NIPN programme design and management

To provide a profound foundation for GTA in NIPN, the project team should ensure gender equality and raise awareness on gender inequalities and bias throughout the process. The working environment should have measures in place to ensure the prevention of discrimination, whether in relation to financial or other benefits, career opportunities or access to training and strengthening skills and knowledge. Mitigation and prevention measures must be established for any form of abuse of authority or power and harassment, and safe channels must be available at any time to report incidents.

The recruitment of the NIPN staff, while complying with standard recruitment processes, should ensure gender parity with equal opportunities for women and men to access positions of responsibility. Although it is not mandatory to have an equal share of women and men, ensuring that there is an optimal number of female staff would benefit interactions with communities and stakeholders, as well as setting a positive example.

Having a balanced gender ratio in a team will facilitate the exchange of views, increase the diversity of opinions and perspectives that might otherwise be biased. Although in most countries, NIPN has already been set up, adding a representative of the gender or women’s affairs Ministry (if it exists) or a women’s organisation to the Multisectoral Advisory Committee (MAC) could help bring a gender focus to committee recommendations. Including gender in the internal NIPN Capacity Development Plan will further strengthen NIPN teams’ knowledge and skills, strengthening the application of GTA.

The NIPN workplan, objectives and activities should be designed with gender sensitivity, contributing to gender transformation. Gender-sensitive and responsive approaches should be advocated in meetings and other forums when discussing the creation of outputs, such as data collection and analysis, policy advice and communication. Whenever NIPN is organising events or meetings to formulate policy questions (see figure below), gender experts and representatives of relevant ministries and organisations should be invited. If possible, also include gender-relevant topics on the agenda, representing various perspectives through diverse speakers.

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Finally, the Gender continuum (see previous chapter) should be considered at all stages of NIPN’s specific activities and outputs, from planning and design to implementation, as well as monitoring and evaluation. The following sections present options and opportunities to apply Gender sensitive and responsive actions in NIPN core activities.