LocationsUNDP Nepal Awarded Gold Gender Equality Seal
October 3, 2023
UNDP Nepal has been awarded the Gender Equality Seal Gold for mainstreaming gender equality to its programme and its contribution to gender equality goals in the country.
The Gender Equality Seal is a global brand adapted by UNDP from the certification programme for private and public organizations to recognise UNDP’s commitment, expertise and effectiveness in protecting and advancing women's rights and gender equality.
Nepal country office went through the series of assessment which included evaluation from the internal and external accessors specifically in seven benchmarks namely management, capacities, enabling environment, communication and knowledge management, project/programmes, partnerships results and impact. Nepal CO received 91 % in the final assessment.
Addressing the award event, Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labe, Resident Representative of UNDP Nepal, expressed gratitude to all staff, partners, and stakeholders for their collaborative efforts toward gender equality. "It's about passion, not just about gender. If you approach things with passion, even the smallest steps you take will lead you further," she added, suggesting that anything is achievable through passionate endeavor.
The key areas for the gender equality seal certification include, increasing women and marginalized communities’ role in decision-making, CO’s significant contribution to gender equality in national policies, enhancing work-life balance, partnership with private sectors and CSO’s on gender equality, women empowerment, eradicating sexual harassment at work, producing focused knowledge products related to gender, using gender sensitive language and communication and promoting men, women, LGBTIQ+ in business and cross-cutting the gender perspective in value chains among others.
UNDP Asia Pacific’s Gender Specialist Koh Miyao said, “UNDP colleagues in Nepal are now much more knowledgeable and equipped with tools to have conversations with government and private sector partners on the importance of gender equality. UNDP should encourage the private sector to integrate gender equality into their business strategies and policies.”
Thanking all staff and gender focal team members, UNDP Nepal’s Governance Advisor and Gender Specialist (Interim), Binda Magar said, “gender equality seal has been a great learning opportunity for UNDP Nepal, we started in 2015 and we are able to get gold in 2023. This is our main responsibility on how we take forward the recommendations provided by the accessor team.”
The Gender Seal process takes about two years to complete, during which time a baseline analysis is conducted, and an action plan is developed to make improvements in areas where the baseline assessment identified as poor. The final assessment then measures the improvement, and if the score is 60%, the country office is awarded a bronze certification. The silver certification requires a score of 70%, while the gold certification requires a score of 80% and above. UNDP’s corporate Gender Equality Seal Certification programme ranks the certification levels from bronze to gold, based on the percentage score achieved by each country office in the final assessment. Earlier in 2018 Nepal was certified Silver from the programme.
