Making gender equality a reality is a core commitment of UNDP.  Gender discrimination is the source of endemic poverty, of inequitable and low economic growth, of high HIV prevalence, and of inadequate governance.  As a crosscutting issue, gender must be addressed in everything the organisation does.  There are two complementary approaches to achieving gender equality:  mainstreaming gender and promoting women’s empowerment. Both are critical:

Gender mainstreaming is “the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, […] making women’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes […] so that women and men benefit equally”, according to a 1997 Report of the Economic and Social Council. Gender mainstreaming means being deliberate in giving visibility and support to women’s contributions rather than making the assumption that women will benefit equally from gender-neutral development interventions.

Women's empowerment is central to human development. Human development, as a process of enlarging people’s choices, cannot occur when the choices of half of humanity are restricted. Targeted actions aimed at empowering women and righting gender inequities in the social and economic sphere, as well as in terms of civil and political rights, must be taken alongside efforts to en-gender the development process.