Gender equality

Nowadays gender equality is not only a topic deserving of concern but also a focus of discussion for implementation of strategies to provide dignity and justice for all of us.

The international community made a commitment called The Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10 1948 that continues to play an important role in addressing injustices, in times of conflicts, in societies suffering repression, and in our efforts towards achieving universal enjoyment of human rights. It represents the universal recognition that basic rights and fundamental freedoms are inherent to all human beings, independently of gender.

Equal opportunities are a key factor for sustainable development.  Despite the progress ​​over the times still continues to exist inequalities, especially employment and economic activities, governance, access to education, health.

Thus, it is necessary to meet some challenges, such as those mentioned by the European Commission on this subject:

• the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, especially in eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education.
• the presence of social and cultural obstacles associated with traditional social structures which are not conducive to changes in the traditional division of power between men and women;
• gender mainstreaming, which has not been fully integrated into the country strategies and the implementation of European Union (EU) development cooperation.

In this regard, some institutions presented some objectives of the strategy for gender equality.

In EU, the first objective of this strategy is to increase the efficiency of gender mainstreaming. This implies actions in three areas:

• at political level, the European Commission stresses the importance of discussing gender equality with the partner countries at the highest level;
• in development cooperation, the European Commission proposes: establishing effective dialogue with relevant stakeholders in the preparation of country strategies and aid programmes; putting in place mutual accountability mechanisms; using performance indicators; linking the disbursement of incentive tranches to gender-sensitive indicators;
• in institutional capacity-building, the European Commission recommends using practical tools in the assessment and implementation phases. It also stresses the need to provide improved access to information and best practices and gender training for partner countries and staff.

Based on these guidelines we must now promote practical action on the problem and thereby mitigate gender inequalities.

In the next article I will show you what actions already undertaken and what the success of these.

By Catarina Campos