Adoption of Gender Mainstreaming Policy (JO0066)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Several policies, strategies, and programs implemented in the public sector lack a gender lens, as they do not consider women’s and men’s needs in their planning and decisions, especially women’s need. This deepens the gender gap, deprives women of enjoying equal rights with men, and restricts their ability to have equitable access to opportunities and resources. In 2021, the Prime Minister circulated a letter requesting government institutions adopt a gender mainstreaming policy, work to implement it, and ensure compliance with it. However, such actions need practical steps and collaboration between different parties.

What is the commitment? The commitment seeks to institutionalize gender mainstreaming policies in the public sector to address the different needs of women and men and assess the implication for both. It also aims to support women’s rights to equal opportunities to achieve equity and gender equality.

How will the commitment contribute to solve this public problem? Institutionalizing approaches to gender mainstreaming, adopting policies in the public sector, and developing expertise to build gender-responsive plans and strategies will impact gender equality and equity and improve women’s access to resources and opportunities. This directly contributes to SDG Five.

How is this commitment relevant to OGP values?(20) (1) This commitment is relevant to the value of civic participation as it adopts a participatory approach in developing the relevant government policies and procedures. (2) It is relevant to the value of providing access to information as it includes the dissemination of information in the various stages of its implementation, in addition to disseminating the policies and procedures that will be developed to ensure citizen and civil society access to them. (3) It is also relevant to the value of public accountability in implementing gender-sensitive programs and decisions and fulfilling the government’s international obligations and national strategies for the empowerment of women.

Additional information Milestone Activity with a Verifiable Deliverable Starting date of implementation Ending date of implementation 1. Develop/implement a gender mainstreaming policy in a group of ministries and governmental directorates by adopting a participatory approach with relevant governmental and non-governmental sectors according to the best practices and local context. It will consider the degree of progress in these policies. This will be done based on the gender survey conducted by JNCW as a first step. 1/1/2022 30/6/2025 2. Follow-up on the implementation of the gender mainstreaming policy in the public sector within the action plan of the government ministries and directorates targeted annually in this milestone. 1/1/2022 30/6/2025 3. Raise awareness on the gender mainstreaming policy in the targeted sectors by conducting training, awareness sessions and producing media materials as part of the action plan adopted by the ministries and governmental directorates targeted annually in this milestone. 1/1/2022 30/6/2025 4. Develop a Gender Mainstreaming Policy Compliance System, adopting it as one of the institutional assessment indicators for the King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in Government Performance and Transparency. 1/1/2022 30/12/2023 5. Publish annual reports regarding the level of compliance with the gender mainstreaming policy in the public sector to promote and encourage compliance with it among all sectors within the action plans of the ministries and governmental directorates targeted annually in this milestone. 1/1/2022 30/6/2025

Action Plan Review

Commitment 3. Gender Mainstreaming in the Public Sector

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Substantial

For a complete description of the commitment, see Commitment 3 in Jordan’s 2021-2025 Action Plan.

Context and objectives:

This commitment intends to facilitate adoption of the national Gender Mainstreaming Policy [1] across government, in the context of the National Strategy for Women 2020-2025. Consistent with the OGP value of civic participation, the commitment plans for participatory development and implementation of gender mainstreaming policies for 6-8 ministries and governmental institutions: The Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Supply, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, the Ministry of Youth and Culture, the Ministry of Environment, the Jordan Armed Forces, the Greater Amman Municipality, the General Budget Department, and the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disability. [2] To support implementation of these policies, the commitment plans for awareness-raising initiatives, a Gender Mainstreaming Policy Compliance System, and annual reports on compliance.

Potential for results: Substantial

This commitment addresses a critical need to improve gender equality in Jordan’s public sector. In government, only 5 of 47 ministers are female (11%). Under the three previous administrations, women made up between 5% and 21% of ministers. [3] In 2021, Jordan was ranked 131 out of 156 countries by the Gender Gap Index, with one of the widest labor force participation rate gaps in the world (15.6% women in the labor force). [4] By 2020, 11 ministries had completed gender audits (Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, Income and Sales Tax Department, Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Social Development, Social Security Corporation, Legislation and Opinion Bureau, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Political and Parliamentary Affairs). [5] Five of the audits conducted between 2015 and 2017 showed that women held more than one-third of leadership positions in only one ministry, while in the other four ministries, women’s leadership representation ranged from 7 to 13 percent. In all five ministries, men received more promotions, benefits, travel, and career advancement opportunities, with gender bias reinforced by informal workplace culture. [6]

For ministries that have not yet undergone a gender audit, implementation of the commitment will begin by conducting a gender audit. Based on gender audits, each participating ministry will work with the Jordanian National Commission for Women to develop a ministry-level gender mainstreaming policy. CSOs will be engaged in a taskforce overseeing implementation of the commitment, and in workshops for consultation or public commenting on the policies. [7] The milestones also include raising awareness of the policy through training, development of a gender mainstreaming policy compliance system, and the publication of annual reports regarding the level of compliance. At each participating ministry, a technical team will be assigned responsibility for implementation, and will receive training to check compliance, review annual plans, and prepare annual performance and follow-up reports. [8]

Although the commitment does not provide specific details on the policies or the compliance system, ministry-level gender mainstreaming policies will apply the four priorities of the national gender mainstreaming policy, according to the Ministerial Committee on Women’s Rights. Firstly, they will improve institutional capacities to conduct gender-mainstreaming through gender audits and systematization of production and analysis of gender disaggregated data. Secondly, they will incorporate women and gender experts into the process of designing, implementing, and monitoring ministries’ policies, programs, and planning processes. Thirdly, they will increase representation of women in decision-making positions. Fourthly, they will increase national funding for gender-oriented initiatives and gender-mainstreaming, as well as strengthening government capacities on gender responsive budgeting. [9]

The Arab Women Organization highlights the importance of opening decision-making positions to women, citing the example of the Health Ministry, in which most workers are female, but women are largely absent from higher level positions. The organization hopes that the inclusion of this commitment in the action plan will be leveraged by CSOs to address gender inequities, empowering CSOs to hold officials accountable to gender mainstreaming policies. [10] The Jordanian National Commission for Women adds that the commitment will increase the number of ministries with units for gender mainstreaming, and address a widespread need to build staff capacity on gender mainstreaming, particularly given employee turnover. [11] However, the commitment’s lack of specificity on areas for gender mainstreaming, the number of government bodies targeted, or on the compliance system detracts from the measurability of this reform.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

This commitment offers an important opportunity for ministry-level adoption of gender equality measures internally and in government services, although institutional culture may pose a challenge to implementation. To facilitate impact, implementation workshops can develop concrete implementation plans that specify scope, for example the intended percentage of women in decision-making positions, or career-development policies to support the promotion of women. This process can draw on the example of Morocco’s current commitment on gender mainstreaming, [12] and peer learning from stakeholders in Argentina, Canada, or the United States engaged in similar approaches to developing gender policy. =This initiative can make use of the OGP Toolkit for Gender Responsive Action Plans. [13] The IRM recommends the following steps relevant to the inclusive co-creation of gender policies and legislation:

• Establish communication channels, such as a dedicated webpage, focal person, etc. to communicate the objectives, drafting process, timeline, and relevant background resources to CSOs in advance of consultations.
• Ensure government officials have the capacity and incentives to integrate gender equality priorities, for example through the establishment of clear minimum standards for gender mainstreaming in regional development plans. Support implementation with high level outreach and practical videos, infographics, and brochures designed for informational purposes rather than pure awareness raising.
• Engage civil society during critical junctures, in particular women’s rights organizations, investing in building trust between the government and civil society actors involved. Commitment leads can engage CSOs to solicit input on the audits, ensure the opportunity to review and comment on drafts before finalization, and participate in development of the compliance matrix.
• Link gender mainstreaming technical teams to the minister’s office so that each team will have sufficient decision-making power to implement gender mainstreaming policies. Support these teams’ progress through regular cross-team meetings sharing lessons learned, as well as through engagement of international partners like NDI, UN Women, or UNDP.
• Ensure timely gender audits in all participating ministries. This can include new audits for ministries that have previously undertaken gender audits.
• Establish a sub-committee for legislative and institutional reforms, which would identify concrete measures to increase representation of women in governing structures and create incentives for organizations and companies to introduce gender mainstreaming measures.
• Institutionalize gender mainstreaming policies across all government institutions by leveraging the experiences of the government institutions participating in this commitment. Fostering wider institutionalization of these policies is the biggest potential legacy of this commitment.