collective actions, as set out in the Gender Policy.
Guidance and four key actions for field leaders
The Gender Policy helps humanitarian leaders have visibility of progress, and gaps for prioritized action. The Accountability Framework promotes collective system wide responsibility and accountability for advancing GEEWG in humanitarian action. The IASC Gender Reference Group, an associated body of the IASC, with the support of UN WOMEN, is responsible for drafting an annual Gender Accountability Framework Report to document achievements, challenges and documenting good practices, with inputs from humanitarian coordinators (HCs) and country teams (HCTs).
Humanitarian Coordinators should:
- Be familiar with the roles and responsibilities prescribed in the Gender Policy including:
- Demonstrate leadership on GEEWG in all aspects of humanitarian action, in cluster and HCT activities, including JDs, TORs, performance evaluations, and funding allocation.
- Establish and support a Gender Reference/Working Group, with sufficient expertise and resources, to promote mutual learning and collaboration across HCTs and clusters.
- Allocate a gender advisor or appoint a senior gender focal point to support and enhance HCT capacity.
- Establish gender parity targets for HCTs and operational teams, especially surge teams.
- Consistently raise awareness of this Policy and encourage ownership and coordinated action among all actors.
- Be aware of this annual report, engage in tracking progress, as well as to promote the outcomes and the report, using the report to inform future actions.
- Ensure local women’s meaningful participation and engagement in humanitarian decision making, a key commitment, as well as shortcoming of humanitarian decision making.
- Ensure gender equality is prioritized, including in advocacy and resource allocations, as well as ensuring gender expertise and capacities exist to support strategic and technical programming.
What does the full policy offer?
The full policy provides an opportunity to track progress as well as to identify areas for strengthened focus and prioritisation.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Policy on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls (GEEWG) in Humanitarian Action was endorsed on 29 December 2017 by the IASC Working Group. The policy sets out the principles, standards, and actions that IASC Bodies, Members and Standing Invitees should abide by at global and field level to integrate gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls into all aspects of the IASC's work, including preparedness, response and recovery efforts.
The Accountability Framework, endorsed on 29 December 2017 by the IASC Working Group, accompanies the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Policy on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls (GEEWG) in Humanitarian Action, as it is designed to assist the IASC hold itself accountable for its implementation. It focuses on the collective actions of the IASC vis-à-vis GEEWG. It defines the monitoring of the collective performance of the IASC on standards defined in the Policy, as well as the performance of IASC bodies with regards to fulfilling their roles and responsibilities listed in the Policy. It further establishes reporting facilities and ways of information-sharing in order to foster closer coordination and cooperation among IASC bodies and Members and Standing Invitees.