Gender mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming has been defined by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as the “process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes in all areas and at all levels. Gender mainstreaming is integral to all development decisions and interventions; it concerns the staffing, procedures and culture of public organisations and their programmes; and forms part of the responsibility of all staff”.

The Department of Technical Cooperation (TC) draws its mandate from the various UN resolutions and the IAEA’s overall organisational commitment and obligations to increase the representation of women in the professional categories and mainstream gender into its substantive programmes as outlined in the Action Plan for GC (49) Resolutions pertaining to Women in the Secretariat, passed at the November 2005 Meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors.

The objectives of gender mainstreaming in TC are:

To ensure that all staff, male and female, understand and promote the concept of gender equality.
To increase the representation of women in the professional categories and management positions within the Department.
To ensure that all programming undertaken by the Department incorporates gender mainstreaming principles.