A/HRC/22/50
prioritized in the design and implementation of programmes and given careful, contextsensitive consideration. In public works programmes for instance, where a gender-blind
approach may lead to the de facto exclusion of women, the specific contributions and needs
of women should be acknowledged, such as access to nurseries or adapted schedules, in
order to enable them to effectively benefit from the programmes.
45.
For this reason also, interventions aimed at improving the situation of women should
be empowering. Social protection programmes should define the beneficiaries as rightsholders who can make claims against the administrations in charge of delivery, and
beneficiaries should be informed of their rights and access to claims mechanisms should eb
ensured. In addition to ensuring decentralized monitoring of the implementation of social
programmes and providing a safeguard against corruption or discrimination, this will
contribute to empowering beneficiaries, in particular women, who are generally treated as
passive recipients of programmes that are intended to help them without including them as
active participants.
46.
Social audits can also be an effective means of empowering women within the local
communities, if their views are sought expressly and if the community audit exercise is
only considered valid if women are adequately represented. Social audits can take different
forms: a public report to the village assembly by government officials on the use of funds
allocated to certain programmes and on the allocations to the beneficiaries (whether they
are individuals employed in cash-for-work schemes or schools supported in school-feeding
schemes); publication of revenues and disbursements on the Internet, which would enable
non-governmental organizations to track instances of misuse or diversion of funds; citizens'
report cards, as in India or the Philippines; community score cards, as in Kenya and the
Gambia; or budgetary audits as those conducted by Javanese farmers in Indonesia. 57
Mainstreaming gender sensitivity
47.
In previous reports, the Special Rapporteur emphasized the added value of a gender
impact analysis of trade and investment agreements and contract farming schemes
(A/HRC/19/59/Add.5, principle 5, and A/66/262, para. 21). All public policies that address
food security – whether social programmes, agricultural policies or rural development
policies – should ensure that greater attention is paid to women. This should not be simply
in order to reach them more effectively, but also to ensure that their views are
systematically sought in the design, implementation and evaluation of programmes. One
way in which this could be encouraged is by incentivizing public administrations to set
targets related to gender equality, and rewarding, through a system of premiums, public
officials who reach the targets. Chile's Program for Improved Public Management (PIPM)
provides an example:58 since 2002, almost every ministry is required to establish specific
goals incorporating the gender dimension into their public policies. The Women‟s Service
assesses the efforts made and the tools used, and the Ministry of Finance establishes the
corresponding monetary bonuses. In addition, the programme is complemented by
the incorporation of gender advisors in each ministry, as well as a Women´s Agenda and a
long-term Plan for Equal Opportunities.
A multisectoral and rights-based strategy
48.
A successful strategy for strengthening the rights of women in support of the
realization of the right to food requires a whole-of-government approach, coordinated
57
58
L. Peisakhin and P. Pinto, "Is transparency an effective anti-corruption strategy?", Regulation &
Governance, vol. 4, No. 3 (2010), pp. 261–280.
See http://www.sernam.cl/pmg/index.php.
19
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents