Gender equality is at the heart of UNDP’s development mandate; it is considered a fundamental human right and a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.  The 2030 Agenda envisions a world “of universal respect for human rights and human dignity” in which “every woman and girl enjoys full gender equality and all legal, social and economic barriers to their empowerment have been removed.” Gender equality is also is an essential aspect of “leaving no one behind,” one of the guiding principles of the 2030 Agenda, as women are over-represented among those furthest behind.

Approcah to Gender Equality 

Through rights-based programming combining standalone gender equality interventions with gender mainstreaming work, UNDP Lebanon supports women and men to address gender discrimination and power imbalance to bring sustainable change. UNDP’s work puts the voice and experiences of women, girls and marginalized groups at the center, ensuring that they lead and shape the solutions for advancing the sustainable development goals. Our work aims at improving legislations and policies that secure gender equality, and call for changes in beliefs, attitudes and behaviours about gender power relations. 

 UNDP has initiated game changing processes through strategic partnerships with various actors and institutions, including communities, civil society organizations, universities, think tanks and engaging with governance institutions.
 

Gender Equality Priorities Snapshot

UNDP Lebanon works across aspects of programming that can most readily and sustainably accelerate progress towards gender equality including:

GENDER SEAL

UNDP Lebanon has achieved in 2020 the Silver Gender Equality Seal Certification for promoting strong synergies between different domains of gender mainstreaming that catalyzes both organizational transformation and development results. UNDP remains committed to mainstream gender in all internal and external processes and programs. This approach entails establishing gender-responsive management systems and organizational culture, building capacities on gender-mainstreaming, allocating adequate financial and technical resources, investing in knowledge management and advocacy on gender issues, building strong partnerships and alliances with diverse stakeholders to advance the gender equality agenda, finetune strategies to address gender gaps and demonstrate the impacts of interventions for gender equality.

Supporting Women’s Ownership and Control of Economic Resources

UNDP Lebanon supports women and girls to have increased access to and control over economic resources, assets and benefits; have equal opportunities to secure jobs and fair pay as men; and build greater resilience to economic shocks and risks. It involves strengthening women’s collective action and power in markets and creating systematic dialogue with the private sector to change business cultures discriminating against women and promote inclusive busi)ness models that support women-led enterprises. 

Promoting Women’s Political Participation & Decision-making

UNDP supports women in their efforts to participate, influence and lead at all levels of decision-making including formal and informal spaces within communities, elected positions, political parties, crisis and recovery response, conflict prevention and peace-building processes, and in governments and social movements. 

Supporting Women’s Access to Justice and Ending Gender-Based Violence 

UNDP adopts innovative approaches to prevent and end gender-based violence by changing laws, building non-violent and healthy relationships among women and men, strengthening community leaders and decision-makers’ commitments to take actions against GBV, and providing structured activism opportunities promoting an environment free of GBV.  UNDP aims at advancing women’s access to justice through raising women’s awareness on their legal rights and providing free legal services and litigations for women. 

Challenging Social Norms and Promoting Positive Behaviors

UNDP engages women, men and opinion leaders to challenge the discriminatory social norms and behaviors that maintain unequal division of power and underpin gender discrimination. Evidence-based programming and advocacy campaigns focus on promoting positive forms of masculinity and changing perceptions related to gendered roles, relations and power dynamics. 

Institutionalizing Gender 

UNDP supports national institutions including the Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform and Lebanese Parliament to strengthen institutional mechanisms and policies for improving and promoting gender equality. Support is focused on mainstreaming gender into policies, processes, strategies and services provision.