CANADA NEPAL GENDER IN ORGANIZATIONS

Section III: Enabling the District Environment

14. Improving NGO - Government Collaboration and Gender-Responsiveness in the Districts

| Functions of Commitee |

14.4. Forming a Gender Equality Committee within District Government

Introduction
The gender policy and implementation strategy of HMGN calls for establishing effective coordination and integration between government and NGOs toward the elimination of gender inequality. A gender equality committee structure was designed to support the mainstreaming of gender policy in districts to facilitate a more active and positive gender policy environment.

Objective
To establish pilot gender equality committees to provide a focus for local gender program practitioners, and to provide a resource to DDC regarding gender policy and practice to enable the development of local application of national gender policies.

Strategy
The Department of Women Development designed and implemented the formation of Gender Equity/Equality Committees (GEC) to facilitate HMGN ownership of the committee model, and to build on the experience and district based networks of the DWD. DWD held discussions with DDC including the chair of the DDC/NGO Committee and Local Development Officer (LDO) to agree to piloting of the Gender Equality Committee in their district. At this stage MLD/ADDCN also supported the approach through their structures.

Individual consultations with district stakeholders were held (NGOs, HMG line agencies, INGOs and bilateral/multilateral programs, women professionals) to explain the rationale, objectives and functions of the proposed committees and to get their support for the establishment of committees in the district.

District level formation seminars were held with stakeholders, convened by DDCs with the WDO, to establish the committee and to agree on the role and functions of the committees. Representatives of DWD, MLD, ADDCN, NFN and CNGO participated to communicate support of central level stakeholders to the program. A meeting of the GEC was organized to prepare a plan with initial activities to be undertaken by the committees to enable them to fulfill their mandate. Over the next few months, the committees concentrated on enhancing their understanding of gender policy and district specific gender issues and acquired practical system and tools necessary to fulfill their mandates. The program provided the committees with a Toolkit: “Gender Equality Toolkit for Districts”.

Go to Top

The training workshop supported GECs to enhance their capacity through:

Review of national gender policy and strategy
Review of current gender approaches in NGOs and HMGN programs with a view to enabling capacity development in gender sensitive program planning and implementation in the district
Managing reporting to DDC on the status of gender policy implementation by district level stakeholders, issues and lessons learned.
Developing tools and guidelines for supporting DDCs to enable gender sensitive program planning and implementation.

To facilitate the work of the committee, they received a toolkit with the following:

National gender policy, strategy and HMG's commitment to international conventions on women
Review/monitoring tools for gender policy implementation
Checklist for gender integration in planning and implementation
Reporting format to DDC on the status of gender policy implementation

The knowledge and skills provided were reinforced through advisory support and coaching from CNGO and DWD. The committee organized dialogues among stakeholders on gender policy and audited gender integration in their programs.

The Gender Equality Committees are models, to enable the development of a suitable district based capacity to contribute to gender mainstreaming in DDC, NGO & HMGN programs. Through DWD, these committee experiences can be replicated in other districts.

Functions of the Committee

Enhance understanding of district stakeholders on national gender policy and gender equality issues in districts and develop local options for addressing these issues.
Support and enable ongoing review and discussion of gender policy and its implementation at the district level as a part of the ongoing DDC policy review and monitoring process.
Support and advise stakeholders in the implementation of national gender policy, strategies and related national action plan through a recognized DDC process for mainstreaming gender in program planning and implementation.
Report annually to DDC on the accomplishments, opportunities and weaknesses of gender policy and gender program implementation at the district level to support development of gender program and policy in the district.
Enhance participation of district NGOs in the committee as significant district partners for the promotion of gender equality.
Contribute to the improvement of the implementation of national policy and strategies on the basis of the lessons learned in model program districts.

Composition of Gender Equality Committees
The Gender Equality Committee has balanced representation to ensure multi-actor collaboration of local government representatives from DDC, HMG line agencies with strong gender focus in their program, local women professionals, and representatives of NGOs and INGOs with district programs.

DDC Women Member as Coordinator
Women Development Officer as member secretary to the committee
Three HMG line agency representatives such as Health, Education, Forests or Drinking Water, (experience in gender program)
Four NGO representatives from P/NGOs & INGOs
Two women professionals from the district
One additional elected person from DDC
DDC staff such as LDO or Planning Officer as ex officio member