This document discusses challenges and best practices for conducting gender impact assessments (GIAs) to support gender-sensitive policymaking. Key challenges include GIAs being sporadic and limited in scope, insufficient resources, and organizational cultures that resist gender mainstreaming. The OECD Recommendation emphasizes integrating evidence-based gender assessments early in the policy process. For GIAs to be successful, gender expertise and gender-disaggregated data must be available, and frameworks making GIAs mandatory with clear roles, guidelines, and quality control mechanisms should be adopted. The document raises questions about learning from challenges, ensuring institutions are equipped to implement gender analysis, and how analysis results can influence cross-cutting reforms.

1. OECD ROUNDTABLE ON
BETTER GOVERNANCE FOR
GENDER EQUALITY
REYKJAVÍK, ICELAND MAY 17-18, 2017

2. SESSION 4: Tools for Gender-Sensitive
Policy Making
Focus on Gender Analysis

3. • GIAs remain sporadic and limited
to primary legislative acts (rather
than policies and programmes)
• Insufficient resources
• Unadapt organisational culture and
resistance to gender mainstreaming
• The diffusion of responsibility
What are the challenges in GIA?

4. What does the GEPL Recommendation
say on GIA ?
“Integrate evidence-based assessments of gender
impacts and considerations into various dimensions of
public governance (for example, public procurement,
public consultation and service delivery management)
and at early stages of all phases of the policy cycle (for
example, by aligning ex ante assessments of gender
impacts with broader government-wide policy
development processes, such as regulatory impact
assessment), as appropriate.”

5. What makes GIAs successful ?
Priority checklist

6. How do we know we are doing it right?
Normative frameworks for gender analysis including/or
specifically targeting gender impact assessments are adopted:
 Is GIA mandatory for all government policies, programmes and budgets?
 Are GIA guidelines or other framework documents available and known by
government institutions managers and senior officials?
 Are roles and responsibilities for the implementation of GIA and other gender
analysis tools codified?
 Are management performance indicators referring to the implementation of GIA?
 Is there a specific mechanism/institutional responsibility for the quality control of
GIAs?

7. How do we know we are doing it right?
Gender expertise is available to undertake gender analysis in a
qualitative manner
 Is gender expertise available to government institutions?
 Are government institutions usually supported by the central gender equality
institution or else single institutions – at national and sub-national level – have
in-house gender capacity (i.e. gender units, gender advisors)?
 Are concerned stakeholders and staff targeted with specific capacity development
programmes on the use of GIA and other Gender Analysis tools?
 Are managers and senior officials also targeted by Gender Analysis/ GIA capacity
development programmes?

8. How do we know we are doing it right?
Gender-disaggregated data and information is available and
used to inform gender analysis
 Do national and subnational institutions regularly collect gender disaggregated
data?
 Is there a centralized system where national and sub-national data – including
gender-sensitive data – are stored and accessible?
 Are consultations with the public (NGOs, women’s groups, etc) regularly
implemented to collect data and information about the potential or actual impact
of government policies, programs and budgets?
 Are other Gender Analysis tools available/utilized (i.e. desk review, household
interview, focus group discussion, semi-structured interviews, direct observation,
case study, stakeholder workshop, trend analysis, etc).

9. Questions for discussion
• What can we learn from the challenges we have encountered so far in applying
GIAs (e.g., timely implementation, availability of data and expertise, quality
assurance, etc) ?
• What other elements are crucial to ensure government institutions are equipped
and committed to implement gender analysis?
• How do governments ensure that gender analysis results influence policies across
the board and further reforms if needed?
• Are there innovative practices and tools which would require wider circulation to
positively influence global trends in the implementation of gender analysis?
• How can the OECD community of gender equality experts further engage in
promoting effective implementation of gender analysis?
• How can the OECD facilitate better understanding of the remaining challenges and
spreading of good practices across member and partner countries?