The IGAD Regional Gender Equality Strategy provides a comprehensive framework for mobilizing Member States, development partners, civil society organizations, the private sector, and citizens across the region to advance gender equality and women's empowerment. It reflects IGAD’s commitment to ensuring that women, men, girls, boys, and marginalized and vulnerable groups, particularly those living in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), can participate in and benefit from the regional development agenda. The Strategy translates IGAD’s commitments on gender equality, inclusion, and empowerment into measurable actions and results, supported by an accountability framework for implementation and oversight. The Strategy aims to (i) address the most pressing and emerging gender equality challenges in the IGAD region; (ii) provide a roadmap for the IGAD Secretariat and its specialized and technical institutions to mainstream gender equality across their programmes and activities; (iii) create an enabling environment for gender-responsive policies and practices. It is anchored in IGAD’s broader objective of strengthening regional integration and cross-border cooperation among Member States. It focuses on key priorities for gender equality and women’s empowerment, including (i) the promotion and protection of women’s rights and inclusive democratic participation; (ii) women’s economic empowerment and equitable access to economic opportunities; (iii) equal access to quality education for girls and boys; (iv) fair access to and benefits from agriculture and natural resources; (v) the promotion of peace, security, and shared responsibility among women and men in addressing social inequalities. In the long term, the Strategy seeks to contribute to a region in which women participate fully in decision-making, have improved access to knowledge and skills, and are able to engage effectively in economic and social development. The Strategy outlines 7 priorities, each one of them accompanied by targets and actions, as follows (1) Priority 1 focuses on increasing women’s participation in the sustainable management of natural resources, resilience building, and food and nutrition security by addressing inequalities in access to land, inputs, technologies, and knowledge. Key actions include ensuring equal rights to productive resources, promoting gender-responsive agricultural value chains, enhancing women’s access to technologies and extension services, strengthening their role in natural resource governance, and integrating gender considerations into climate change adaptation and resilience-building measures; (2) Priority 2 aims to promote gender equality in regional cooperation, trade, and economic integration by addressing structural and policy barriers that limit women’s participation in trade. The main actions involve developing gender-responsive trade policies, improving women’s mobility and safety in cross-border trade, reducing non-tariff barriers and administrative burdens, increasing access to market information and trade-related knowledge, and strengthening women’s business networks and trade associations; (3) Priority 3 seeks to increase equitable access to health and basic social services to support gender transformation and improve productivity. The priority actions include promoting gender equality in employment and decent work, supporting women and girls in cross-border and mobile populations with health services, ensuring gender-responsive migration policies, and addressing financing gaps in education through improved access to quality education and social services; (4) Priority 4 aims to enhance the meaningful participation and leadership of women in peacebuilding and conflict management at all levels while ensuring protection in conflict situations. Key actions include strengthening understanding of gender dimensions in conflict, increasing women’s leadership and participation in peace processes, revitalizing regional women, peace and security platforms, supporting national implementation of relevant UN resolutions, and building capacity for gender-sensitive monitoring and reporting on conflict-related issues; (5) Priority 5 promotes measures to ensure women’s equal access to and full participation in governance and decision-making at all levels. The main actions consist of setting gender equality targets in public institutions, encouraging women’s representation in political and administrative roles, providing capacity building for women candidates, supporting legislative and constitutional reforms to enhance women’s participation, and improving the collection and dissemination of gender-disaggregated data on decision-making role; (6) Priority 6 focuses on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls in both public and private spheres, including trafficking and exploitation. Core actions include establishing regional coordination mechanisms on gender-based violence, strengthening national systems for prevention and response, promoting survivor-centered approaches in service delivery, improving access to justice for victims, and enhancing knowledge generation, coordination, and innovation in addressing gender-based violence; (7) Priority 7 aims to strengthen the institutional capacity of IGAD and Member States to lead and coordinate gender equality and women’s empowerment interventions. The main actions include integrating gender in policies and programs through advocacy and data-driven approaches, building staff capacity for gender mainstreaming, promoting inclusive leadership and participation, creating enabling organizational environments for gender equality, and developing practical tools and accountability mechanisms to ensure effective implementation and monitoring of gender-related outcomes.
2023-01-01