The three steps utilized in the Guide for Gender Analysis, are drawn from "A Guide to Strengthening Project Management and Performance" prepared by the Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG).

To assist in understanding the differences between a "gender-aware" approach (i.e. the integration of gender as a variable throughout different steps of the project) and a "gender-neutral" approach, examples are included under each question. They are related to the ECOTECH priority areas. They are meant for illustrative purposes and are not exhaustive. A different project area has been included under each of the three steps, to provide examples of the gender considerations in various sectors.

Step I: Project Design (e.g. defining purpose and objectives; research; deciding the activities and outcomes)

Example: "Integrated Rural Economic Development"

To ensure a gender perspective, consider:

• i) Defining the purpose and objectives:
  • What is the problem to be addressed? Do the purpose and objectives clearly reflect the target population, by sex?

    Gender-neutral: To improve the food security and income of the community, through employment creation, productivity increase and crop diversification.

    ! Gender-aware: To improve the food security and income of women and men in the community, through employment creation, productivity increase and crop diversification, taking into account the different roles of women and men in the total agricultural production system.

Tips for success:Be careful with gender-neutral terms such as youth, elderly, farmers, stakeholders, as they tend to hide gender implications and can be misleading in gender analysis.

Remember that gender analysis is not an add-on at the end of the process or an extra layer of analysis; it is integrated systematically throughout each step of the project.

• ii) Research:
  • What are the circumstances of women and men, girls and boys in the community? How do they differ?

    Gender neutral: Gather information concerning the population in the community, e.g. occupations, levels of assets and incomes, savings and indebtedness, levels of education and literacy, the number of households and household size, isolated communities in the area.

    ! Gender-aware: Compare data, disaggregated by sex, regarding the occupations, levels of assets and incomes, savings and indebtedness, levels of education and literacy, the number of households, household size, and the number of single-headed households, ethnically or culturally distinct and/or isolated communities in the area.

  • Who does what work in the community, in the household (e.g. care giving to children and elderly, unpaid work)? Does the project affect these roles?

    Gender-neutral: Farming, machinery operation and maintenance, labor (yearly and casual), transportation, marketing.

    ! Gender-aware: Assessment of the relative roles and division of labor between women and men in the total agricultural production system, household food security, household or small-scale agricultural processing and marketing, off-farm employment, and community work.

  • Who owns what in the community? Who has access to resources?

    Gender-neutral: Credit, equipment, land, water and forests, research, training.

    ! Gender-aware: Examination of the relative access to resources by women and men including formal and informal credit, equipment, land, water and forests, research, training opportunities.

  • What are the constraints faced by women or men in gaining access to and control of resources?

    Gender-neutral: Assessment of constraints including financial, credit, literacy, technology, and training.

    ! Gender aware: Assessment of the different constraints faced by women and men including time, mobility, financial, credit and collateral, literacy, asset ownership, technology, lack of training, family responsibilities, cultural or religious constraints.

  • Who will benefit? Who will lose? How can the project design be adjusted to increase positive effects, and reduce or eliminate the negative ones?

    Gender-neutral: Impacts of relocation, rights to land use, loss of income, and technology.

    ! Gender aware: Examination of the different impacts on women and men, of relocation, loss of rights to land use, loss of income, loss of cultural properties, of technology, workload, and family responsibilities.

Tips for success: Remember to gather both qualitative and quantitative data, disaggregated by sex.

• ⅲ) Deciding activities and outcomes:
  • Is the project consistent with, and does it build on, the Framework for the Integration of Women in APEC and other APEC gender-related commitments including Joint Statements of Ministerial Meetings?

    Gender neutral: No links with APEC policies and priorities, or specific consideration of gender as a variable in the project.

    ! Gender-aware: The APEC Framework as well as the Gender Analysis Guide and other relevant documents are made available to those involved in all aspects of the project; their application is monitored throughout the project.

  • Who are the major decision-makers in the community and what changes are to be introduced that may impact on the results, outcomes and ultimate success of the project?

    Gender-neutral: Support is sought from community leaders, local associations, and the banking sector. Assessment of the practices and factors that may limit acceptance of the project including changes from nomadic agriculture to intensive, sedentary farming systems, mutual help traditions, adaptation to new technologies.

    ! Gender-aware: Support is sought from formal and informal leaders in the community including women, local associations including women's organizations, banking institutions including women's cooperatives. Assessment of the socio-cultural beliefs and practices that may limit acceptance of the project including, mutual help traditions, responsibilities for kin, land ownership, perceptions of women's traditional roles.

  • Are gender-sensitive indicators utilized for monitoring the impact of the project?

    Gender-neutral: Emphasis on commonly used quantitative indicators, e.g. group participation, involvement of the community.

    ! Gender-aware: Qualitative and quantitative indicators include women's "invisible" or unremunerated work such as childcare, housework and community work. Data is analyzed to determine which action or activity would be more effective for women or men.

Tips for success: Remember to set measurable targets and gender-sensitive indicators to identify and address the potential consequences of the project on women and men, to outline the expected risks and develop strategies to address them.

Step II: Project Implementation (e.g. development of work plans; delineation of tasks, allocation of resources, management and monitoring)

Example: "Education and Training"

A. To ensure a gender perspective, consider:

• ⅰ) Work plans, tasks and allocation of resources:
  • Are the project resources, mechanisms or benefits accessible to women and men to encourage full and equal participation? Who manages the project resources?

    Gender-neutral: Project activities are open to everyone, women or men.

    ! Gender-aware: The project includes support systems and special arrangements such as childcare provisions, on-the-job training, transportation, subsidies, culture-specific programs or special programs for disadvantaged groups.

  • Will the project ensure equal access for women and men to non-traditional fields of education, training and work?

    Gender-neutral: The project offers opportunities for training and employment in non-traditional fields to all women and men.

    ! Gender-aware: The project develops gender-sensitive and culturally aware approaches and special measures. It takes into account factors such as accreditation; cost of training and certification; mobility; courses offered at night; location of training facilities; acceptability by the community; influence of custom and culture; curriculum; gender sensitivity of educators, need to encourage women to participate.

  • What percentage of the project's budget is allocated to activities that address the specific needs of women?

    Gender-neutral: The activities are costed within a total budgetary allocation, and a set percentage is established from the outset to cover unanticipated circumstances such as access to a person with disability.

    ! Gender-aware: The activities and budgetary allocations take into account the purpose and objectives of the project, the factors contributing to or inhibiting the achievement of equitable outcomes for both women and men, and the special measures that may be required to ensure equal opportunities and equal results for women and men.

• ⅱ) Monitoring:
  • Does the project's data collection and indicators measure the project's effects on women and men, and the participation of women and men? Do women share the uses of resources?

    Gender-neutral: the data is not collected or expressed by sex. Indicators utilize standard enrolment (the number of children enrolled in primary or secondary school as a % of the total number of children in the relevant age group for that level) that assumes an orderly and simple relationship between age group and level of education.

    ! Gender-aware: The data is disaggregated by sex; in addition to the commonly used indicators of education and literacy, indicators include net enrolment (net enrolment ratios showing the total number of children enrolled in a schooling level who belong to the relevant age group, expressed as a % of the total number of children in that age group), enrolment statistics by level, and at the higher levels, by field of study.

Tips for success: Remember that "gender" analysis applies to both women and men.

Step III: Project Evaluation and Communication of Results (e.g. evaluation criteria; recommendations; follow-up; communication and information dissemination)

Example: "Micro Finance and Development of Micro Enterprises"

A. To ensure a gender perspective, consider:

• i) Evaluation criteria, recommendations, follow-up:
  • To what extent does the evaluation report document the impacts of the project on women as well as men? Are gender-neutral or gender-aware terms utilized?

    Gender-neutral: The project report assesses the impact on the community, uses gender-neutral terms, and does not attempt to explain and evaluate the gender factors that impacted on the results and outcomes.

    ! Gender-aware: The project report assesses the different impacts on women and men, for example, their relative access to equipment, land, technology, information, markets, training opportunities in business practice, financial planning, enhanced production methods. The project report also assesses changes in the constraints faced particularly by women, for example, acquiring credit, time, financial, literacy, asset ownership, collateral, cultural or religious (e.g. women unable to sign for their own loans, not formally owning assets used for collateral).

  • To what extent did the project achieve the intended results for both women and men?

    Gender-neutral: The project report utilizes primarily quantitative aggregated data, that groups the particularities of women and men under a gender-neutral term such as participants, credit users, lenders, entrepreneurs, market vendors, laborers, workers.

    ! Gender-aware: The project report is based on qualitative and quantitative data, disaggregated by sex, to measure results and longer-term outcomes on women and men, for example, job creation; new businesses; division of labor; access to loans and amounts received; collateral required; interest rates; entrepreneurial skills; personal income; community economic development; participation of women and women's organizations.

• ii) Communication and information dissemination:
  • Are the methods of communication appropriate for women as well as men?

    Gender-neutral: The dissemination of information and communication of project results are made available to all interested parties and project participants.

    ! Gender-aware: The dissemination of information, and the communication of project results take into account levels of literacy, access to various media, cultural practices, and includes, women's organizations, women entrepreneurs, women's cooperatives.

Tips for success: Give yourself time to become familiar with the methodology and gain confidence in its application.

Ask a gender expert for help

Remember that gender analysis adds value to your project and simply common sense.