Communications

This category highlights the internal (within the institution) and external (public-facing) approaches by donor/financing institutions to transfer information about their gender mandate.

Putting it in Practice

Explore a story illuminating the practical implementation of this element

“Communicating about the value of our gender mandate is really important to our leadership. They talk about our gender equality targets and commitments in major speeches and in meetings with our peers, partners and stakeholders. Our progress reports feature gender transformative work across sectors, and include metrics on how well we’re doing on meeting gender budget targets. We also have an internal community of practice that shares best programmatic practices for gender equality across sectors. And by sharing gender equality strategies and successes, we strengthen and learn from other institutions as well.”

  • STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS

    Who is responsible for gender-related communications in the institution?

    • Communications unit within the gender division/hub, to centrally disseminate messaging about gender within and outside the institution.

    • Task teams that focus on communication and advocacy.

    • Gender Equity Division represents institution externally (public-facing events and communications).

    ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS

    What communication approaches are used to advance the gender mandate?

    • Institutions employ a holistic approach to integrating gender by utilizing all existing communication and advocacy vehicles.

    • Institutions develop and update a dedicated gender equality website (to serve both internal and external communication objectives).

    • Institutions maintain up-to-date talking points on gender-related policies, programming, and results, that are cleared for dissemination and readily available for external use.

    • Institutions disseminate quarterly newsletters to partners.

    • Institutions use social media, multimedia, editorials, blogs, etc. to convey information about gender-related efforts, women and girls' rights, women's economic status and advancement, "gender smart" approaches to financing, and other key messages; these methods can also be effective in averting "bad press".

    • Institutions facilitate conferences (internal to the institution) to disseminate gender related information and best practices, including global meetings of gender advisors/points-of-contact within the institution.

    • Institutions engage in two-way communication with civil society partners (sharing and listening).

    • Institutions conduct negotiations with host countries vis-a-vis gender integration and gender equality.

    • Institutions prioritize internal communication mechanisms, such as: distribution of mission statements, highlighting challenges/issues in institutional communication channels, gender mainstreaming priorities, etc.

    RECOMMENDATIONS

    How might institutions better enforce communication structures that support the gender mandate?

    START HERE: Engage leadership in communicating about and advocating for gender efforts (see also Leadership section).

    • Create and disseminate annual progress reports on institutional gender portfolios.

    • Establish internal and external gender-related communities of practice that further disseminate lessons learned and other timely updates.

    • Promote informal cross-institutional communication about gender investments that can serve as peer-pressure to advance the gender mandate.

    • Review major communication products with a gender lens.