The Asia-Pacific Gender Mainstreaming Programme

In every country across Asia and the Pacific, pervasive gender inequality remains a barrier to progress, justice and social stability, and hinders the achievement of the MDGs. Discrimination and neglect are threatening women’s very survival in the Asia-Pacific region, where women suffer from some of the world's lowest rates of political representation, employment and property ownership. Their lack of participation is also depressing economic growth (APHDR 2010).

Making gender equality a reality is a core commitment of UNDP. As a crosscutting issue, gender is addressed in all areas of UNDP’s work. UNDP has recognised that gender equality lies at the heart of human development and human rights, as inequalities impede progress in human development, the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and the realization of internationally recognized human rights.

The Asia-Pacific Gender Mainstreaming Programme (APGMP) supports efforts to mainstream gender equality into national policies and programmes, to allow wider choices for both women and men, and equal opportunities by women and men to make those choices.

The programme aims to promote inclusive growth, gender equality and the achievement of the MDGs by building a sustainable corps of gender experts within the region with specific expertise and capacities for engendering MDG-based national sustainable development strategies (NSDS), institutional gender mainstreaming and ending gender-based violence. It provides technical advisory support to engendering regional and national level initiatives and policy dialogues and works closely with the other practice teams of the Regional Centre on mainstreaming gender into their programme and activities. The Regional Centre supports a regional gender community of practice to strengthen regional gender capacities and facilitate consolidation of resources and learning and regional exchanges.

Programme components:

• Supporting Gender Responsive MDGs planning and implementation
• Regional Gender Community of Practice
• Taking forward the eight point action agenda of the Asia Pacific Human Development Report on Gender Equality

Related links:

• Gender Publications

Partners for Prevention: Working with boys and men to prevent gender-based violence

Partners for Prevention (P4P) is an interagency programme of UNDP, UNFPA, UNIFEM and UNV that supports the prevention of gender-based violence (GBV) with national partners and promotes the prioritization of prevention throughout the Asia-Pacific region. P4P focuses on primary prevention, or stopping violence before it starts by addressing its root causes and transforming the norms and behaviours that perpetuate it.

The programme has three components:

1. Communication for Social Change: This component supports partners to implement better communications for ending violence against women and girls, and implements pilots to raise awareness and change attitudes among specific target groups
2. Capacity Development and Networking: This project supports learning and strengthened capacity among practitioners in the region to implement effective intervention to change behaviours and end violence
3. Capacity Development and Networking: This project supports learning and strengthened capacity among practitioners in the region to implement effective intervention to change behaviours and end violence
4. Evidence-based Policy Advocacy: This component begins with a large regional research project on masculinities and GBV that will consolidate evidence on the root causes of GBV. The evidence is then translated in to national and regional advocacy strategies to help change the discourse around VAW and move towards an environment where governments and the development community prioritise long term prevention of GBV along side of responses to existing violence.

• Partners for Prevention: programme news and resources
• Engagingmen.net: Gender Justice Information Network for practitioners around the world