LocationsUNDP Turkmenistan earns BRONZE level certification of the Gender Equality Seal
November 7, 2023
"UNDP Turkmenistan Gender Mainstreaming Staff Retreat | November 18, 2022 | Gokdere, Turkmenistan"
On October 25, 2023, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Turkmenistan was awarded the BRONZE level Gender Equality Seal in recognition of its commitment to mainstreaming gender equality principles in all aspects of its work. This achievement demonstrates UNDP’s commitment to the principles of inclusivity, protection and promotion of women's rights and gender equality.
The UNDP Gender Equality Seal is a corporate certification programme that recognizes organizations for meeting high standards of gender equality in the workplace. The programme is a corporate mechanism that measures the achievements and competencies of UNDP country, regional and headquarters offices in promoting women's rights and gender equality. The programme has multiple levels of certification and helps employees develop competency and knowledge in promoting gender equality.
UNDP is committed to making gender equality a reality for all women and girls. Gender equality is a basic human right and a necessity for a sustainable world. It is essential for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a world where everyone is equal and there are no barriers to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
UNDP’s work is guided by the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025, which provides a Roadmap for enhancing and integrating gender equality into all aspects of UNDP's work. UNDP staff at all levels are encouraged to innovate and make incremental and breakthrough improvements. We draw on UNDP's knowledge and decades of experience to improve our work so that no one is left behind.
“The Gender Equality Seal serves as a valuable tool to assess ourselves – our knowledge, our business processes, our biases, to measure our achievements and identify gaps. It also helps to learn from best global practices, reframe strategies, enhance our internal capacity and demonstrate our commitment to advancing gender equality and women's empowerment”Narine Sahakyan, UNDP Resident Representative in Turkmenistan
The results of the certification showed that the UNDP Turkmenistan reached certain benchmarks in the Gender Equality Seal. While an impressive progress was made, there are still challenging benchmarks to be met. Therefore, a continuous learning and improvement is needed to reach a higher standard in mainstreaming gender equality. The certification process itself showed that dedication and strong motivation, constant learning and consistent monitoring and assessment is crucial to improve the performance towards promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in Turkmenistan.
The Gender Seal initiative is a corporate certification process that recognizes and supports UNDP Country Offices in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment. It establishes minimum acceptable quality standards and certifies Country Offices based on their gender equality accomplishments. To earn certification, Country Offices must make adequate progress in seven key areas, including management systems, in-house capacities, enabling environment, communications and knowledge management, programs, partnerships, and gender impact/results.
Since 2011, the UNDP Gender Equality Seal has partnered with 57 UNDP Country Offices across all regions to help organizations achieve gender equality in their workplaces.
