Flagship publications
Second Voluntary Local Review City of Amman: Smart Pathways to a Resilient and Liveable Future
July 2026
Background
In consultation with national women’s machineries across the Arab region, ESCWA is leading a regional initiative to support national institutions in mainstreaming gender equality across policies, strategies and programmes. The initiative focuses on strengthening institutional capacities to incorporate gender considerations into procedures, mechanisms, rules and regulations.
Institutionalizing gender equality principles within national institutions helps align internal processes and capabilities with gender equality principles. It contributes to generating outcomes that ensure women and men have equal access to knowledge, services and resources.
Our approach
ESCWA supports gender mainstreaming in national institutions through the implementation of an accountability framework, the “Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in National Institutions”. This framework enables institutions to assess their internal processes and capacities, develop and implement tailored plans, and systematically mainstream gender considerations across policies, strategies and programmes. It provides a clear set of indicators to support monitoring and measurement of progress.
To facilitate implementation, ESCWA has developed a range of knowledge products that elaborate on the framework, including technical notes and training manuals. It delivers targeted capacity-building activities across member countries to strengthen institutional readiness and support the adoption and effective rollout of the Action Plan.
Our partners
The initiative is implemented in collaboration with several partners, including UN-Women, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, and national women’s machineries in the Arab region.
Our activities
ESCWA organizes a series of activities in member countries to strengthen institutional capacities for gender mainstreaming. These include participatory gender audits, training programmes and technical support.
