What is a Gender Audit?

A gender audit is a tool to assess and check the institutionalisation of gender equality into organisations, including policies, programmes, projects and provision of services, structures, proceedings and budgets.

As a method for gender mainstreaming, gender audits help organisations identify and understand gender patterns within their composition, structures, processes, organisational culture and management of human resources, and the design and delivery of policies and services. They also help assess the impact of organisational performance and its management on gender equality within the organisation. Gender audits establish a baseline against which progress can be measured over time, identifying critical gender gaps and challenges, and making recommendations of how they can be addressed through improvements and innovations.

Although there is no standard approach for carrying out a gender audit, international organisations use two main approaches: participatory gender audit and the gender integration framework.

A gender audit usually includes two dimensions:

1. Internal audit

2. External audit

When applied to policies, programmes, projects or services, a gender audit starts by exploring to what extent gender equality is mainstreamed in high-level policy objectives and priorities and further assesses to what extent policy intentions are actually carried out in specific initiatives (e.g. programmes, projects, services). At the planning level, a gender audit analyses whether there are gender-specific objectives or if gender is mainstreamed in the general objectives of the policy to guarantee that they contribute to close gender gaps, ensure that women and men benefit equally or in accordance with their gender needs and that inequalities are not perpetuated. Similarly, a gender audit analyses how gender is mainstreamed into the implementation phase of the policy, programme or project. Finally, a gender audit of the monitoring and evaluation phase investigates whether targets and indicators include a gender perspective both in terms of sex-disaggregated data and progress towards gender equality.

How does a gender audit work?

A gender audit includes several steps.

1. Preparing the gender audit.

1. Review the organisational readiness for a gender audit- The first step is to obtain the commitment of top management and within the organisation itself to gender equality principles, technical capacity and competencies on gender equality and gender mainstreaming.

1. Creation of a gender audit team and definition of a gender audit strategy to be implemented within the organisation- The team may be composed of internal staff in charge of gender equality, diversity management and human resources, or it may be made up of both internal staff and external consultants contracted to develop and implement the gender audit methodology. The team is responsible for drawing up a gender audit strategy; clarifying the gender equality objectives of internal and external policies and strategies as the starting point for the audit; determining at which level the gender audit will be carried out; and carrying out a mapping of relevant internal actors, always ensuring gender balance [10].

1. Definition of the conceptual and methodological framework of the gender audit to be implemented- It is recommended to adopt a participatory approach to ensure that all the relevant gender-specific concerns of actors involved are taken into consideration and to gain their support for the implementation of the audit [11]. The conceptual framework will depend on the audit’s focus and level (for example, policy and organisation, or only one of them) and on the organisational or policy objectives on gender equality against which the audit is conducted. The conceptual framework should also include a set of gender indicators to measure the state of play on gender equality and gender mainstreaming in the organisation and to document the outcomes of the internal and external initiatives implemented by the organisation. It is essential that the auditors’ beliefs or attitudes are not gender-biased and that gender-sensitive language is used throughout the audit.
   

2. Carrying out the audit- The implementation phase consists of the following methods to collect, analyse and formulate the audit’s findings.

1. Desk review and analysis of the organisation’s key documents.

1. Consultation through interviews, focus group discussions, self-assessments, surveys, or other consultation channels. Consultations will complement information collected through the desk review and analysis and gather further evidence.

1. Tabulation and analysis of the collected data. Data may be analysed using different gender analysis methodologies.

1. Sharing and discussing the main findings with the women and men who participated in the audit and the organisation's managers before the final report is presented.
   

3. Drafting of gender equality plan and creation of a gender committee. Drawing on the findings gathered in the audit, a gender action plan will be drafted with the aim to improve gender mainstreaming and gender equality in the organisation. It is recommended to create a gender committee involving managers, internal staff, and stakeholders to take forward the recommendations from the audit report and implement, monitor, and evaluate the gender action plan.

Created & Posted by Pooja

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