Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions
The Gender Equality Seal is a global initiative that celebrates public institutions and governments striving to be more inclusive and working to create societies where women and men have equal opportunities. This involves integrating gender concerns across all aspects of their work and delivering public policies and services for all.
As public institutions embark on a journey towards gender equality excellence, the Gender Equality Seal measures their progress against internationally validated standards. It also supports them every step of the way, offering innovative tools and tailored guidance. We work with national, regional and local public institutions and our services are available in several languages.
Upon completion of the programme, a participating institution will be recognized internationally with a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Seal demonstrating its progress towards gender equality. It will also be seen as a dynamic and enterprising organization that values equality.
The Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions has been designed based on many years of experience and validation. The result is a tested and practical roadmap, which entails working simultaneous across five interconnected areas of performance.
Public policies must integrate gender equality objectives, aligned with national planning frameworks and equality policies and the UN 2030 Agenda. An in-depth analysis of national policies, plans and programmes is needed to understand and redress gender inequalities. To achieve this, institutions must have sex-disaggregated data, mechanisms to ensure gender analysis as part of designing and managing public policies, specific gender equality targets and indicators, and a sufficient budget.
Institutions must have adequate capacities for integrating a gender perspective in their planning and programming in a meaningful way. This is best achieved through the establishment of dedicated Gender units or departments, with expert human resources, budgets that are allocated strategically and a direct connection with senior management. Strategic capacity building actions are also needed to steadily build officials’ capacities across the institution to ensure effective gender integration.
Gender-responsive institutions show zero tolerance towards sexist and discriminatory behaviour and treat staff with fairness regarding remuneration, work benefits and their possibilities to progress within the organization. Work-life balance should be actively promoted, including fostering co-responsibility between men and women for unpaid domestic and care work. The workplace must have zero tolerance for sexual and other forms of harassment, ensured through adequate policies and protocols and systematic awareness-raising.
Building strategic alliances is key for advancing gender equality. Public institutions should engage with other public institutions, private organizations and other partners to help close gender gaps and address underlining structural barriers. Public institutions should establish strong dialogues and accountability systems with women’s and feminist groups and movements. Public institutions must be accountable to their citizens, ensuring fair, respectful and non-discriminatory treatment of the people they serve.
Based on the country and institutional contexts, institutions must be able to show evidence of their positive contributions to gender equality in the framework of the 2030 Agenda. This can be done through external assessments, institutional contribution to human rights and gender equality international reports such as CEDAW, EPA, SDGs or others. These outcomes must demonstrate improvements in services that target gender equality and changes in gender relations, families, communities and the social environment.
“In this process we had many achievements, we are very proud of the gender equality policy of our institution; even the institution’s budget was impacted by the gender equality policy. There was a before and an after from our participation in the Gender Equality Seal Programme”
Juan Ariel Jiménez Núñez
“The Gender Equality Seal helps assessing gender mainstreaming criteria in public institutions in Egypt to help benefit from the resources and opportunities available to women’s economic and social empowerment.”
Maya Morsy
“I recommend participating in the Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions as it helps your institution to improve the way it works and the mentality of the staff regarding gender equality.”
Dr. Victor Sánchez Urrutia
