Attachments
A. PURPOSE AND RATIONALE
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Policy on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls (GEEWG) in Humanitarian Action guides the IASC to make gender equality core to its humanitarian action. It lays out measures for the IASC at global and field level to integrate gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls into all its preparedness, response and recovery efforts. This Accountability Framework accompanies the Policy, as it is designed to assist the IASC hold itself accountable for its implementation. It focuses on the collective actions of the IASC vis-à-vis GEEWG. It defines the monitoring of the collective performance of the IASC on standards defined in the Policy, as well as the performance of IASC bodies with regards to fulfilling their roles and responsibilities listed in the Policy. It further establishes reporting facilities and ways of information-sharing in order to foster closer coordination and cooperation among IASC bodies and Members and Standing Invitees. The overall aims of the Accountability Framework are the monitoring of collective actions to promote GEEWG; to help the IASC to prioritize better in regards to GEEWG; the development of a ‘shared agenda’ on GEEWG; and to further foster a culture of accountability within the IASC in regards to the promotion of gender equality issues.
In most of the IASC Members and Standing Invitees, the implementation of rules and policies is based on rigorous organizational accountability systems. However, since the nature of the IASC is that of an umbrella organization, the IASC does not have its own accountability system to ensure the implementation of collective policies and other commitments. This means there are limited organizational control mechanisms that can be used to monitor the implementation of the Gender Policy. This Accountability Framework has been designed to strengthen the collective performance of the IASC vis-a-vis the Policy. However, individual Members and Standing Invitees are encouraged to adopt the Policy in their organizations as well. The Framework was initially mandated by the IASC in 2008, to accompany the IASC Gender Equality in Humanitarian Action Policy Statement, but had never been drafted. The 2015 Evaluation of the 2008 Policy Statement recommended the development of such a Framework.
There are extensive ongoing monitoring activities that assess gender mainstreaming in field-level humanitarian programming (the IASC Gender Marker); monitor gender equality measures in all UN entities (UN SWAP); assess ‘gender equality’ performance of UN Country Teams (the UNDG ‘Gender score Cards’); or assess related issues that feed into gender equality results (e.g. the Rapid Cluster Accountability Review of the Accountability to Affected Populations Tools). This Accountability Framework should act as an overall umbrella, and further enable the establishment of country-level Accountability Frameworks. It is at the country level where effectiveness and impacts can be measured, and where the IASC can not only show that it fulfills its commitments, but also that it is effective in what it does. It is therefore strongly suggested that adequate support mechanisms are established that can ensure the implementation of the Policy at the country level, and that country-level Gender Accountability Frameworks are developed.
This Accountability Framework does not add additional burden of data collection on IASC Bodies and Members and Standing Invitees. A newly established monitoring and reporting desk (‘Gender Desk’) will work with IASC Bodies in collecting the necessary data. It also does not duplicate data collection from other reporting systems, but draws on existing data where applicable.