National planning and budgeting

Through adopting UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2006, endorsing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 2009, and adopting the first-ever cross-sectoral national gender strategy in 2011, the Palestinian Government has demonstrated its commitment to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.  For this commitment to be translated into real progress for Palestinian women, concrete gender-related interventions must be included in national plans, policies, budgets, and institutional mechanisms.  The indicators are very positive that the Palestinian Government has indeed taken concrete steps.  However, limited experience, resources and technical knowledge on how to systematically implement and follow up on these important decisions persist and accountability mechanisms need strengthening.

Our Approach

UN Women supports the efforts of the Palestinian Government to mainstream gender in order to ensure that Palestinian men and women benefit more equally from national public policies, domestic resources and international aid.  

UN Women provides technical support to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs as well as line ministries to develop their capacities in integrating gender equality measures into plans and budgets, and thus to bridge gaps between gender equality plans and national development strategies. 

To guarantee the effective implementation of gender equality commitments, UN Women also advocates for greater accountability of partners, both national and international, by focusing on the development of mechanisms to track and report on the use of aid and domestic resources allocated to gender equality and women’s empowerment. In this regard, UN Women is working with the Palestinian Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development to develop its aid tracking tool (DARP) and create a gender marker to enable aid stakeholders to allocate and track funds from a gender perspective, which is hoped to ultimately increase financial resources for gender equality. 

UN Women also works closely with other United Nations partners and donors to enhance the inclusion of women’s issues in their interventions and facilitate discourse on funding priorities